Intro . . .

Jeff Knope listens carefully to his clients' needs. With over forty years experience and professional training in all phases (including having personally driven well over a ton of nails), he understands sound construction, competent planning, building codes, structural analysis, scheduling and budget control - at a high level.

For wood-frame residential construction, SoHum Drafting offers Southern Humboldt residents a range of services, and a range of levels of service, that permit tailoring the work to fit exactly each customer's needs and budget, big or small.



Contact:

SoHum Drafting
P.O. Box 1762
Redway, CA 95560
(707) 923 2520

click here to e-mail me








Site Analysis . . .

Designing a house, there's a zillion things to consider. No part of the job is more important, and more overlooked, than Site Analysis. Inadequate Site Analysis accounts for the majority of unfortunate results. Here is a handful of common examples:
  • Siting decisions made on a blistering August day can lead to a house that's dark and dank in December.
  • Misjudging the drainage requirements of an inch of rain an hour (common in Humboldt) leads to bad things.
  • Clumps of sawgrass on a level bench promise a gooey bog in January.
  • The absence of woodwardia fern at your springhead advises finding room for a bigger water tank.
  • A lovely and healthy overhanging tree will one day become a major problem (or worse).
  • A rippled surface in a patch of meadow downhill from your house is too easy to overlook - until it pulls the foundations out from under you.
Some of these may seem obvious. But under pressure to make the thousands of decisions that go into a building project, all of them, along with many others, are way too easy to miss. 		The good news is it's easy and inexpensive to bring in a trained and experienced eye who can spot most potential problems right off. A single site visit is often all it takes.

Most importantly, a solid Site Analysis provides the recorded context to begin competent Space Planning. A well-designed house is first and foremost a balanced response to its surrounding context. Site Analysis provides that context.

TOPOS . . .

Knowing your grades - that is, the shape of the ground around your house - is essential. No amount of practice gives one the ability to accurately guess the amount the ground falls or rises between any two points. At least, not accurately enough for designing foundations or retaining walls or setting the differences between floor levels of a house.

This is a good example of SoHum Drafting offering a range in levels of service to suit any need and budget. To transit-shoot just the corner locations of a house can usually be done in less than an hour. At the other end of the scale is a complete topo of the entire curtalage, locating contours, tree trunks and crowns, driveways, waterlines, exact view orientations and limits, etc. - all of which is invaluable for comprehensive landscape design, or for pinning down sun-and-shade patterns throughout the year.





Space Planning . . .

For many people, building their own house is the fullfillment of a long-held dream. Before they ever come to SoHum Drafting, they've already spent long hours pouring over their designs. They already know exactly what they want.

At SoHum Drafting we understand and respect that. Minor changes are sometimes needed to bring it into conformity with codes, or to satisfy some structural requirement. Beyond that, we're perfectly happy to faithfully execute your designs.

Other people are less certain what they want, or more interested in listening to an experienced voice. For them SoHum Drafting offers a range of design services, and a range of levels of design service, to suit every need and pocketbook.

Every design service, even the most simple, begins with the same three basic elements:

  • A Space Program - at a minimum, a listing of needed rooms and their approximate sizes.
  • A Site Analysis - at least enough to get a feel for the place; and to affirm soils, grades and codes permit building there.
  • A Budget, or other statement of the level of construction and materials quality intended.
    		• With these three elements in hand, the Design Process can begin in earnest. There is no sitting around waiting for "inspiration." Working on top of a basemap of the site, the job is to discover, by means of sketched overlay after overlay, the natural, organic arrangement of this Space Program on this Site. A couple dozen overlays is typical for a lower-end service; a couple hundred for a higher-end.

    In truth, regardless of intended level of service, some yield easily, others only with great effort. The professional ethic is that you keep at, as Louis Kahn put it, "until the conscience is quiet." So, for the lower-end client there is sometimes quite a lot of free service. When a higher-end service yields easily, my experience is nothing makes better ambassadors for your business than customers charged less than they expected!

    These sketches begin as "bubble diagrams" - rough blobs of space. As the process continues, the sketches get increasingly specific. At some point sketching yields to hardline drafting, and floor plans begin to emerge. If done well, these plans express organic fit both among and between the elements of the Space Program, and between the Space Program and the Site.

    In this way a specific building form begins to take shape. The form is revised and refined to accomodate sound building practices and sensible structure. Only then is Space Planning (sometimes called Preliminary Design) complete.









    Working Drawings . . .

    The term Working Drawings refers to the set of plans used by the builder on the site for the actual construction of the building. These plans are completely different from Preliminary Design plans (see Space Planning). They contain different information, presented in a different format.

    Besides their use on the construction site, Working Drawings are also used to secure permits from the various County agencies (Planning, Building, Health, and sometimes others) that review and approve various aspects of a building project. These approved plans are referred to as the Permit Set.

    The builder and the various reviewing agencies are each looking for the information relevant to their work. To help things go smoothly, drafting conventions have been established that (when followed) make it easy to find and understand the needed information.

    At SoHum Drafting you get the fast, clean, clear, effecient work of a true master craftsman of Working Drawings.

    Like the other services at SoHum Drafting, there is a range of levels of service in Working Drawings:

  • A "Owner's Set," not addressed to reviewing agencies, is
    		• the least expensive.
  • A "Permit Set," with the minimum needed for permits and use by experienced builders is the next least expensive.
  • A "Detailed Set," where the client wants more specific information included (e.g.: trim and flashing or cabinet or fireplace or head, sill and jamb details for openings, etc.) can always be accomodated.
  • A "Bid Set," where the intention is to put the job out to competitive bidding by licensed contractors, requires detailed descriptions of everything to be included in the Construction Contract, and is the most elaborate and expensive kind of Working Drawings.

    CAD or Manual . . . SoHum Drafting is equipped for, and skilled in, both manual and computer-aided methods. For most small, unique use, residential plans, manual methods is the most economical.

    Structural Analysis . . . At SoHum Drafting building safety is a primary concern. Recognizing a responsibility to owners and their families, visitors, and future owners alike, SoHum Drafting utilizes long years of experience in professional structural analysis of all footings, joists, rafters, beams, girders, trusses, shear walls and connections, helping protect against the sometimes tragic effects of wind, earthquake, and plain old gravity.