Low Cost Church Building Plans

Did you ever wonder how many thousands of church building plans have been drawn by architects over time, but when a church needs a set of building plans they have pay to have their church plans drawn from scratch?

The answer is, they don’t have to!

I want to begin this article by saying that sometimes churches do need completely custom building plans in order to accommodate their unique needs or geographical issues.   However, many times the church building plans a church may require are very similar to plans already used by one of the approximately 400,000 Christian churches in the USA.

If these plans already exist, why do architects charge to design churches from scratch?  Other than the fact that the project may require a totally unique approach, there are couple of potential of answers to that question.

It may be the that the architect does not have a significant number of church building  plans on which to base new church plans.

When considering an architect  you should usually only consider those that specialize in church design. What many people, including architects fail to realize, is that churches are different than either residential or commercial buildings – they have very unique requirements that are not always apparent to a designer that is not extremely experienced in church design.  The church also needs to insure that the church designer has design experience with churches in the size, budget and type of facility that your church will be building.  There is a lot of difference between an architect that has designed some churches and a church architect. Also, an architect with experience at building large, downtown, ornate facilities for traditional main-line denominations may not be the best fit for a church looking to build a cost-effective $500,000 multi-purpose building in the country.  For more information, read Preparing to Build.

It may be the that the architect is ” tweaking” an existing set of church building plans and not telling you.

I’ve seen enough church plans over the years to recognize that many church building plans are simple variations on a theme.  I have seen sample plans in promotional materials from two architects that were pretty much carbon copies of each other.  The simpler the building, the more likely that the floor plans needed are similar to something that has already been built. Let me be very clear – there is nothing wrong with taking an existing floor plans and modifying them to the needs of another church.  In fact, this is a commendable approach as long as the church is not being charged as if if were original work and no one’s intellectual property rights are being violated.

You can probably save 40-60% on your church building plans.

Using plans from previous church building programs, the church should be able to get full working drawings (including mechanical, electrical and plumbing) for  about half of the “street rate”. Unless you have some very unique issues, for a 15,000 square foot church building plan, the fee for the architectural plans should probably cost no more than $45,000 – $60,000.  Sadly, it is not uncommon for the church to be asked to pay $90,000 to $120,000 or more for this work.

Here is a realistic example.  The church gets a quote on church architectural services for a 10,000sf building.  The cost for your church building plans are quoted at $70,000.  Using a pre-designed plan, modified to your needs and local building codes, and sealed by a licensed architect, the cost could easily be be less than $35,000.

Let us help you save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

If you would like to save money and time (both precious commodities) on the design of your church, please contact us for a referral to one of our recommended sources that can help you save precious time and money on your church design and church building plans or click this link to view nearly 200 church building plans from another of our church web sites.