Architect needed

[Nadeen Wincapaw]

Any suggestions on an architect / engineer who can help us in NW FL. We have 50 acres of raw land and need to build a barn with an apartment on the second story. Need a site survey, ground evaluation, septic and well placement as well as design services. We are also looking to build off-grid, so an architect with alternative energy experience is appreciated.

 

[d_marsh]

I can't really help, other than it sounds like what you want is a barndominium.

 

[Neb]

Any suggestions on an architect / engineer who can help us in NW FL. We have 50 acres of raw land and need to build a barn with an apartment on the second story. Need a site survey, ground evaluation, septic and well placement as well as design services. We are also looking to build off-grid, so an architect with alternative energy experience is appreciated.

Engineer775 on Youtube can handle the alternative energy.

How much of drop does your stream have?

Ben

 

[sonya123]

*sigh* .... I hope I don't regret posting this.....
As a former PE in FLorida ( my specialty was water resources and environmental permitting ) I have to warn you....Florida has very tough environmental laws. You cannot put any septic anywhere near water, you cannot build in a wetland, permitting is extensive and costs a lot of money. First I would start with the county you are in. Find out what zoning you are ( like is it residential, rural, business etc). This will determine if and what you can build, and what animals you can have. Then find out if you are in a flood zone ( much of Florida is, and you are no longer allowed to just drain a wetland like people used to do in South Florida by building canals and such).
You can't build in a wetland. If you have anything endangered on your land ( bald eagles nest, gopher turtles, whatever ) , you can't build there either
If there are no buildings of any kind on your land, it will cost a lot of money. I have not dealt with alternative energy but I can tell you how to build a cheap solar power system ( we did here) . Maybe you get lucky and your particular county doesn't take all these rules as serious as the counties I worked in ( mostly Orange and Osceola and St. Johns and South Fl. Water Managment districts)
Go talk to your local county permitting and see what is required and if and what you can do. This is free and you don't need to spend a lot of money on an architect or engineer to do this. Find out if there are any existing utility easements on the property but you should already have a survey for that sort of thing when you bought it. Do you have a survey?

oh and I have not worked as an engineer in 8 years so if the rules have changed since, I wouldn't know ( but if anything they probably got worse be my guess)


We got around all this by buying an existing farm ( in Virginia) with all the buildings already there. Nothing is up to code here, not a thing and it doesn't need to be because we are grandfathered in. We did what I think you want to do. We now have a farm/business. We sell livestock and sell at the farmers market in town.

 

[Nadeen Wincapaw]

*sigh* .... I hope I don't regret posting this.....
As a former PE in FLorida ( my specialty was water resources and environmental permitting ) I have to warn you....Florida has very tough environmental laws. You cannot put any septic anywhere near water, you cannot build in a wetland, permitting is extensive and costs a lot of money. First I would start with the county you are in. Find out what zoning you are ( like is it residential, rural, business etc). This will determine if and what you can build, and what animals you can have. Then find out if you are in a flood zone ( much of Florida is, and you are no longer allowed to just drain a wetland like people used to do in South Florida by building canals and such).
You can't build in a wetland. If you have anything endangered on your land ( bald eagles nest, gopher turtles, whatever ) , you can't build there either
If there are no buildings of any kind on your land, it will cost a lot of money. I have not dealt with alternative energy but I can tell you how to build a cheap solar power system ( we did here) . Maybe you get lucky and your particular county doesn't take all these rules as serious as the counties I worked in ( mostly Orange and Osceola and St. Johns and South Fl. Water Managment districts)
Go talk to your local county permitting and see what is required and if and what you can do. This is free and you don't need to spend a lot of money on an architect or engineer to do this. Find out if there are any existing utility easements on the property but you should already have a survey for that sort of thing when you bought it. Do you have a survey?

oh and I have not worked as an engineer in 8 years so if the rules have changed since, I wouldn't know ( but if anything they probably got worse be my guess)


We got around all this by buying an existing farm ( in Virginia) with all the buildings already there. Nothing is up to code here, not a thing and it doesn't need to be because we are grandfathered in. We did what I think you want to do. We now have a farm/business. We sell livestock and sell at the farmers market in town.

Thank you so much!!!

We do have a survey and the county (Okaloosa) has us zoned as agricultural. We do have some wetlands and a stream running through it, but we have some elevation, too We have 50 acres, so we should be able to find somewhere that fits all our requirements within the environmental rules.

 

[Nadeen Wincapaw]

Engineer775 on Youtube can handle the alternative energy.

How much of drop does your stream have?

Ben

No drop. I have to create a large head. The cfm is pretty high, but I haven't measured it yet.

 

[sonya123]

Thank you so much!!!

We do have a survey and the county (Okaloosa) has us zoned as agricultural. We do have some wetlands and a stream running through it, but we have some elevation, too We have 50 acres, so we should be able to find somewhere that fits all our requirements within the environmental rules.

ok, great! What you can do next is pick a place you want your house at and dig a about 5 gallon bucket size hole , and dump a 5 gallon bucket of water in it. If it drains really fast , great! You might have type A soil ( like sand) and this is a good site for a septic system ( this might save you some money if you can tell the engineer or whoever will do your testing you already have a good spot) . If it does not drain at all ( type D soil, like heavy clay ) , find a new spot. Look for pines, they don't like growing in wetlands too much. If there is cypress trees, it's probably wetland, stay away from that.
Think about access, do you have a driveway? You need to get a driveway permit most likely to attach it to a public road somewhere.
Find a good general contractor , might be cheaper than hiring an engineer and talk to them about what they can do. They might already have people that can do the testing and site plans. Most counties will accept an environmental or even geotech technician to do the soil testing. What sort of building do you want to have?

When we remodeled our house in Orlando some years ago, I did the site plan, and a friend ( architect) did the house design. Do you have any friends like that maybe? You can draw the plan yourself ( what you want) and give it to them to figure out if it works and add specs. If you do not have a lot of money to work with here is a tip to make septic cheaper: only have the minimum number of bedrooms in the house ( 1 is best, 2 if you have kids) and make some other rooms and call them "office" , "den" , storage" or something not bedroom, because they go by number of bedrooms to size the septic ( or at least they used to) so it will cost much more . You can always turn the office into a bedroom later ( we did). We didn't have septic but waste water rates were based on how many bedrooms we had.

 

[Nadeen Wincapaw]

ok, great! What you can do next is pick a place you want your house at and dig a about 5 gallon bucket size hole , and dump a 5 gallon bucket of water in it. If it drains really fast , great! You might have type A soil ( like sand) and this is a good site for a septic system ( this might save you some money if you can tell the engineer or whoever will do your testing you already have a good spot) . If it does not drain at all ( type D soil, like heavy clay ) , find a new spot. Look for pines, they don't like growing in wetlands too much. If there is cypress trees, it's probably wetland, stay away from that.
Think about access, do you have a driveway? You need to get a driveway permit most likely to attach it to a public road somewhere.
Find a good general contractor , might be cheaper than hiring an engineer and talk to them about what they can do. They might already have people that can do the testing and site plans. Most counties will accept an environmental or even geotech technician to do the soil testing. What sort of building do you want to have?

When we remodeled our house in Orlando some years ago, I did the site plan, and a friend ( architect) did the house design. Do you have any friends like that maybe? You can draw the plan yourself ( what you want) and give it to them to figure out if it works and add specs. If you do not have a lot of money to work with here is a tip to make septic cheaper: only have the minimum number of bedrooms in the house ( 1 is best, 2 if you have kids) and make some other rooms and call them "office" , "den" , storage" or something not bedroom, because they go by number of bedrooms to size the septic ( or at least they used to) so it will cost much more . You can always turn the office into a bedroom later ( we did). We didn't have septic but waste water rates were based on how many bedrooms we had.

We are mostly sand which will be tough for building, but awesome for septic. Right now we are only looking to put up a barn with a small apartment in the second story. We plan to build a house across the stream on higher elevation once we put a bridge up. We have a concept design, but need an architect / engineer to turn it into a working plan. We also need to clear the general location where we want the barn before any testing can be done. Plus, we are getting a lidar scan done, so that should also diminish the number of tests needing to be done and answer more than a few questions about drainage, wetlands, etc that we can't see through all the foliage.

 

[12icemaker]

If you are going for a barn type building look for Amish or Mennonite builders in the area that have a business building there, then get the permits and inspections done.

As a dwelling even just an apartment in a barn it will ALL have to conform to Dwelling specifications and codes.

 

[sonya123]

We are mostly sand which will be tough for building, but awesome for septic. Right now we are only looking to put up a barn with a small apartment in the second story. We plan to build a house across the stream on higher elevation once we put a bridge up. We have a concept design, but need an architect / engineer to turn it into a working plan. We also need to clear the general location where we want the barn before any testing can be done. Plus, we are getting a lidar scan done, so that should also diminish the number of tests needing to be done and answer more than a few questions about drainage, wetlands, etc that we can't see through all the foliage.

well it sounds like you have enough funds to do all the things you want....we had a limited budget when we quit our jobs and moved here to become farmers . If you have enough money to build bridges, you can definitely afford to hire a good engineer and architect
I don't know what a lidar scan is , never used anything like that
Good luck, sounds like you have it figured out

Keep us updated, would like to hear how this goes

 

[sonya123]

If you are going for a barn type building look for Amish or Mennonite builders in the area that have a business building there, then get the permits and inspections done.

sometimes LOL
the Amish that build our barns did not have a clue...sorry , they are very nice people but barn builders they were not . One of our barns is not useable because it floods everytime it rains, and the rocks they used for foundation are coming out. We blocked off the entrance so nobody goes in it in case it caves in. YOu should see how they built our son's house LOL, he wants to tear the thing down and start over if he gets a job in the area....
we heared from a neighbor they actually did have the county health department out here at some point and had to put in a at least somewhat functioning septic system ( they just had outhouses which are still here)
But some of the log houses that some other Amish family built down the road from us are really nice.