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Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: ThOr101 ()
Date: October 11, 2006 01:58PM

So I was wondering if the county of Fairfax has a big stash of blueprints somewhere of all the houses in Fairfax county. I'm interested in doing some stuff to my townhouse that was built in the last 5 years, and wondering does the builder have to submit the blueprints, and does the county keep a copy of them that I could get.

Thoughts?

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: gymstar ()
Date: October 11, 2006 02:16PM

i'm pretty sure the builder would have to submit the blueprints. yes the county should keep a copy of them although i'm not sure how hard it would to be to get ahold of the blue prints you need.

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: duh ()
Date: October 11, 2006 10:16PM

Most likely, all the builder submitted to the County was cash bribes...or golf trips...or maybe seats in their skybox at FedEx Field.

That's why, with a few strokes of a utility knife, you can walk right through an exterior wall of these modern "luxury" homes.

Plus, how many "too tall" houses did they let 'em build before somebody blew the whistle?

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: TheMeeper ()
Date: October 11, 2006 10:29PM

...or maybe seats in their skybox at FedEx Field.

Talk about gettin ripped off, man! What a perk!

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: RESton Peace ()
Date: October 11, 2006 11:15PM

the builder will (in my limited experience) supply the blueprints if you request them, but most likely you will get prints that are slightly off. The actual work crews will make some changes during building in some cases. For reasons that pass my full understanding.

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: SomeGuy ()
Date: October 12, 2006 11:27AM

I don't believe ffx county has a pile of plans laying around. They have to see and approve each individual house plan (because of the land grade, utilities and other zoning issues) when your house was originally built, but I don't believe they keep them in some plans archive at the government center.

I'd ask your builder if they can supply you with the plans for your model house. You will most likely have to pay for them though. Otherwise you will probably have to hire an architect to re-draft them up for the area that you are going to remodel.

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: Gravis ()
Date: October 12, 2006 11:47AM

RESton Peace and SomeGuy,
   wow, useful posts on the subject. i applaud you.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."095042938540

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: nothingman49 ()
Date: October 12, 2006 12:00PM

Yes the county will keep a set of plans on record. However, I am not sure what the public access is, I know as a engineer you have access.

If they allow you to get the record go on to the fairfax county website and look up your tax map number, it will help them find your townhouse, a subdivision name may also be helpful.

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: Yo ()
Date: October 12, 2006 12:03PM

They are kept at the Massey Building in the Public Safety Complex in the middle of Fairfax, not sure which floor but I went there when I was interested in a neighbors home design when I was remodeling mine.

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: ThOr101 ()
Date: December 18, 2006 04:30PM

Wow, this took a little bit of phone tag, but I finally found it. Probably about 1 year too late though.

The documents are kept at the Harrity Building. In order to get a copy you need to go to the 3rd floor, records and inspections. There you need to fill out a FOIA request. The lady said that this has to be done in person, but I just tried faxing it, so I guess I'll see what happens.

These links might help:

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/navbar/faqs/records.htm
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpwes/forms/foia.pdf

It was interesting, the closer I got to the information, the less friendly people were. The main info line guy was really nice.

Some other faqs. They are kept for 3 years, it might cost some $$ just to do the research. It might cost money to get them duplicated (this I can understand).

If this doesn't pan out, I guess I'll go ask the builder.

Cheers!

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: ThOr101 ()
Date: December 18, 2006 05:09PM

Holy Moly.

The doors to this place close at 4PM so they can finish helping people by 4:30 so I thought I wouldn't hear a thing from them for a while.

I just got a call from (oh I wish I recalled her name) the department, letting me know that it might take 5-12 days to pull the prints out of archive. She would then give me a call, I could make an appointment to view them, and then get copies of whatever I needed (at $2.50 a print, they are 24 X 36).

Ya know, I think this is pretty darn cool. Figuring the people power it takes to, index, store, retrieve, show, and copy. $2.50 doesn't seem too horrible really.

I'm just amazed that it worked so quickly.

Kudos to FF gov. I think this is pretty darn cool.

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Re: Blueprints at the County?
Posted by: Enough already ()
Date: August 26, 2020 01:15PM

.

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