Discover the intricacies of creating construction documents for a residential project, examining how to effectively convey crucial information to regulatory agencies and contractors. An in-depth explanation of a title sheet, its importance, and the essential components it should include are also provided.
Key Insights
- The article explores the creation of construction documents for obtaining building permits, emphasizing the importance of clear, detailed information for regulatory agencies and contractors.
- It highlights the significance of the title sheet in a set of construction documents, which typically includes project details, the sheet index, and a development summary with information such as the assessor's parcel number (APN), occupancy group, construction type, and zoning.
- The document also includes a project directory detailing the professionals involved in the project and a scope of work section outlining the project's specifics, such as the building's size and floors included.
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This first project is a residential project which has recently been completed in San Diego County. This is going to be a set of construction documents. So the first sheet I would like you to open will be the title sheet TS 1.0. Typically within a set of construction documents we always have the building department in mind.
What we're trying to do is to get a building permit and we're trying to convey the appropriate information to the regulatory agencies so we can be awarded the permit. We need to talk to the contractor so that they understands how to build the building and we need to make sure that the information is clear and detailed. The bottom right hand corner of the sheet is where we typically have our title sheet or our sheet number.
So you can see that this page number is TS 1. We normally have an area above and to the right which lists the name of the project, frequently the owner of the project, and we have an area above that for the architectural stamp, and then we have project names, who's drawn projects, and so on and so forth. What I've done to essentially guarantee the privacy of our project owners is to white out the name of the project and the project owners themselves. So what I'd like to do is to ask you to look over here on the top right where you can see that I'm showing the sheet index.
The sheet index is listing all of the sheets that are included within the project. These are normally numbered. We group information logically so you can see I have three title sheet pages.
The first is the title sheet, then I have general notes and some energy calculations and construction specifications. This again is very typically organized within sets of drawings. I have my AS sheets, which are my architectural site sheets.
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My A sheets are my architectural sheets. I have some details. I have electrical information, my title 24 energy calculations, some civil sheets, and some structural sheets.
One of the things that's very important to include on the cover sheet or title sheet of the project is the development summary. Within the development summary, at least in San Diego County, we include the APN, which is the assessor's parcel number. Within the APN, all properties are broken into specified namings.
If I look at my county parcel lookup tool, this is where the county knows the specific assessor's parcel number, or APN, for the different projects that will be built within the county itself. This is a tool that SANDAG, which is the San Diego Association of Government, provides to let people know where their properties are located. So, on my construction documents, I'm including the APN.
I will frequently have a legal description which tells me exactly the meets and bounds information for the property. And the legal description typically is the length and direction of all sides of the project. We then have the occupancy group.
So, we can see that this project is R for residential. It's a single family project. And this is a type 5 non-rated.
Now, type 5 means wood construction. So, we have wood as a 5. We have steel as a 1. So, we essentially have construction types that go from 1 until 5. And you'll typically find that the larger skyscrapers would be a type 1 construction. Medium height buildings might be a type 3. And residential are typically a type 5. For this project, we have zoning information.
So, this particular area is in the country about 60 miles outside of the city of San Diego. And the zoning for that area is a limited agricultural use. Now, then we have the building area tabulations.
This is information that is used to help let the regulatory agencies know that what you're building conforms to the requirements that they have established for that particular area. So, for example, I can see that I have a garage basement area of 950 feet. I have the actual basement itself and the square footage on the first and second floor.
The total square footage of the house is 2,700 square feet. And the deck is 720 square feet. So, again, this is information to convey to the city how large the building is.
It is also used by the assessor that helps the assessor understand from a tax standpoint once the house is completed what the tax basis will be for the project. So, again, we're showing the type of project, the type of construction, how large the project is. And then we have information on the community plan area.
Different neighborhoods are assigned to different community planning groups. And this is where we specify this information. We also have an area for the scope of work.
And this is saying this is a new house that includes a basement, first floor, and second floor. And then we have the project directory where we're saying who the owner of the project is, who the architect is, who the structural engineer, the civil engineer, and also the person who's doing the Title 24 energy calculations. So, again, what we've covered so far are the basics of the sheet index where we're showing all of the sheets that are listed in the project.
We have information on the development summary for the project. We talk about the scope of work. And there's usually a listing for the people, the professionals who were involved in the building of the new construction.
