My house is 30 years old. How do I find the contractor who built my house?
I would like to get a blueprint of my home, i.e., the supporting studs, water lines in the foundation, what walls I can actually tear down without structurally damaging my home. We are wanting to redo the entire inside of the house. I know we will need permits for some of the work, but I’d like to see the actual blueprints of my home before I go any further. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
I believe if you go to you local city hall they have all that sort of information.
I can’t garantee what I say is true because I’ve only ever seen that people go there in movies for the prints of their Houses. lol. Like movies are a great source for information. But it’s worth a shot just call and ask and if your lucky and they don’t have it they may know where to find it! Check the records department.
19 Responses to “My house is 30 years old. How do I find the contractor who built my house?”
try the closest graveyard
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 5:20 amReferences :
Look on your deed.
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 5:57 amReferences :
check teh yellow pages, then as for references
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 6:46 amReferences :
i’m a contractor
that might be impossibvle/
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 7:30 amReferences :
Try searching on the internt
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 8:07 amlike house contractors or something
hope it helps
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I dont know but you might find lots of money in the walls!! that would be so cool!!
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 8:54 amReferences :
look on the deed, did i spell tht right?
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 9:33 amthe paper tht saiz u own the house w/ all of the people tht lived there before,.
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hunt down the first people who lived there. talk to who you bought it from, who they bought it from, and so on. soon, you’ll find someone who can help find the contractor.
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 9:51 amReferences :
Try the local council. Planning office or something?
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 10:38 amReferences :
Check with your city or township administrators. Developers have to file plans with the local authorities before they begin construction.
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 11:09 amReferences :
you can see if the city has your bluprints they have everything
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 11:53 amReferences :
I believe if you go to you local city hall they have all that sort of information.
I can’t garantee what I say is true because I’ve only ever seen that people go there in movies for the prints of their houses. lol. Like movies are a great source for information. But it’s worth a shot just call and ask and if your lucky and they don’t have it they may know where to find it! Check the records department.
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 12:21 pmReferences :
You could ask around the neighborhood to see if anybody knows. You could talk to real estate people who have been in the business in your area for a long time. You could ask around with the local contractors in your area. Check with your City Hall to see if an original set of paperwork on the address exists. Check with your local museum or university engineering department.
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 12:44 pmHave fun with your redo!
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you won’t find the contractor but maybe a survayer could help you or look up in the archive of you town for the building permit and they might have filed a plan…it may be on doc film
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 1:30 pmReferences :
Most of the answers you got will get you no-where.If your house is a one of a kind rather than a development, I would ask a neighbor that has been around a while if he knows.
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 1:56 pmI would go to your towns planing and building dept.They should have some information.
If you can’t find a blueprint, it isn’t really hard to figure out which walls are bearing and which aren’t. It isn’t rocket science.
If you are unable to figure it out yourself, a licenced contractor certainly would know.
I’ll bet someone from your local lumberyard could tell you .
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You may contact your local fire department for a copy of the blueprint or check with the City hall planning Dept where your house is located.
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 2:09 pmReferences :
n/a
If you can not find him in the graveyard, the building inspection branch was issued a set at time of construction, but 30 years is a long time.
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 2:56 pmReferences :
You should be able to go to your local Tax Assessor’s Office, they can give you a print out of the Assessment of your home. It will list, in order, the owner’s from current to builder.
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 3:20 pmReferences :
I work for a real estate attorney.
Chances are if you find the contractor, he won’t have the drawings.
Somethings like the actual routing of water lines, electrical, etc probably won’t be on the drawings anyway and if they are on the drawings that doesn’t mean the sub contractors followed the drawings.
In the end, you are going to have to do some detective work on the actual house to find out where the load bearing walls are and the actual routing of electrical, plumbing and heating. I have been through this on many industrial type reworks of existing facilities and it is always the case. You won’t really know until you check it out first hand.
Since you are talking about redoing the whole house this really shouldn’t be a big problem.
Comment made on November 30th, 2009 at 4:07 pmReferences :
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