Timeline for a building plan

Timeline for a building plan

I often get asked the question, how long is the building plan going to take? This is an important consideration, because if you want to start building at a specific time, you will have to get the ball rolling long before the first foundations are dug out.

While there is no obvious answer, there are a couple of things that you need to keep in mind concerning building plans that will give you an estimate of how long your building plans are going to take.

Firstly, you need to get a quote or even a few quotes, and you have to accept one of these. Most small (read ‘one – man’) firms will be glad to come and see you at your house after hours so you don’t have to take time off work if that suites you, but that means it could take a week or two just to get the quotes in, and then another few days to decide on who to appoint.

Once you have appointed a person to do the plans, you will usually explain what your requirements are. This person will also go and draw your existing plans from the council if you have not done so already, so that you can see what exactly needs to be changed and added.
How long it is before the draughtsman comes up with an initial design depends on work load and how complex your requirements are.
I have found that a big time – waster here is trying to get an appointment going between myself and the client. If the client is married, it is essential that both husband and wife sit in on briefing sessions so that both can have their say, or otherwise the plans will keep on being changed by the party that was not at the briefing session, and I will have to keep on changing the plans.
So to save time, make time for your draughtsman to come see you as soon as possible. Also, scrutinize the plans carefully and make sure that it is exactly what you want. Ask your draughtsman to leave the plans with you for a day or two so that you can check which changes you want, then spend the time to make sure the plan is what you want. This is much better than making changes to the plans once the plans are completed and ready to be handed in.
How long the plans really takes to finalize will now depend on how quickly you are satisfied with the plans.

As soon as you are satisfied with the plans, it will usually not take the draughtsman more than a few days to a week to actually finalize the plans.
Is that it, can the plans go to council now?
No, not yet. Depending on what exactly it is that you are building, your draughtsman will need to have an engineer check the plans at some stage.
For very complex plans, you will have to appoint an engineer right at the beginning, and the engineer will have to be part of the planning sessions.
For less complex plans, you can send the plans to the engineer once the plans have been finished. Whatever the case may be, find an engineer early on in the process to avoid wasting a week while trying to find an engineer once the plans are completed. Your draughtsman should know at what stage he will be needing an engineer.

Once the engineer has signed off on the plans you are ready to hand in to council. Obviously, the amount of time taken by different councils will vary a lot. In Tshwane the waiting time is about one month, but then the plans are not approved yet.
After a month, your draughtsman will be contacted and told that the file is ready for circulation, meaning that different departments will have to sign off on the file. Often there might also be some changes they will want on the plans.
This process of circulating the file can take anything from a few hours to a few months. If you have to apply for building line relaxations, you will need to get the signature of your neighbours, and that can be a lengthy process in itself. If yo need to apply for a second dwelling you will need to approach a town planner, you will need to advertise and there are some other things you will have to do, and this process can take a long time.

If you don’t have to apply for building line encroachments or second dwellings, and provided there are no major problems, your building plans should be approved within hours, and you can start building!

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