Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show

A: Unifying architectural design, structural engineering, energy calculations, and framing manufacturing under one team ensures all drawings share identical dimensions and load paths. This integrated approach eliminates the miscommunications and finger-pointing common when hiring disconnected professionals, preventing permit rejections and costly site delays.

A: Yes, acting as an owner-builder is primarily an exercise in project management, organization, and trade subcontractor coordination rather than physical carpentry. Having a complete, precisely dimensioned set of permit-ready plans allows first-time builders to schedule trades, solicit accurate bids, and manage the build smoothly.

A: Hitting unexpected bedrock requires immediate structural engineering adjustments to transition from standard deep concrete footings to steel pins anchored directly into the rock. Having direct access to your design engineering team allows foundation modifications to be calculated, submitted, and approved without shutting down construction.

A: Pre-construction architectural drafting allows structural wall heights, door dimensions, and floor spans to be engineered around unique lifestyle needs. Blueprints can easily incorporate heavy-duty vehicle lifts, commercial-grade baking kitchens, equestrian tack rooms, or basement clear-spans without costly retrofits.

A: Plan review requirements vary widely across jurisdictions due to differing local municipal ordinances, regional environmental hazards, and individual plan checker interpretations. Navigating these subjective reviews requires an experienced design partner who can directly provide structural engineering calculations and code clarifications to resolve plan check checklists.

Steve Tuma: Yes, we get to know our customers well, we talk, we spend time on the phone, we talk about details, whatever questions they have we’ll take the time and through that, you get a great understanding of what people do.

Interviewer: Hello everyone and thanks for joining us for episode 51 of the panelized prefab kit home-building show. With me as always is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993, Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how are you, my friend?

Steve Tuma: Life is good, it’s another good day. You know I was listening to this, he said around the globe since 1993, we’ve been doing this 30 years.

Interviewer: Yeah, you’re just babies in the industry.

Steve Tuma: Actually, we’re one of the oldest, but it’s amazing, I’ve helped every single customer since 1993. Every single one? Every single one. Wow. And many of them come back and build another one or help a relative or a friend and it’s just kind of amazing to think, you know, all the stuff that we’ve done, the different people we’ve helped, different places around the country, different styles homes, different budgets, it’s an amazing situation.

Interviewer: That 30 years man, that’s a landmark, that’s amazing. So in the industry, and we were joking around earlier, but are there any other panelized companies out there that are as old or as seasoned and experienced as Landmark?

Steve Tuma: I’m not sure that there are any that do exactly what we do, you know, with the complete service where we work with our customers, you know, from the inception of the design, their architectural design, the structural engineering, the energy codes, the site planning, working with the building department, working with the customer on their exact needs to develop their plan. And then actually manufacture, oh, sorry, back up, get them the plan so they could submit for permits, work with them through the complete permitting process, and then also go through and supply the panelized package that matches the approved plans. It’s an incredible amount of work that I know of, we’re the only ones that do it because it’s an incredible amount of work. A lot of details goes over many, many disciplines, and I guess we just enjoy it.

Interviewer: Yeah, well, I mean, if you’re doing something 30 years and you don’t like it, you probably would have gotten out a long time ago.

Steve Tuma: Oh, well, this is fun because we’ve developed a system that works pretty well so we can help a customer with the one-stop shop idea. And that’s what’s really cool about it. Someone could call us and say, hey, Steve, I want this house on that lot, how do we do it? Instead of saying, well, you’ve got to call 20 people, and by the way, coordinate them, it’s kind of like lining kittens up, good luck. It’s hard work with us, we’ll be able to work with someone to make it easier for them and have fun doing it. So we want to work with good people, build cool houses, and have a good time doing it.

Interviewer: I want to get to that one-stop shop idea that you were just talking about later in the podcast. Because I think it’s really important that people understand exactly what the services are that Landmark provides. But for today’s episode, I thought we might bend your ear regarding what types of situations come up with your customers from time to time when they need help that they may not even realize at the beginning of a project that they need help on. People walk into these things like, oh, I can build a house, it can’t be that hard. But you guys probably have to step in a lot. Are you psychic? Are you able to ascertain? How do you ascertain a customer’s needs even when they themselves can’t express or articulate their desires because they simply don’t have the knowledge it takes to build a new home?

Steve Tuma: Well, this is kind of interesting because a lot of customers do understand the building processes, whether or not they’ve done it. And then you’re right. Some people are like, I’m going to do it. I’ve wanted to do it. I’ve never built a birdhouse, but I want to build a house. So we’re able to do it. So there’s different ranges of what people can do. Some people, we’ve had families that actually work together because they’re in the trades. They know how to do all the work. And then other people are more kind of managing it. So it becomes more of a project management situation. So in a sense, you don’t necessarily need to know the details of how to pour a cement foundation. But if you understand how to find a good person, work with them, go over a good set of plans with them, coordinate it, it becomes more of a coordination situation. So we’ve had a lot of people that have never swung a hammer built a house.

A lot of single moms are great at multitasking and coordinating 20 things at one time. We’ve had people that are professional builders after they retire, they work with us on their own homes. So it kind of runs the gamut. So what we do is we fill in and help customers where they are. You bring up the, you know, joking, I’m sure you said, are you guys psychic? I don’t know if it’s psychic, probably not, but it’s more of a situation where we’ve been doing it so long where we could kind of see patterns. So sometimes people will say, you know, say in the design stage, you’re like, I don’t know what I want. Well, sometimes they know what they don’t want. And sometimes they do know what they want. They just haven’t thought it through or haven’t been questioned. So someone might go through and say, hey, I want a nice kitchen. And they’ll be like, but Steve, can you help us design a kitchen? And I say, well, we’ve got designers that can do all the kitchen layouts and everything. But what are you intending to do? Okay. So sometimes you kind of back into it.

Some people say, well, like we had a customer in Prescott, Arizona. His wife loved baking pies. She had to have double stoves, windows overlooking the yard to see the grandkids, certain amount of countertop space. And you know, she had her layout because she’s been baking pies for 40 years. Other people are like, you know what? It’s real simple. I just want a simple galley kitchen. It’s a small house or an ADU. I just want something where one person can quickly put a meal together. Maybe it’s two people living in the house, one person, something different. And then other times people be like, hey, when my family comes over, they come over. You know, the kitchen needs to be by the great room, which has to be, you know, I got to be able to put a table for 14 there. We’re going to have two TVs and music going and there’s got to be a pool table. You know, so that people have an idea. So they may not know exactly how they want it, but they know what they’re trying to achieve and how they want to enjoy the house. So that’s how we’re able to do it. And typically it’s most people know, but if they don’t, it’s just a little conversation. I get a couple ideas based on that conversation. So we listen to our customers and what they tell us.

You know, we may ask some questions back, get some details, and we make some suggestions to the designer. They draw the house up with the kitchen or bedrooms or bathrooms or garage, whatever it may be. And then a set of plans shows up, which becomes kind of the basis. It comes a starting point of a black and white drawing that you can look at and see exactly what’s there. And then you make adjustments from there. And by the way, we’ve had varieties of customers. I bring up kitchens because people relate to it. We’ve had people that have to have family rooms, theater rooms, guys that want man caves, they restore cars, they work on cars, father, son projects, you know, whatever it may be. There’s people, equestrian properties, they wanted kind of a small tech room in the house. So there’s a variety of situations. And then there’s other people that just have a view and they want to be able to sit down, soak in the view, enjoy nature, watch a fireplace, listen to music. So there’s a variety of different ways that we can do. So sometimes it’s not specific, like, hey, I want the best kitchen for baking pies. Sometimes it’s like, I got a beautiful view and I just want to soak it in. So we get into, you know, different windows, how the windows are angled, where the views at, how the house is positioned on the lot. So it gets pretty interesting. And I think that’s something where people really appreciate it because it’s not just the house. We’re helping them create an environment that will change their life and allow them to live the best life that they choose.

Interviewer: And I think it’s funny because that’s, you know, we’re talking about people not maybe not knowing exactly how to explain what they’re looking for and to have that experience that you guys have where you go, oh, I know what you’re talking about. And they may go, hmm, I don’t even know what I’m talking about, you know. But this goes back to like plan details. You guys have a lot of plans, sort of plan templates on your website and people can go on there and pick and choose. But everything, what I think is special about Landmark Home and Land Company is your ability to be so adaptable, you know, and so not all plans are equal. And you guys have to sort of navigate people through that whole process of what what plan they really want and what’s going to give them the most bang for their buck and the most bang for their emotional need. You know, it’s a home. It’s important.

Steve Tuma: Right. How it fits on the land, how it’s oriented for zoning issues, you know, whatever it may be. But it’s not just that. There’s also the issue of plans of the physical information in the plan set. So in certain parts of the country, people will just build a house. They’ll go find some local guy that won an award in high school and he’ll draw a set of plans. And you know what? Their plans are good conceptual plans. You could look at it. You can see what the house looks like. You can see the different bedroom sizes, the living room sizes, and this and that. And in some areas, people will get permits on that. And then it’s up to the builder to interpret what that plan is. And then hopefully it lines up with what the customer wants. Right. So generally on plans that are real simple, even though they might be accepted by a building department, you know, who knows how deep the building department is actually looking at them. But the details may not be there to make sure that the customer gets what they want. So it’s not a generic situation. It’s not a gallon of milk where you could say, hey, I want a gallon of vitamin D milk, whole milk. And generally, it’s done to a certain standard, to a certain degree.

Plans aren’t like that. There’s details that need to be there, sections, insulation details, connection details, foundation details, ceiling height, wall heights, ceiling details, eave overhangs, and a lot of things. So sometimes people don’t understand this and they’re like, well, I got a set of plans from the local guy. Then he did this. He does a great job. He does it for everyone. And then I say, but how tall is your wall? They’re like, I don’t know. How tall is your basement? I don’t know. Is there a cathedral ceiling here? I don’t know. And they start to understand that it’s good to have it because a plan set, the way I look at it, is really a communication item between the customer, us, the building department, the contractor, and any financing sources that might be involved. So it needs to be clear as far as what’s there. Sometimes people say, hey, you know, I heard that construction goes over budget. I’m like, yeah, it can, but it doesn’t have to. And sometimes the over budget or off schedule is more a result of bad plans. So someone looks at the plans and say, well, it didn’t say that you wanted a cathedral ceiling here. So the builder just puts a flat ceiling.

You walk in your house and it’s like, I wanted a cathedral ceiling. And he said, well, it’s not on the plans. Well, I told you about it eight months ago. You should have remembered, you know, type of thing. And with our set of plans, we have the details. We show the sections so people can see how a house goes together. They can see the ceiling heights, wall heights, get a lot of details on the windows, basement, foundation situation so they could see how it’s put together to minimize and hopefully eliminate the chance of the what ifs and the oh calls at five o’clock on Friday where someone’s sitting there going, what do you mean by this? How big of a window instead of big window, you know, have a specific window detail. So that’s that’s what we’re able to do and make sure that a plan set is is is detailed so everyone in the project understands it. And it makes it easy because I’ve seen it. People sit there and they talk to a builder and they’re talking to him saying, I want this and I want this and I want this. No one writes it down, you know, and I don’t know who has that type of memory to remember stuff over every detail over six months. So with the plan sets, we’re able to keep things clear and one final set of plans so everyone could refer to them and everyone knows what’s being built. Just makes it easier. You can control your budget, you can control your schedule, and the nicest thing is you can help control your headaches. Right.

Interviewer: So two things in what, you know, that what that list of things you just were talking about, two things that I gathered from that right off the bat is first, how much of a collaboration it is building a house between you at Landmark and the customer. I mean, that’s a huge, big thing. And then also listening, you were talking about, you know, you listen to the customers and I’m sure even if the customer can’t exactly articulate a need or a desire or whatever, just by listening, do you think that you have the ability to foresee problems or foresee changes down the line, you know, with just by what they’re talking, you know, how they’re expressing their desires for what their house should be?

Steve Tuma: Yes, we get to know our customers well. We talk, we spend time on the phone, we talk about details, whatever questions they have, we’ll take the time. And through that, you get a great understanding of what people do and how they live and their outlook on life, and what’s important to them and what isn’t important to them. So through the process, the listening, the paying attention, conversations, the evolution of designing a home, you know, we don’t expect them to give us everything and we draw the perfect set of plans the first time. We work towards it. But even if we draw exactly what they asked for, sometimes people say, hey, now that I see it, I thought about it a little more and I need a little change. So we don’t rush the development thing to make, you know, we want to make sure that they have it. And yeah, it’s a listening thing. This is kind of a partnership. Even though it’s our customer’s home, we kind of consider it to be ours. It’s representative of our efforts and desires to help a customer build, you know, what I just say is a cool house.

In my opinion, if you’ve got to work as hard as we do to make a living, I think you should pull up to your house every day and go, this is cool. I like it. Mm hmm. Instead of, oh, I wish I made the window better. Oh, I should have had a two-car garage or I should have done this, you know. So what we want to do is work with people to kind of prod ideas, get conversations going, let things flow so that we can work with them to get help develop the ideas if they don’t have it. And then on the other side, we’ve had people that have come in and know exactly what they want. Right. You know, they want this and this and this needs to be here and this needs to be this size and they’re detailed to that degree. And that’s also cool as well.

Interviewer: Do you prefer that?

Steve Tuma: You know what? It’s it’s all it’s all kind of fun after 30 some years, 30 years right now of doing this. We just look at it as let’s get them the cool house, the house that they want. Right. Even when someone knows exactly what they want, there’s always a deeper detail we need to work out. There’s always something here. Sometimes you have it and they still want to make a little change or they’re like, hey, what about this? Or, hey, I was at the store and I saw this window. So suddenly my dream window is out. Now my double dream window is in. So it’s always an evolution. Some customers get into different types of materials, different finishes, different situations where we’ve really got to look at it. You know, let me just take, for example, car guys. You know, the guy’s got to have his man cave. He kind of doesn’t worry about the house. He just wants his garage, right? So a guy will be like, well, I want to lift. OK, so what are you doing with this lift? Are you storing cars or are you lifting vans up and pulling transmissions out of them? It’s a different wall height and it’s a different ceiling system. Sure. So even though a guy might go, hey, I want to lift, I know exactly what it is, I got to put my classic muscle car in here. It’s like, but wait a second, what are you doing? You know, so that’s what we’ve got to look at. And then you start working on electrical layouts where the windows are sometimes security, you know, make sure that, you know, the people’s assets are protected. So it’s always kind of fun because I think we’ve been able to help someone even if they think that they’ve designed every square inch of the house. There’s always something that through a conversation we can help them work out. Or sometimes in the design phases, there’s just little details that until you’re deep into the design, you couldn’t possibly think of.

Interviewer: It must be kind of fun to drive by a house that you’ve designed and helped someone build.

Steve Tuma: Every once in a while, I’ll just go on a road trip and look up on the sign and say, oh, there’s that town. We did a house there last week, two years, 10 years ago. And it’s kind of amazing. And it’s amazing of how customers keep in touch with us. One customer from 24 years ago called back and said, hey, this is Rich up in Ann Arbor. Remember me? And I’m like, yeah. You know, and it was just kind of cool. And then we helped as one of his family members build a house. So it’s something where we’re helping people get a house, but really, you know, kind of affecting their life, helping them get the house they want for the price that they’re choosing to pay at the place that they want to build. Right. So it’s pretty cool.

Interviewer: To be a company like yours, and in 30 years, I’m sure this is also one of the cool aspects of being around for a while, but you know, to help like even generationally or just people coming back to you guys to build their second and third house, that’s got to be a great feeling.

Steve Tuma: Oh, it is. It is. It’s kind of like your old pal coming by. We have some customers we’ve been working with in Florida for a couple of years. We’re on 10 or 15 houses. I think they started a little business and it’s pretty cool. They call up, say, hey, Steve, I need this. Hey, Steve, I need that. And a shout out to Bill and Clifford because I know they listen every once in a while. But it’s kind of interesting. Then we’ve had customers that do 20 homes, five homes, two homes, you know, whatever it is. Sometimes we’re actually getting, the company’s been around long enough where we’ve done the starter home, the kid’s home, and now we’re getting into the retirement home. It’s just, you sit back and go, wow, you’ve seen the evolution of a family. Three decades is a long time. It’s kind of interesting.

Interviewer: Let’s get back to the sort of customer service aspect of Landmark Home and Land Company. One of the big things is people are going to more than likely have to deal with building departments in their area and getting permits for their build and things like that. Landmark never just lets people just off on their own. You guys just don’t set people off without a rudder. You actually do a lot of work in that department helping people with permit issues, et cetera.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, because building departments are interesting. A lot of people look at them as like the benchmark of knowledge and make sure the house is right. Well, building departments each look at different details. It’s not a universal, all-complete check. So you can go in a little town and you might be able to walk in, pay 25 bucks, and leave with a permit. They don’t even look at plans. Sometimes you go in places and there’s three plan checkers, each with three totally different opinions as to what needs to be in your plan set. And you know what? If it’s a day on Monday when they woke up on the wrong side of the bed, your plan check requirements might be a little different than if it was Friday and they woke up on the right side of the bed. And then there’s other places that are very sophisticated that give you a complete list of every single detail. And even if you fulfill every single detail, they may come back and ask further details. Kind of one question, you give them an answer, and that leads to two more questions. The point about it is, is we’ve been doing it long enough and we have a personal interest and kind of excitement in working through the challenge of building departments that every customer that we’ve worked with has gotten the permits for the plans that they’ve submitted.

Yeah, that’s a good track record. So that’s whether, you know, we hear a lot, oh man, I’m building in this town and it’s just the worst building department ever. And I’m like, oh really? You know, let’s check this one out and everything works out. So and then there’s other places where, you know, places where there’s earthquakes, hurricanes, high snow loads where they really, really want to do it. And a lot of people think that it’s us against the building department. It kind of isn’t. The building department is just making sure that you don’t do stupid things that other people have done. You know, they’re kind of safety, a lot of them call building and safety. So I agree, I’m not into the whole big brother thing. But on the other side, they’re just double checking and make sure that you’re doing it right. Right. You know, so I’ll agree every once in a while they ask questions where you scratch your head and say, I’ve never heard of this, but you know what? We get through it. And we’ve had some interesting situations in some areas, occasionally they’ll lose a building inspector and nothing happens and then the new guy comes up with a new attitude. But the bottom line of it is we’ve done so many plans and so many different building conditions below, you know, you get to almost below sea level or at sea level up to places in Colorado that, you know, Leadville, 11,000 some hundreds feet up above sea level. It’s the highest populated town, hurricane zones, earthquake zones, all these different situations where there’s just a lot of details. We’ve done it. So the chances of someone coming up with something that just kind of stumps us is extremely remote. But if by chance you’re the customer that has that one question, we’ll get the answer. And what’s nice about it is I work directly with the customer, the building department, the checklist items to make sure that it’s done. So we’re not just giving answers to push the process. We’re giving answers to solve the question, to work towards obtaining the permit. So it’s a pretty interesting process that we have. It’s actually kind of cool. Customers at first might be a little like, oh, the building department, I’ve heard about them. But when they get into it, a lot of them have said, this is pretty cool. And they learn stuff because people want to build their own home. It’s not just to save money, control the cost, get the house they want, kind of a life experience.

Interviewer: Sure. And it’s a journey. Building a house is a journey. Not, you know, it’s you can look at it that you’re bumping into walls with building departments and permits or whatever. And you can just look at it and look what I’m getting and learn educational-wise out of dealing with speed bumps or whatever might come your way. What about, I know you’ve mentioned in the past that customers sometimes will, during the construction phase, will look and go, you know what, like, I’m not sure I want those windows there anymore, or that side of the house just doesn’t work for me. What’s the process that you go through to helping people get through the adjustment of maybe their plans aren’t quite working the way they thought it would visually and emotionally for them when they’re just looking at the house build?

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s an interesting thing because it’s actually something where the plans are what they want. But in the evolution, as you kind of fall in love with it, get more excited, you know, it’s kind of like unpeeling an onion. There’s certain phases where you think about stuff. So a perfect example is we have a man building a very nice home in Eager, Arizona. Like a 1,500 square foot ranch. He said, it’s perfect, exactly what I want. We’re going through permitting phases and he said something like, Steve, I got a great view out of the side of my house and I realized I don’t have enough windows. So it’s when he’s out there staking the foundation, you know, going, okay, you know, the guys are going to excavate. There was a sunset or something that went on and he was standing where the living room was. And he goes, do I have a big enough window? Now, it’s kind of an interesting thing, but yeah, we were able to go through, re-engineer that portion, get the window in, get everything approved, and he’s getting his windows. We had to jump through a couple of flaming hoops backwards, but I bet you I’m going to get a picture of the sunset through that window, you know when the house is there. So what it is, is, you know, sometimes people run into situations.

We like to avoid things like that, but if we have to, under certain conditions, we’re able to do it. But then there’s also other things which have come up. You know, we talked about building departments. Building departments do what building departments do. They’re not all consistent and every once in a while you’ll have a plan checker approve one thing, but the inspector decides he has a personal issue and he wants something different. Just because in his mind it’s there, even though it’s approved on the plans, he wants something a little different, or totally by chance, you know, maybe there’s a more, I don’t want to call it more legitimate, but it is, they go in and they find something out. Even though you get a geotechnical report or you find, you know, you have an understanding of the soil conditions, you know, the guy’s out there excavating and you believe that it’s, you know, a certain type of soil going down eight feet or whatever for a basement, and they go down and they hit granite in a foot. And suddenly it’s like, uh-oh, how do we change the foundation? Putting a foundation in regular dirt is a lot different than pinning it to granite. So if there is a situation that comes up where someone comes into one of those uh-oh moments, we’re here to help them. Chances are we’ve heard or seen of that situation before, and we can go through and… In 30 years there probably isn’t a whole lot that surprises you, right? I mean, you’ve pretty much seen it all. Right. Until we start building on the moon or Mars, I, you know, I never want to say never type of a thing, but, you know, in most situations we’ve been able to get through, and amazingly this is one of these, you get back to where you said, hey, are you guys psychic? We’re not psychic, but we kind of know the realm of potential issues. So we have a little bit of leeway in the design or engineering. So if something comes up, we, there might be like a standard deviation of things where we can, you know, get through issues just by the way we design and work together.

Interviewer: One thing Landmark is really known for, and this comes back to what you said earlier about you have, you know, over 30 years you’ve dealt with every single home builder, every single one personally that you’ve dealt with. That’s an amazing thing. But one of the things you guys are known for is just being able to get back to people. I mean, your response time to answer questions, you guys are on the spot. It’s like your phones are, it’s almost like your phone is taped to the side of your head. You’re ready to get there.

Steve Tuma: I think it might’ve actually attached to my head. I don’t need the tape anymore. Well, this is, this is one of the things, and it’s, it’s I’m a customer myself. You know, we’ve all called someplace and there’s a leave of voicemail and someone will get back to you in 24 hours. So you look at your clock and say, it’s two o’clock Monday. I should get a call by two o’clock Tuesday, which in my mind is totally unreasonable. But they know they’re going 24 business hours, which goes, okay, there’s Monday to Tuesday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you know, maybe it’s Thursday they think you might call. And then someone calls to register your, your issue, but it’s not someone with knowledge. Now when I call places needing help, chances are I need it now or, or very soon. So what I, you know, my customers, they caught me direct on my direct cell phone, the same cell phone my 80 year plus year old parents call me on. And I have an understanding of the project. So if they’re able to, you know, to get to me and say, Hey, what about this? Or, Hey, you know, we’re thinking of changing the type of cabinet or countertop, does that affect anything? Or, Hey, we, we have a situation, we’re able to get deals on windows. How does this affect thing? Chances are I can answer, I want to say 96 out of a hundred questions right there, right? You know, of course I, you know, some things I got to be in front of a computer, which are during the typical business day. If you call me Sunday at 10 o’clock at night, chances are I’m not sitting there in my computer with your plans up, but you know, I’ll, I’ll do whatever we can. So we’re, we’re, we’re on top of it, but we do encourage customers to call.

My attitude is, Hey, if someone needs help and they need a question answered, it’s better to help them right then and there so that they can keep forward moving forward in their project. Because I know in my own life, sometimes you just need a simple answer. You know, it’s simple, but I don’t have the knowledge to do it in that particular situation and houses I can, you know? So if someone has it, we, we, we can move along. Customers will email me, they’ll text me, they’ll, they’ll give me a call. But what’s really cool about it is after 30 years, we have a pretty good set of plans, a very good set of plans. So most of the answers are right on there. So it’s not something where we have a hotline that’s constantly people constantly there. The calls are here and there because we’ve worked through it with the customer under the customer understands it’s on the plans. So we do a lot to have a very good set of plans and then help the customer understand it so they can move along. But if there’s that time they need something, um, we’re there.

Interviewer: This all goes back to the, what we had begun with, which was the one-stop shop. And uh, I’d like to go back now and just go over that again. Why, why has landmark become known as being a one-stop shop and being able to help from beginning to the final, uh, portion of the build? What do you think has gotten you guys to the point where you’re so well known for being, I don’t want to say Jack of all trades cause you know where that leads to, but I mean, you guys are definitely experts in so much and uh, that must make you pretty proud to have gotten to that point.

Steve Tuma: Oh, it’s a, it’s exceptional. You have a couple of points there, but the, uh, the one-stop shop, it was actually an evolution of, we realized that customers needed help, you know, no matter how many homes you’ve built or how many shows you’ve watched, or maybe you’ve never built anything. It’s hard in today’s world to get customer service from knowledgeable people that care. So if you go and tie an architect, a structural engineer, an HVAC designer, someone doing site plans, doing energy plans, um, tying all these things together so the plans actually communicate and work together and, and, and have, um, the same information, not conflicting information. Good luck. I mean, that, that’s like chasing grease pigs and having them, you know, line up. I mean, it’s, it’s just the way it is. We actually get a lot of plans from people. They’ll be like, Oh, the award-winning architect and the double award-winning structural engineer did it. And the plans conflict. So everyone says, that’s not my job or, Hey, I did my part. This is what I do. It’s like, well, that’s great, but you didn’t solve the customer’s problem, right? So what we’ve learned and developed over, over the course of time is develop a set of plans that works together. The architectural plans match the structural, the electrical layout is actually for that exact house. Not a bunch of generic stuff that says we’ll figure it out, but stuff that actually applies to that building site, that building department, that customer’s desire, and then our ability to help them. So it’s, we, we’ve developed a streamlined system to tie all of this together and tell you the truth.

It’s just 30 years of work, 30 years of work, 30 years of knowledge, 30 years of experience and, and working with a lot of good customers that, you know, maybe 29 years ago, someone asked us a question and we’re like, well, it’s that’s knowledge. We know that, but realize, Hey, the customer may not. So, so we add that, you know, maybe 25 years ago, someone asked us a question and that ends up being on the plan. So that’s all part of getting the plan set that helps you know, the contractor understand the building department understand. And it’s just easy. Yeah. There’s no, Oh, we’ll talk about it later or Hey, hopefully, it’ll work out. It’s like, no, let’s get it. Let’s get it to work out on paper or PDF, actually, you know, let’s get it to work out so that you don’t have guys on a field guessing, scratching their head going, well, where does this beam go? You know? So that, that’s, that’s what we try to do and that that’s where it is because people are busy. They have kids, they have jobs, they have parents, they have hobbies, they have, um, you know, whatever faith they have, whatever, whatever their lifestyle consists of.

There aren’t too many people with an extra eight hours a day, right? Everyone’s busy. So to know that you’ve got a knowledgeable, good crew where you can just send an email and not have to think about it and get an answer quickly, that’s accurate and specific to your question. That’s fine. You call places and you say, Hey, my, my whatever isn’t working on the car and they send you some standard answer that has nothing to do with your question, right? So we’re, you know, we’ve noticed that with the advent of artificial intelligence, you get these kinds of canned answers. Yeah, it’s, you got an answer, but there’s nothing, the substance of the answer for your specific situation isn’t there. And that, that’s, that’s what we’re trying to do. So, uh, we’re trying to work with real intelligence and, and get something like this put together so that if a customer needs help or we see an issue coming up, we can, uh, give them a specific answer specific to their house and their building site.

Interviewer: I think we’re noticing that people are, are a little, you know, they’ll look at a, they’ll look at a company that does things the old fashioned way and it used to be all their dinosaurs. They used to do everything in the old-fashioned way and nowadays people are saying, yes, give me more of that. I want dinosaurs who can get back to me and I don’t have to talk to robots or, or people from, you know, like say 60 other countries that you have to talk to and they just have these pad answers enough to get you off the phone so they don’t have to deal with you. And I think it’s, it’s pretty commendable that landmark, um, is in the customer service department a little bit of a throwback and there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think most people want that.

Steve Tuma: Well, I, I, I think it’s cool because no matter what your budget is, where your house is, your house is your palace. So we’ve, we’ve helped people do four or five, 600 square foot ADUs, little, little granny flats, guest houses, and, and there, and that project is as important to them as the person doing the $10 million mansion. Right. And that’s, that’s what we look at and we also, it’s, it’s, it’s really cool to help someone and you know, to, uh, I was talking to one of my friends and I’m an amazing person and, and he said, he owns a company and he says, Steve, do people ever tell you, thank you? I said all the time, he goes never once in my company and someone said, thank you. And I’m like, wow, that’s not what’s going on. I’m like, we, we get it a lot. People are like, Steve, you really helped. I got a couple today. You really helped. This is amazing. We were able to get this building, you know, this, this worked out and, uh, it’s, it’s, it’s pretty cool. It’s, it’s, it’s a good feeling. And I think that that’s why we continue to grow because it’s an excitement of wanting to help someone make, make their house better or make it easier.

It’s, it’s not all just some profit driven thing, you know, to, uh, just pump more houses out. It’s like, Hey, let’s make sure these people really get the house. Like I say, I want them to pull up to the house and build and go, this is cool. That that’s, that’s what it’s about.

Interviewer: All right. So that’s going to do it for today’s episode of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. But Steve, before we let you go, um, tell us how we can find you guys and get ahold of you so we can learn more about Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building.

Steve Tuma: I think the best thing is take a look at our website at, uh, L H L C.com. Those are kind of the letters for Landmark Home Land Company. It’s actually Landmark Home and Land Company, but just for easy L H L C.com. And you can see videos, check out just different write-ups, opinions, ideas we have. Um, there’s also these podcasts, there’s thousands of plans that you can look through and you can inquire through there. You can also just give a call and Mike will work with you at 800-830-9788. Again, it’s 800-830-9788. And Mike will work with you to kind of process what you need, find out what you want, get preliminary discussion, see if you have land, see what type of help you need. And then, uh, you know, once you get going, get some ideas together, he’ll, he’ll, uh, have me contact you and then we’ll, we’ll, we’ll get you taken care of. So we invite all people inquire whether you want to build today, two years from now, you’re just thinking about it, you know, so it’s, it’s never too early. It’s also never too late to call. Well, we’ll, uh, we’ll help you out.

Interviewer: And there you go. Well, thanks again, Steve, for your time. And thanks to all of you for listening in. It’s been fun as always. So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great rest of your day and we will see you next time. Thanks Steve.

Steve Tuma: Thank you. This was a good one. It was fun. Yeah.

A: Building plans provide the complete architectural layouts, structural engineering, foundation dimensions, electrical schematics, and plumbing designs required for municipal permitting and general trade work. Assembly plans serve as step-by-step instructions for the framing crew, detailing the exact sequential placement, dimensions, and connection points for every individual wall panel, roof truss, and structural beam delivered to the job site.

A: Tall two-story or cathedral walls contain extensive open height and large window cutouts that reduce the natural lateral stiffness of standard wood framing. Without heavy snow loads, strong lateral wind pressures and seismic ground shaking can cause tall walls to bow or flex over time, requiring engineered structural posts and reinforced shear connections to prevent interior drywall cracking.

A: Manual J calculates the precise heating and cooling load requirements based on the home’s thermal envelope, Manual S selects properly sized mechanical equipment to meet that load without short-cycling, and Manual D designs the ductwork layout and register airflow. Together, these engineering calculations ensure indoor air circulates efficiently and equipment is not oversized for modern, tightly insulated wall assemblies.

A: Civil engineering plans establish safe driveway slope access for emergency vehicles, calculate stormwater runoff paths to prevent flooding neighboring properties, and position foundations above updated base flood elevations. On complex hillside or coastal lots, grading plans prevent structural water funnels around hardscaping and ensure building pads remain stable during severe storm surges or heavy rainfall.

A: Natural ground slope directly dictates whether a home requires a flat concrete slab, a stepped crawlspace, or a walkout basement. An accurate topographic survey showing elevation drops across the building pad prevents costly mistakes, such as attempting to pour a flat slab on a sloped site without adequate retaining walls or proper sewer drop clearances.

Steve Tuma: Now, a lot of people say, well, I don’t need detailed plans.  I’m like, well, you might not think you need detailed plans, but if you want to control your schedule, your budget, timelines, communication with your subcontractors and your supplier, the better set of plans you have, the less changes, less headaches you’ll have during the process.  So it’s kind of like, do your homework up front, design the home properly, not just for permits, but also the building phases. I think you’ll find that your budget will appreciate it your timeline will appreciate it and it’ll work better for you. 

Interviewer: Hello everybody and welcome to episode 50 of the panelized prefab kit home building show with me as always is the President and founder of Landmark Home and Land Compay a company Which has been helping people build their new homes where they want exactly as they want nationwide and around the globe since 1993 and that man is Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve how’s it going?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, things are well. I think we got a lot to talk about today. Yeah. Plans and it’s a kind of a little bit of one of these things that it’ll compound it like a snowball.  It can get big and deep and but we can help. We’ve done it before.

Interviewer: I’ve got plans for to talk about plans and a million other things. I thought for this episode I’d like to go just go back to the basics. I’d really like to go back to the Landmark Home and Land Compay website, and talk about everything you list on there that makes your company, Landmark Home and Land Compay, unique among not just other panelized home designers and builders, but among home construction companies in general. I know it’s a very open-ended question, but I think you might be able to give the listeners and future owner-builders a rundown of exactly how Landmark Home and Land Compay stands out among the rest. If we go the way I want to do this, which is just go through the website and ask you a few things about what’s listed on there. So are you good with that?

Steve Tuma: Yeah.

Interviewer: Cool. Let’s do it.

Steve Tuma: This is an interesting spin on it. I guess a lot of customers find us on the website.  Look at it. So we may as well talk about the details to help them understand.

Interviewer: I was thinking that people could go to the website at LHLC.com and follow this podcast while you’re going through the website and I would actually be a good companion. They would complement each other. Let’s start with what you guys have listed on the website as a complete building plan services company. I’m not exactly sure what that encompasses, but give us a rundown of what complete building plan services means.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s really interesting because it’s a, it could be very definite or it could be a broad scope type of a situation.  If you go to certain parts of the country, you don’t even need building permits.  They don’t issue permits.  They think you don’t even need plans to do it.  Now, a lot of people say, well, I don’t need detailed plans. I’m like, well, you might not think you need detailed plans, but if you want to control your schedule, your budget, timelines, communication with your subcontractors and your supplier, the better set of plans you have, the less changes, less headaches you’ll have during the process.  So it’s kind of like, do your homework up front, design the home properly, not just for permits, but also the building phases. I think you’ll find that your budget will appreciate it, your timeline will appreciate it, and it’ll work better for you. A lot people say, hey, we’ll just design our home and build it as we go. It’s kind of, I’m not sure how successful people are that just think you’re going to design a home real time, because there’s a lot of things in place.

So what we found is it’s best to take the time, like we say, do your homework upfront, to find out what your land is about the type of house you want to build any zoning restrictions, planning department restrictions, building department ideas, homeowners associations whatever it may be so that we can help you actually develop a set of plans that make sense we don’t look at the big challenges being the building department they’re an important part in obtaining a permit because a lot of building departments don’t ask the right questions or don’t have detailed enough questions to go through so if you’re building for some building department developing a set of plans only for the permit In some of these areas, it’s still very open-ended as to what your house is going to look like.  There’s building departments that don’t ask for sections. They don’t ask for electrical layouts.  They don’t even ask you where your septic’s going to be.  So I guess they think someone’s just going to go out there, dig a hole, put a septic in and hope your house ends up on the right piece of land.  So there’s a lot of details that we found.  The better you have it, it in a sense gives our customer more ammunition to understand their project to properly budget it, to properly schedule, and the most important thing, communicate with building departments themselves, any financing sources, their sub-contractors, and with owner builders, a lot of friends and family are helping, so that it’s clear what’s to be done. Instead of saying, hey, just give me a big bedroom, it’s defined on the plans what a big bedroom is, where the windows are, where the doors are, how tall the concept of just designing a home and kind of building it on the fly is probably gonna end up being very aggravating for people. So we think it’s better to plan it out so everyone knows what’s going on and it’s just easier.

Interviewer: Yeah and then no pun intended you think it’s easier to plan it out so let’s continue with the basically the plan structures that you guys offer and let’s go with structural plans. Run that down for us. How does landmark, home and land company help the customer, you know, develop structural plans. 

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s kind of interesting. First is you do the architectural plan. So you do the design. You do the design of the home. So you know what the outside looks like, the foundations like, the roof is like, sections are like cutaways through a home, like a slice through it so you could see where ceiling heights are, our floor systems work, how the look of the house. The floor plan show the inside, the exterior elevation show the outside, roof plan gives more details on a roof and a foundation plan shows how the home is going to be supported, the attachment to the ground.

The structural component of it is in a sense what’s holding it up. Where are there beams? Where are there posts? Where are there headers? Where are there sheer walls? You know different details like that so that you can justify how is. Now both of these are interesting because it’s the level of detail. Some building departments don’t ask for structural details. They may ask for architectural details. Others may ask for basic structural details saying hey how big is a beam? How big is a post? You know is it a four by four? Is it a six by six? Others get a lot more complicated and need a licensed structural engineer to actually go through and do beam calculations shear wall calculations justify the connections and what you’ll generally find is as you get to higher wind speeds like hurricane areas or higher wind speeds in mountain areas higher snow loads earthquake conditions expansive soil conditions or different soil conditions is when the building departments were requested but yes there are building departments out there even in these areas that do not ask for complete structural design.  They just figure somehow it’ll get worked out on site.  And if their inspector seems to see an issue, he’ll just have you change it on site. To us, it’s kind of weird to build it and then have them say, hey, that’s not right, let’s rebuild it.  Why not design it upfront?  So we can work in whatever condition someone is, their building department or their choice of design level. 

But so we can go through, simple designs for simple homes but if it gets to be a more complex home even though the building department may not ask for engineered plans if you have a house with 20 foot walls something needs to be done there because a lot of people think it’s like hey but we don’t have a big snow load what’s the issue well you’re in a seismic zone so the home may shake or there’s wind mm-hmm so if you take a 20 foot wall 20 foot tall wall with a lot of in it. There’s not a lot of structural components. So in strong winds that wind can kind of flex or the wall can kind of flex. So we’re a believer in making sure the design is right. It’s better to take the time upfront to design it right than it is to build something and then later find out that you’ve got cracks in walls or sagging beams. So the architectural plans are done first, the structural plans follow. So the architectural plan is more look. What’s it looking like? How big are the rooms? How tall are the ceilings?  Where are their cathedral ceilings? Is it a basement? Is there a crawl space? A slab? Or is it a house on piers? The structural plans explain how it stands up. It’s kind of cool stuff.

Interviewer: Yeah and speaking of cool stuff, so let’s move on to site plans. Explain what site plans are as opposed to any architectural plans or whatever and explain also how landmark helps develop site plans?

Steve Tuma: Well the site plan is basically a bird’s-eye view of your lot. So for simplicity purposes let’s just say you had a 100 foot by 100 foot lot. You know whether it’s rural or in a city type of a situation the site plans the building department and planning and zoning may ask for where the set the building setbacks. So your front setback might be 20 feet the rear setbacks might be 20 so that gives a kind of a building potential building envelope so if you have a hundred feet wide you take five off each side that’s ten feet of a hundred feet so you have a 90 foot wide footprint if it’s a hundred deep and you have 20 foot setback on the front and 20 on the back you’re taking 40 off so you’ve got 60 so you basically have a 60 by sorry 90 foot wide by 60 foot deep potential footprint they want to know where the house is distance to the lot lines you know where your water supply is where your sewage is where your driveways are where sidewalks are and they may get on to details of how much of the lot are you covering you know different details like that so that that’s generally the basics of what they want to know but some building departments will get a lot deeper you know do you have patios, do you have exterior decks, are there outbuildings, you know, is there a storage shed, if it’s an agricultural property, is there a chicken coop, is there a barn, or whatever it might be, a man cave, a separate building. So they just want to know what’s on the site plan so they can check for zoning, building setbacks, and also just building conditions.

Some of these can get a little more complex if you’re building say on the side of mountain there’s terrain issues topographical details are you building on a slope are you building on a flat piece of land if it is a slope how steep is it mm-hmm you know different things like that which affect you know how the house sits on there you know can you do a walkout basement is it a lookout basement is it a crawlspace so the site plan gives the people in the building department and understanding what’s going on but where it also relates to people involved with the building process sometimes people look at it your cement contractor will likely go to the land but if he had a site plan you could send him the complete set of plans he could he could plan out hey this is where the cement trucks can go this is where we can stage things the site plans also help builders understand okay when we deliver the materials how the truck can get in there where their crew needs to be and kind of kind of get an understanding what’s going on other site plans can get very complex with landscaping details lot coverage details and like I say topographical details, drainage plans, different things like that. 

At a certain point, you have to get a licensed civil engineer to come in and take care of it.  So a lot of it depends on how deep the building the department is requesting. And sometimes even if the building department doesn’t request details, it’s just smart to have on there because we’ll need to know the topographical details to see what your foundation’s like.  So it kind of ties together. so for example like topographical details which are basically showing you know is there a slope to the land is the land flat that that’ll affect your foundation so if you have a if you’re building on a slope piece of land you might have a walkout basement well that would have a complete different structure that would be a different architectural design than if you had a flat piece of land with a basement right so that that can affect the structural thing. So they kind of work together and in general, you want to make sure the foundation and the house works on the site and move forward through the processes. So site plans are generally done.

We have an understanding of the site conditions at the beginning of a project, but information may become available as we move along with the plans or more detailed information.  So a customer may start out saying, Steve, I have a slope and I went out there and then the house is 40 feet deep there was a six foot drop from the front to the back now maybe later their foundation guy comes in or a surveyor comes in and says hey that’s not a six foot drop it’s a six and a half foot drop and then we can adjust so it’s all stuff that kind of works hand in hand it’s interesting stuff and again if someone hasn’t really worked with it can give the appearance of being confusing but what we like to do is when a customer’s that is talk specifics on their project. So then we can explain to them hey this is this is how you know a good foundation would be for your type of land.

These are you know an architectural design that that would be good for your type of land and we can help people whittle down. We’re not going to tell people the house that they should build. We’re going to work with the ideas that they have and then you know work at work at so that it does work the land. Sure.

Interviewer: Now something you guys list on the website is energy calculations and I know people are confused by that or who even knows what that is. It sounds complex. Is it really complex?

Steve Tuma: And yeah just kind of give us a rundown on what developing energy calculations is all about. Well in most parts of the country, most states, there’s a there’s a process where they just go through, generally called res check, or an IECC, where they’ll go through and say, hey, the house is to comply.  And it’s a calculation that our designers can do. And they basically look at the zone where the home is being built, and then what’s necessary for the house to comply.  How much insulation needs to be in the roof, the walls, the floor, foundation, the energy efficiency of windows and doors and things like that. Got it. So our designers are very good at calculating that out. 

A lot of places don’t ask for energy calculations.  It’s something that we provide as our service because we think it’s important. I think that energy bill comes every month and it’s probably not the most, it’s probably not the favorite piece of mail that people get.  But the point about it is if you’re gonna do, if you’re gonna insulate your house, do it right.  So you’re getting something effective out of it. There’s a lot of stories people will say well the code in the areas You have to have an R19 wall And I’m like, I don’t know that that’s necessarily the case. It might be the common knowledge But if you have a big glass wall overlooking, you know Your favorite backyard or meadow That glass isn’t an R19. So it’s not a nature of the wall has to be it’s the It’s the home as a unified object. So if you have an area with weaker insulation, say a glass wall which is essentially our values are so low, it’s little in relation to a studded wall with insulation, they might have you beef up, you know, add more  insulation in the roof or other walls or get a better window to have it. So we can work through those details and it’s important that people understand it so that they get the right window, the right furnace, the right type of insulation there.  But it’s easy to understand once you see the form. Now the other side of that are states that are getting a little bit more complex. 

California for example, you essentially have to build a net zero home. So the orientation to the sun, the efficiency and type of the furnace. Do you have duct work? Where’s the insulation? Your hot water heater? Your furnace? What are the fuels? And then the solar requirements.  So, it gets a little more complex but again, we have geniuses that work on all these things so that they come up with a simple printed report and in the areas where it’s more complex, it’s actually registered with the state and they’ll have guidelines and in some case some deeper inspections to make sure it’s installed right.  I’ll take a little side diversion that we’ve spoken about. Energy calculations are good. 

That’s the theory of what you should have in your house.  Making sure the items are installed properly is the key to it. Sure. So for the simplest idea of that is if you have a piece of insulation say an R-19 which would typically go into a two by six studded wall that has to be installed properly because the insulation is made up of the materials with a lot of air space which limit the transfer of heat or cold. If you compress that insulation, you’re, you’re removing some of the air spaces, which then don’t allow it to perform as well. So it’s the proper, it’s a kind of a tongue twister, the proper installation of your insulation is something that that needs to happen. So people can put duct work in if it leaks like crazy, you know, right? Yeah, this is another topic. I’m talking about insulation, but now the duct work off of a heat system, if your ducts leak you could be losing 25% of your heat or cooled air just in the channeling of the ducts to your house. Sure. Or through your house. So people you know people don’t always sit there and at a cocktail party say hey man I got the coolest furnace you know it’s doing this and you know there’s less than 5% leakage.

Generally they’re talking about, you know, their fireplaces or the family room or the garage or their big, you know, entertainment area in the basement. But the energy is something that we can get all the details so someone can work to comply and, and go to just be more energy efficient and have it more affordable to, to run your home. So again, it varies by what is done in each area. And some of like California are getting more and more strict and the areas that are more and more strict they’re not just hitting on the calculation they’re hitting on the verification that it’s Installed properly. Got it. So that that’s a key you want to make sure that someone’s doing it. So I’ve run into situations where people say hey son I’ve been doing this for 40 years what are you gonna tell me? Maybe like well the code changed last year are you installing it properly?

If you installed it improperly for the last 40 years on this project you need to do it right you know and that that’s the thing so just because someone’s been doing it forever doesn’t mean that they’re doing it right so you want to make sure that people do duck leak you make sure that there aren’t duck leaks they can test for that make sure the insulation is installed properly and kind of go from there and we can give them guidance on that but there’s also like I say it’s not just insulation it’s not just duct work it’s a proper installation it’s the right hot water heating systems, a lot more places are going to the instantaneous. And then also, more energy efficient furnaces, and then also the use of solar. So it’s pretty deep. And if people want to geek out on it, this is one of those really interesting things, where it can it can go on and on. You know, sometimes it’s simple stuff, like some places, and I’m sure people have seen us, you know, someone’s there, they, they frame up a house, the plumber comes in, he a hole through a wall for a spigot or an electrician cuts a hole for an outdoor electric socket and they don’t put caulking around it.

Right. You know to stop the air infiltration.  So yeah it’s one of those things people don’t pay a lot of attention to but every time they get the monthly bill for utility they get reminded about it.

Interviewer: Yeah it’s very involved but it’s also something that yeah everyone who’s planning on building a home should keep an eye out and You know, it just everything is let’s stick with design a little bit because everything is sort of it all comes back to the initial design So let’s talk about the Landmark Home and Land Compay offering plumbing electrical and heating design And that’s a whole another design aspect in on in itself. I would imagine.

Steve Tuma: Yes it is Plumbing, electrical and heating design is getting to be more and more interesting. Now, most places plumbing, they just want to know where the water supply lines come in, where hot and cold goes and drainage line goes, where toilets are, where sinks are, where spigots are.

That’s relatively simple and straightforward. Sometimes building departments will ask for different individual details which we can take care of.  Electrical design, kind of like plumbing, is a relatively simple project that we take care of. It’s simple for us because we do it so much and it shows where electric sockets are, where switches are, any typical lighting for codes. But some building departments get a little deeper. They want to know the size of wires or other separate circuits and say appliances in the kitchen or islands or things like that. Other times, customers will have special requests. We’ve helped a lot of people, you know, car guys, they have a big garage where they restore cars or they like working on their own cars or, you know, father son projects or father daughter projects on, you know, restoring the old truck where they’ll need special circuits or in some places even special computer circuits, you know, if people want certain cables. So we can work with those details as well, as well as more day.

Sometimes people want to detail out hey I want a ceiling fan here, I want a ceiling fan here, I need extra ventilation. And in some cases the electrical plan is tied to the energy calculation because the energy calculations may dictate recirculating fans for the house. Whole home fans so that there’s certain amount of air exchanges in the house. So that’s so we can work with it but most people 95 percent are typical layouts showing where the electric sockets are where the switches are where lights are things like that it works but if someone’s building department or their individual desire to have extremely complete plans we can do it most homes are 200 amps at that case generally they don’t need electrical engineering if they get above 200 amps some building departments will ask for actual electrical engineering load  calculations and other details which we can do.

Now the one which is getting to be more and more popular is actual heating design because a lot of people say well you know I’ve been building for 30 years and I always put 100,000 BTU furnace in a house. Well 30 years ago people weren’t insulating houses the way they are. They didn’t have the better performing windows as they do today. So sometimes if you have too big of a furnace you’re going to be wasting fuel. So actually a lot of these bigger homes need smaller furnaces because they’re not losing the heat or the air the cool as they would have 30 or 40 years ago. So sometimes the building department will just ask us hey where do you want the furnace you know where do you want the hot water heater. Other customers will ask us to go through and actually do a manual J.S. manuals J.S. and D. which are heat locks calculations, sizing of the furnace and duct layouts and in some cases actual register design as well to make sure that the air circulates properly. So what that is, is a justification of the heat design based on the energy calculation. So they’ll go through and say hey here’s house of a certain size it’s in this type of a climate you know whether it’s hot cold moderate and they’ll figure out the heat loss it’ll have and then they’ll will design specifically the exact furnace and air conditioning system that are there now what’s really cool is you know technologies  evolving and these mini split systems are coming out that are sometimes easier and more affordable for people to install and it also allows for easier zone heating and cooling.  So we could work with the mini-split systems as well, air pumps, whatever might be typical in the area.

We also are working with people that are going off-grid. Even so, sometimes, even though the customer wants to build off-grid, sometimes the building department says, well, you still gotta stay a little. You still have to have a heat system to keep a house to a certain temperature under certain conditions. So we can work with people through those different details. It’s pretty interesting. Another thing on heating is people with wood stoves and fireplaces.  You know, what wood stove are they using? What fireplace are they using?  How does it fit in there?  How does it need to be ducted? What types of clearance are there? So there’s a lot of details that we need to look at. And we can help people with it. And we’re glad to explain it with them as well.

Interviewer: It’s a lot to remember, so it’s nice to know that your Landmark Home and Land Compay’s a phone call away because there’s a lot to building and it’s not daunting. It’s actually sounds like it could be a lot of fun in a lot of ways, but it’s just nice to know that you guys are a phone call away to help out with this stuff.

Steve Tuma: The key to it is when I start working with people, they have my direct cell phone, so it’s also a phone call that’s answered. For some reason, I’m on voicemail, you get my voicemail, I’ll call right away. And get you taken care of. So it’s the customer service that allows a customer to keep on moving forward and understand their project. That’s the key element.

Interviewer: Right. And you guys talk about coordination with civil engineers. Tell us about that process.

Steve Tuma: That’s happening more and more. Basically flood situations, drainage situations, grade situations. So you know it seems now that we’ve just got a lot more situations where you hear more about natural disasters. I don’t know if they’re happening more, their internet just spreads it quicker. But the point is there’s floods. So someone might go through and say, ah, you know, it’s a hundred year flood zone. This never happens. Well, there’s a lot of places where there’s been hundred year floods every couple of years. So what people want to do is make sure that their house is positioned properly. First, there’s a variety of different situations, floods, storm surges, and then different situations like, can a fire truck get in the driveway?  You know, just working on things.

If you’ve got a more complex piece of land, say on the side of a hill, in any mountain range, how does the house sit on there? How is the driveway going to get up there? Where’s the septic going to be? How are the utilities going to get in? So it’s just kind of engineering the land so the house can be usable. sure you can’t just always take a piece of land and stick a house on it and think that it’s just going to naturally work maybe on a flat piece of land with a simple design it would work but as your land gets more intricate whether it’s in hurricane zones flood zones storm surges mountainsides different communities that have you know control more of their drainage situations that that will work now this is one thing which is interesting we were working it working in a very nice beach community in Southern California and in those cases the we had to work with different things hardscape which you know in a simplicity is like a cement patio where that actually helps because it’s not something that people water and introduce water to sure so then also if people so by working with that you need someone to do the calculation to say hey under a big rain what are the conditions hey if this is um if this is landscape land that’s going to have water what’s happening with that water that’s there so that water from this house doesn’t go into the neighbors the neighbor’s property so there there’s a lot of uh a lot of cool situations where the civil engineering really helps put it together everyone can say You know everyone knows a friend that whose house was fine up until the neighbor next door built a house And then suddenly a puddle ended up in their yard It’s to avoid things like that sure but also make sure you can easily get in and out of your driveway.

You know make sure that Emergency vehicles can access it make sure it’s reasonable You know where are the utilities and it places with people with pools?  They make sure drainage is right you know make sure you got patios so that you don’t design something where say you had a beautiful home with a cement patio in the back and then you know the husband has his man cave with a car with more cement patio and then you find under a big rain that all the cement the water doesn’t go through the cement it flows over the cement and find out that you created a funnel in your yard right so it’s a lot of that just working with it to make sure it works now like I say some areas they don’t even care about it they’re like oh the contractor will figure it out he’ll put the slab in the right place and maybe that’ll work other places are very specific and knowing that the exact design is there and some of these that we’re working on and some of these areas that it’s pretty interesting to see what’s going on we have one project in southern California right now where the nature of the road conditions the roads that were planted create essentially a pond at an intersection right where one of our customers houses is. Right. So someone says in southern California that doesn’t rain there.

Well there’s mega rains and storms that can come through there and every once in a while they do it. So it’s better to know before you get into the project that there’s one of these flooding areas that’s created by the nature of the road that’s there. So it’s pretty cool. Again we don’t want to scare people with this. It’s just the nature of the project. If your building department requires or you want to get it done we you would get your own civil engineer but we work with them with the plans to kind of work together to make sure the house fits on the land for the for the proper design more and more places are becoming concerned with civil engineer mainly we’re big mountains mm-hmm or you know parts of California Washington State and occasionally on the East Coast you were we’re seeing some states that are now adopting it. And then these grading and drainage plans, we’re also starting to see more of that in Florida because of the storm surges. After each hurricane comes through, a little bit more data has changed. So just because someone told you that 10 years ago base flood elevation is 10 feet in an area, FEMA could have changed it. Now it’s 12 feet. So it’s stuff where you want to have accurate information.

Interviewer: It sounds like Landmark Home and Land Compay is really in like helping the customer just to review the building department requirements I mean that that could be a daunting task I’m sure it’s nice to have you a phone call away again you know.

Steve Tuma: Right but it’s not just the building department because they don’t cover all the things so the goal is yes the goal is to have an accurate set of plans for building but the building department doesn’t guarantee that their check is sensible mm-hmm for the land so that that’s why we have the capability of looking at the project. What a lot of people don’t understand is you can have someone draw a set of plans. You know some people have a son or friend or neighbor some associate somehow that for five hundred dollars will draw a set of plans and the customers think all plans are the same.

That’s kind of like saying every chicken sandwich in America is the same. It’s just a piece of chicken on a bun. It’s not the case. So that’s why going through with Landmark, we help with the plans to work so that the home fits on the land. It’s not just a panelization service saying, hey, here’s your panelized home. Hope it goes together and hope it doesn’t flood and hope your driveway works and hope your energy codes work. And by the way, you have to get your own structural engineer and you have to do your own energy calculation. It becomes a little bit of spider’s web there where you can get caught so it’s good to have a complete understanding and like I say we answer the phone we’ll talk to you we’ll spend the time to explain to you what the process would be for the best design possibilities so that you end up with a well-designed home you don’t want to have a beautiful home and then find out your basement floods.

Interviewer: Right so they’re acting you guys are there to do basically that building department checklist and make sure that you go by one by one of what the customers’ needs are going to be regarding plans and how the building department looks into those.

Steve Tuma: So that’s right project specific. Right yeah. Like your house on your piece of land. You know so it’s the building department requirements but checklist is interesting because they typically have some building departments most of them will have a checklist of what they want on the plans. But what’s interesting about it some of these building departments aren’t as organized as you would believe they are or they should be. Right. So some of them won’t even pay attention to their checklist. Some of them will be very specific and on top of it and organized. Others will give you a checklist. You turn your plans in and they may have a follow-up checklist saying hey we need clarification on this and that which is fine. If that that shows up it’s common. We can do those changes and turn it in. Generally after you do that they give you a permit but we are running into more building departments that will continuously have a new checklist because for some reason, they don’t have an ability to look at the set of plans up front and do it.

They do pieces here and pieces here and bring this out and bring that out and a second checklist could have items that were never even on the first checklist. So, those are things that we can deal with and a lot of people get intimidated by that. Well, it’s our game. It’s what we deal with every day. So, Chances are what your building department is asking for, even though it might sound like some alien language to you, chances are we’ve seen it and we can get it taken care of. So that’s what we do is we look at the building department checklist to see what’s required, make sure the plan set’s complete, but also have our own details on the plans that we know are of essence to building the house properly. So it’s not just a matter of make sure the building department’s right, make sure the plan set is right so your contractors understand it. Right. So that’s why you want to do it. Planning the home is the most important thing. Make sure the house fits on the land. Make sure the foundation’s right. It avoids changes during the building process. It avoids hurting your budget. It avoids hurting your schedule. It just gets rid of headaches. And that’s what we do. So you got to watch out when someone says hey I bought this set of plans. You know my neighbor who’s the best guy on earth and planning is you know put it together. Or hey I got it from this plan service they told me I could build from them, and I’m like, well, you might be able to build, but chances are it needs a lot more detailing to apply for your project, your building department, and get that taken care of. And that’s what we do. We put a reality check of the dream of drawing to how does it actually get built.

Interviewer: Yeah. There’s something on the website where you guys offer the panelized package to match the approved plans. And it seems to me like that’s pretty cut and dry, but there’s got to be more it than that. So explain to that what that what that service is.

Steve Tuma: It sounds weird, right? It’s like why wouldn’t someone send a panelized home that matches the approved plan? Right. Well, if they didn’t pay attention to the panel, if they didn’t do the plans, if they didn’t do the plans accurately, if they weren’t involved with the plan check, they may not even know it’s approved. they might it and this happens it’s as weird as it may be people will buy material lists or different packages that are for a house of what that vendor chooses to sell you uh-huh right okay so there’s a difference of what’s designed what fits on your land what meets energy codes what’s right for your land what you want what your building department is approved compared to what a supplier will choose to deliver. There’s a lot of work to be done on energy code, structural design, and architectural codes. People don’t want to go through the work. That’s our forte. That’s what we do. That’s where we’re very good at figuring it out. So where it helps the owner-builder is say that there’s ten steps to getting, you know, something approved. There’s actually way more. I’m just using that for an example. There’s a confidence that what’s drawn gets approved by the building department, the budgets will send the matching panelized package so that they don’t go through and say hey why did this change hey I wanted a two-car garage you but only one was there right we do the plans make sure it’s built through the process of designing developing the permit plans in the back we’re working with a production facility and make sure trusses are built right idroids layouts are right. Bean positioning is right.

The connections are there. And that is the key element. It is an incredible amount of work to make sure that the right materials show up for your approved plans, compared to some people that might be like, well, let’s just get a bunch of materials out there and see what else we need. Well, that’s a way to get into cost overruns, frustration, and breaking your schedule. It’s aggravating. It’s stupid. It’s all controllable up front, but people don’t want to spend the time to plan it out properly up front. And that’s what we do.

Interviewer: Right. So you guys offer a complete and accurate set of building plans, of course, but how does that lead into like the basics, like easier permitting and building and inspection phases with, you know, unified plans that work for the permitting and the building of the actual house?

Steve Tuma: Where it’s easier as a lot of people don’t realize this but they think hey you go to someone that’s a quote pro in the business you think that they’re doing a complete set of plans okay kind of kind of like a doctor you go there and you say hey my knee hurts and then he says well take an aspirin and see what it’s like tomorrow another doctor will like look at your knee and wonder what’s going on and say, hey, your knee isn’t working right or you’re old or weight or whatever conditions are there. Someone else will go back and say, hey, what were you doing that created? So it’s a different level of knowledge and caring to get it taken care of. So a good accurate set of plans with a building department that’s paying attention will be easier for the plan checker to understand and raise less questions. So they can tell that, hey, complying with their codes the way they enforce them.

Their interpretation of what they believe they need to issue a permit. Where it goes through in building is there aren’t any loose ends. Sure. Okay we’ve gotten plans and we’ve worked with different customers that say well you know my cousin’s a builder he’ll just make that work and I’m like well I’m sure he can make that work but what’s the end result going to be? Is it going to be what you want? You know, and the people say, well, he’s been doing it for 20 or 30 years. I’m like, that’s great. But don’t you want to build a house that you want and understand where your cathedral ceiling is, how big your window is, how big your garage is and avoid that. So by planning it upfront and getting through all of it, there’s less changes through there, less what ifs. And the funny thing about this, all these what ifs come up five and six o’clock on Friday before a holiday. Right. It’s just annoying. Take the time up front to build it and then you avoid the issues. People say home building is stressful and yes it can be. But how much of that stress is because people aren’t paying attention up front? Doing the job right to properly design and specify the home on a piece of paper, get it approved and build it compared to saying, oh we’ll just deal with that later. That’s kicking the can down the road and it is going to lead to a bigger headache. So, what ends up happening is when you have an accurate set of plans, permitting is easier, the building phases are easier, and then when we build what’s approved on the plans, you don’t run into as many inspection issues. If someone’s out there just haphazardly saying, I’m going to add a window, I’m going to move a door, I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that, well, that can affect a lot of the structural components. So if you’re in an area where building inspectors pay attention, and most of them do, they’re going to say, hey, your shear wall is affected. You proved a 3 by 5 window. You now have a 20 foot by 10 foot nano wall, one of those big accordion walls.

The shear structure is there. What about the size of your head or what about the wind loads against it? It creates issues. So someone might say, hey, the inspector is being a jerk. Well, is the inspector being a jerk or is he avoiding the problem? Now, I don’t want to sit here and say inspectors are good and bad. But the point is, by having a well-designed home, a good execution of that with the right panelized package that we supply, there’s less of a chance of issues like this arising where someone says, hey, what if, what if, what if. So that’s what it is. It’s the unified plans project that what is on the plans and gets approved by the building department, the materials we supply are going to match that. Sure. Yeah. So it’s, you know, it’s going to be a situation where it just makes the whole process easier. And it’s not just the ease, it’s staying on schedule, staying and, you know, working and staying in your budget and just avoiding aggravation.

Interviewer: Yeah. This may sound like a dumb question but, you know, you know, on the website it talks about how Landmark Home and Land company offers a complete and accurate set of building plans and a clear and accurate set of assembly plans. What is the difference between a building plan and an assembly plan? I’m curious.

Steve Tuma: Well the building plans are like a complete setup. The architectural, structural plans, electrical plans. So let’s just say an electrician he could look at the electrical layout and go okay now I know where the sockets are now I know where you know the ceiling fans are, any computer cabling, you know, any special circuits that need to be in a home. A plumber knows where the toilets are, you know, where the sinks are. The foundation guy knows the size of the foundation, the dimensions of the details of the foundation to build. So that would encompass the building plans.

The clear and accurate set of assembly plans is the assembly of the panelized package. Where does each wall panel go? Where does each truss go? Where do the beams go? The puzzle pieces of actually building the house. Yeah in a sense puzzle piece is an easy way to put it but they usually don’t give you the answer in puzzles. So we’re kind of saying you know for example let’s just say for simplicity purposes let’s just say someone had a 40-foot wall in a conventional ranch home. We might make that in a five eight-foot wall sections. So it’s start wall one, wall two, wall three. So you can go to the panels and say hey here’s wall one, wall two, wall three and you put it up. So what that does is it allows people to understand where the placement of the panels go. So it’s quicker to assemble the home. They know where each truss gets placed. There’s a detail of each truss so you see what it looks like as well as with the wall panels. So you is eight feet wide and has two windows in it. They can see that. So, that’s the key. So, the building plans are more the design for permitting and the execution of the complete building process. The assembly plans are more for the panelized package. Where do the floor joints go? Where are the beams at? Where are the wall panels? Where are the roof trusses? Details like that. And it’s very important. A lot of people don’t do it. They put stuff together and then later look at the instructions we say look at the instructions it’s right there and it just goes together fast it’s amazing you know the calls that we get from people saying man this is up I’m halfway up and they’re two days into it and they’re on a big house or the execution you know where it’s more of an assembly instead of a thinking cutting calculating it’s more of just put wall panel one up wall panel two up that’s the that that’s the key to it and those are things people don’t think about. When they call they’re like, hey I want a panelized home.

I’m talking to a stick builder. I’m thinking about going modular. Well that’s one component but what about the overall plan? You can’t just look at the tree in the forest. You got to understand what’s going on in the forest is a good relationship to it to help someone understand how the whole project is because we are providing way more than panelized homes. People find us wanting to purchase a panelized home. They buy from us and working with us because of the design the support the assembly plans the ease of executing the panelized package the panelized packages I’d like to say I don’t want to undercut it but it’s actually the easier part the designing and making sure things flow and the customer support that kind of you know is where we shine on it and I think that’s why people really under enjoy working with us because it’s not like a lumberyard where someone says, well, you ordered a two by six, we gave it to you. We tell you why the two by six is there, what it’s doing there, where it needs to be positioned and go on from there. And we also have the capability if someone needed to do a change to be able to guide them on how to properly do the change, so.

Interviewer: Well, all of this leads to one thing that I know Landmark Helm and Land Company is quite famous for, and that’s customer service. I mean, from just working with you on these podcasts, I’ve learned so much. And mostly what I’ve learned is just how knowledgeable Landmark Home and Land Company is. I mean, understanding the building codes, the permitting. You guys have 30 years of experience. That’s insane. There’s also the…

Steve Tuma: Same ownership. We founded it.

Interviewer: Right. 30 years. That’s insane. That’s great.

Steve Tuma: We broke a record a month ago, a customer from 23 years ago called up and said, Steve, remember me? I want to do it again. I’m like, yeah, Rich, what’s up? Let’s help you build another house. That’s amazing.

Interviewer: That’s amazing. Yeah, and I think that all stems from the fact that you guys, first of all, your responsiveness, your quick reaction to, you’re not famous for a lot of voicemails, you guys are there answering the phone, you resolve issues, you build relationships with your customers to allow a project to run much more smoothly, your attention to detail, that’s just something that people don’t even think about when they think about customer services. Like, it’s all the little things that help to sort of build this partnership with the owner builder and take a lot of the stress, as we were saying, out of home building. And you’ve got to be pretty proud about that.

Steve Tuma: Oh, that’s actually the fun part. In a sense, it’s, you know, we have a very strong pulse. I work with every single customer on every single project. So I have a very strong understanding of what’s going there. we don’t have 50 layers of people it’s very lean trim you know if someone calls me up and says hey Steve what about this window can I do this can I do that if I don’t have the answer I have a direct line to the designers and engineers to get an answer very quickly to see how we resolve it but a lot of it’s because we are directly involved every day with the pulse of it we don’t have big community meetings we don’t have a boardroom with 20 tables at it for people to ask questions and create confusion. It’s kind of like the buck stops here type of thing. If the customer needs something now, hopefully we’ve taken care of it upfront, so they understand it’s in the plans. But if they come up with something and say, hey, we have something happening, we’re having a kid, we suddenly need to change this family room into a fourth bedroom or a nursery that can later convert to this or hey, we bought a boat, can we change it? We have an understanding of how to get it taken care of so that when a customer calls, emails, texts, whatever it may be, we can work with them, understand the situation and get them taken care of in an accurate and effective way. I’m a consumer myself and all of us have great experiences with our cable companies or internet companies or whatever where someone says, I’ll get back with you.

A week later, you’re twiddling your thumbs after you leave five messages. No, we answer the phone. If we can’t answer right away, we’re likely on the phone with someone else and we’ll get back with you right away. We pride ourselves in communication, knowledge, responsiveness, passion, and tell you the truth, have a good time doing it. Right. It’s a lot of work. We work long hours. We do everything we can to help every single customer specifically to their problem. We want to enjoy it. It’s a two-way street. Customers want a good company, good designer, good structural engineering services. We want to know we have solid customers that are intent on building good homes. Solid homes, the best home that they can do.

Interviewer: And when you bottom-line everything, really what you’re saying, what Landmark Home and Land Compay are saying, is why should the experience of building a new home be a pain? There’s always going to be issues on any project, but why does dealing with and solving issues necessarily have to be unpleasant.

Steve Tuma: Right and the thing is you know I’ll relate it to like an internet outage that’s gonna happen but when you don’t get a call back or you get empty answers that’s when it really becomes annoying and it’s just it’s played plain stupid you know you know so what we do is we work to have a relationship with our customer to understand what’s going on what’s cool about is our understanding of details building 30 years working with owner builders working around the country and around the world is a customer may ask a question and sometimes it’s a very precise answer other times they’re asking a question because they don’t know what it leads to the domino effect of five and ten follow-up questions so we’re able to work with them to say hey you’re asking can I my driveway but I’m saying hey wait we need a grading plan can the fire department get in there is there a big boulder there you have to work around a tree are you on a hill so we need to have an understanding what’s going on so if even people that have built a long time there’s stuff that just it doesn’t hit them sure it doesn’t say doesn’t say something people send us plans for a house on a slab and they’re building on the side of a hill well you can do that but you might have to do a lot of work so is it better to do a crawl space or some type of a walkout basement so sometimes the question is there and I think what people will really appreciate is the understanding of the problem so it becomes a problem-solving situation not just an answer the question right someone says hey can I put a slab on the side of a hill in a mountain yeah well someone might take that as an answer the reality is but wait before we decide to slab what’s situation.

Is there something with the side of a hill? Can you have a building pad there? Can your driveway still access it? Why do you want a slab? Maybe a basement with different height walls is actually better. You know so there’s a lot of different situations that can go through. People say things like hey I was out with my friend and he said that I definitely have to put solar on my home and I’m building up in Humboldt County California with redwoods all over. Do I have to cut this beautiful redwood down? No. You don’t have to do that. You know someone will go through and say, hey my neighbor has a house on a slab in in Florida. Why do I have to put my house on stilts? Well that home was built in 1940. You know before they understood these flood elevation things or different situations like that where they’d be like well my neighbor was at base flood elevation of 10 feet.

Why do I have to go 12? well FEMA changed the maps FEMA changed the flood zones as they learn things so that that’s one of those things that that we can go through and also on man this is this is getting interesting you like hit a spot because this is one I can go for hours on it this is this is the reality of stuff mm-hmm we had a customer doing an exceptionally beautiful home in a very expensive piece of land in Southern California overlooking the ocean and there’s a thing called shear walls which is basically putting strength in a wall to keep the wall from racking you know being blown over but you also have to look at wind you have to look at seismic codes well there was a window that they had that was a let’s just say it was 15 feet wide and a wall that was about 25 feet wide so there’s five feet of wood on each side and then the wall in the middle well they wanted for a view for that window just to like six inches wider six inches or a foot wider well that limited the structural components to the side of the windows which then did not have enough strength to support it they had to then bring in steel framing systems so someone will say but come on Steve it’s only six inches wider well that put it beyond the limits oh right yeah so we can explain to people hey this is why it’s going on and when people understand what’s going on they appreciate it It’s the cool part of the building. People are building their own home to control the quality, know what’s going on. And it’s kind of just a cool thing they want to do. So we’re able to work with them to explain why certain situations have to be put. I could go on for hours. I don’t know.

Interviewer: Well, that’s one of the passion that you have for your business comes through when I hear you talk about like, you know, just anecdotal stuff. It’s like, wow, the guy’s really into building houses. It’s really pretty cool.

Steve Tuma: Uh this this is this we we’ve been doing this 30 years by choice because it’s fun it’s yeah it’s a job but it’s not a job as some people do it you know they say 90 some percent of America doesn’t enjoy the job we’re on the good side of that you know we enjoy it it’s kind of one of these passions and as you go through and do these different projects and understand it and truly experience it that that’s what allows us to do it where i work with every single customer on every single project and component of the project so there’s a lot of knowledge and a lot of understanding and I think that’s uh that’s a big reason why people buy it’s not just calling someone and saying hey can you deliver a pile of wood it’s how is it designed right how is it going to work right how you know how’s the process going to go how are we going to work to stay budget how are we going to keep this accurate that that’s the element of it you know like I mentioned before people come to us because the panelization but they stay because the service the knowledge the support the getting it taken care of yeah that that’s the key element we’re a partner we got your back we’re here having fun with it you know and we’re doing what we can’t avoid the pitfalls and make it an enjoyable process it’s a great experience looking back at it it’s just it’s just amazing. We’ve been doing it 30 years. It’s still cool to contact a customer when a house is being framed or done or if we have communication with them a year or two later to see how their lives have been impacted by building a home they want that they enjoy in a place where they want to be in and see how it affects people’s lives. It’s just really cool. It’s an amazing process.

Interviewer: Well great information as always and Steve before we cut you loose, as we always do, please tell the audience how best to contact Landmark Home and Land Compay if one is looking to get more info into building a new panelized prefab home.

Steve Tuma: The best way to do it is take a look at our website. We’ve got plans on there, videos, these podcasts, different details, and you can send an inquiry through there and Mike will respond to you very quickly. If you like, you’re always welcome to call in. We are real people with real knowledge that are willing to take the time to talk to you to find out exactly what your project is like and how we can work to enhance your efforts and that phone number is 800-830-9788 again it’s 800-830-9788 and Michael work with you and it once you get to a certain point I’ll become involved I’ll give you my direct cell phone number where you can communicate with me I make myself available we work and do it. The key to it is the hands-on kind of approach you know working together as partnerships to make sure it’s put together right. Yep. And enjoy it.

Interviewer: That’s the bottom line. There it is. All right so that’s gonna wrap it up for us today on the panelized prefab kit home building show. So for Steve Tuma and myself, thanks for listening and we will see you next time. Thanks Steve.

Steve Tuma: Have a great day, this was a lot of fun!

A: Utility easements grant power or water companies legal access to maintain overhead or buried infrastructure, creating strict no-build buffer zones along property boundaries. Private access easements for neighboring landlocked parcels also restrict foundation placement, requiring careful site planning to avoid building over legally protected access corridors.

A: Maximum lot coverage is a municipal zoning regulation that limits the combined surface area occupied by a home, garage, driveway, and concrete patio to a specific percentage of the total parcel, such as 30%. Cities enforce these ratios to preserve neighborhood green space and prevent excessive impervious hardscaping from flooding adjacent properties with stormwater runoff.

A: Building height measurement methods vary widely by municipality, ranging from the average height between the roof eaves and peak down to the lowest point of the ground, to the average grade across all exterior corners. In mountainous regions like Colorado, local codes often measure maximum height from the natural, undisturbed grade that existed prior to excavation rather than from the finished backfilled grade.

A: Fire departments in wildfire-prone WUI areas require dedicated access site plans showing wide driveways, vertical tree-clearance limits, and engineered turnaround areas like hammerheads for emergency vehicles. These access plans map out natural terrain obstacles like rock outcroppings and dense brush, ensuring fire trucks will not bottom out or get trapped on narrow rural roads.

A: Health departments typically require soil percolation tests to identify not only the primary absorption drain field but also a fully compliant 100% reserve area on flat, undisturbed ground. This mandated reserve zone prevents the homeowner from placing foundations, driveways, or outbuildings over land set aside for a future replacement drain field if the primary system fails.

Steve Tuma: Generally things that are common is there might be easements power easements you know you your utility company may have a power line underground or above ground where they have a right to go in there within a certain distance and maintain the lines now you would still own it but you can’t generally put build your house underneath you know right next to a power pole.

Interviewer: Hello everybody and thank you for joining us for episode 49 of the panelized Prefab kit home building show with me in studio is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company a Company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want exactly as they want nationwide and around the globe since 1993. Mr. Steve Tuma Steve. How you doing pal?

Steve Tuma: Hey life is good. We’ve got some interesting topics today I was looking at this a little different though maybe a little bit farther out than normal were items that maybe people don’t always
think about.

Interviewer: Yeah, I actually gave you a little time to let you see what I was going to actually ramble on about today instead of surprising you. So like bam, let’s throw him a curve ball. Hopefully, it makes a little bit of a difference. So today we’re going to have Steve explain some of the ups and downs, difficulties, issues, maybe some of the challenges associated with building site restrictions, something that every owner-builder has to contend with at some point in the scope of their project, and yet just another aspect of building that landmark home and land companies become expert in dealing with over the years. So Steve, to start off with, what are some of the common building setbacks owner-builders have to contend and how how can Landmark help jump these hurdles?

Steve Tuma: Well this is kind of interesting because you know there’s a variety of different restrictions on and in some places and yes there are parts in of America where there is not a building department you know so literally you can go have a piece of land dig a hole put a house in there and you know there here you go some of those areas you just go and register say you’re building others literally you dig a hole and start building a house and then there’s areas that are extremely restrictive and how you can use the land drainage situations can you park in the street can you park in the driveway you know there’s a variety of different things now a lot of people think oh some of those restrictions are good some of them think that they’re bad chances are that there’s already restrictions like some people don’t know that they’re already falling in them like in a city you can’t keep cattle in your backyard mm-hmm you don’t think of it when you’re in Manhattan or Chicago or Miami of hey, let me just bring my bovine in the backyard and you know do stuff like that So there their chances are if you’re in a place where there’s a building department there is and then it’s not always building departments. It’s zoning and sometimes it could be title restriction. So I don’t want to make get to get too complicated But with the the basic situation that we run into is some areas don’t have restrictions and some areas are very restrictive whatever the situation is for your land we can work through it to help someone understand what they are generally things that are common is there might be easements power easements you know you your utility company may have a power line underground or above ground where they have a right to go in there within a certain distance and maintain the lines sure now you would still own it but you can’t generally put build your house underneath you know right to a power pole right you know there’ll be situations like that there have been
situations where there’s minimal rights or or maybe a neighbor has a landlocked piece of land and a prior owner has given an easement across your land for them to access it those are generally all in the title you know and you can go through and see that hey the power company has this easement my neighbor has an easement on the land and generally those are all disclosed when you purchase the land so it should be available of what’s there. Then there’s sometimes homeowners or just tighter communities so homeowners associations can go through and you know be unrestricted. They might say hey you have to have earth tone colors you can’t have a neon orange house you can’t put a you can’t paint graphics on your house they may go through and say you can’t have work trucks in the house you can’t park in the for longer than a certain time.

You can’t have certain types of activities on your land, you know, whether it’s agricultural things or you can’t have a you can’t start a machine shop in your garage type of things. But then there’s also different situations that we’ve come in in different communities and different homeowners associations where they want to know and it’s also a zoning and a planning department situation where they want to know the building envelope a sense so if you had a lot that’s a hundred feet by a hundred feet you can’t fill the whole lot with a building you know you’re gonna have building setbacks where you’ve got to be so far from the front and back and say it leaves a certain say it say it leaves a building you know within the building setbacks there’s a 50 by 50 area they may say that of the complete lot square footage you can only have 30% coverage and sure yeah so if you a 10,000 square foot lot you can only cover the lot 3,000 square feet sometimes that’s with the house sometimes that’s a house patio sidewalks driveways and sometimes they do it to keep green space you know is that so then people have yards and they don’t want houses next to it other places that’s done as a result of drainage because they want to know and and in areas where there’s floods or big rains where where the water is gonna run off to they don’t want you filling your backyard with cement because then the the water doesn’t go through cement it drains off into your neighbors sure and then you flood your neighbor out so there’s there’s a there’s a lot of interesting um situations there we’ve also run into them where it kind of becomes a 3d thing it’s not just the the coverage of the land it’s up some communities don’t want you to go build up so that you block the sun into your neighbor’s That just you know, it kind of clogs the feel of the neighborhood You know when everything’s just big and there’s there’s no airflow.

There’s no space for trees. There isn’t space for You know sunlight to come through so they don’t want to create dark neighborhoods now What’s interesting on these these are generally all laid out when you purchase it and not covenants and restrictions homeowners Requirements planning departments of your community. So before you buy the land you can you can have this what’s really cool about it it’s not something where the customer has to calculate that themselves. We can help them to figure out hey what’s the you know what’s the footprint of your house, what’s the footprint of your sidewalk, your driveways and and and things like that. So it’s all stuff we can help them with and the the development of of their land. Sometimes it gets a little more complex and depending on how deep the building and planning department is we might need a civil engineer if they if they need something certified where someone’s doing some extreme calculations to make sure this works. So we’re all set up to get through this. But that’s it’s kind of interesting. It’s kind of stuff that sometimes people look at a neighborhood and say, Oh, this is nice. Look at this. There’s birds in the trees, the sun’s coming through. Well, that’s that’s likely because someone may be made an effort to restrict, you know, to restrict it so that you don’t end up with a big enclosed neighborhood that doesn’t feel like a comfortable place to be. We’ve also run into situations mainly in the Beach communities where houses are close together. So what these have done in some places is they’ve requested that we do designs that show that you can’t look from one home’s window into the neighboring home’s window. So you don’t want your family’s great room looking into your bathroom of the neighbor’s house type of thing. So we’ve done different analysis of this and that. Now the point is there’s all different types of situations we can help the customer get through it. They don’t have to sort out where their window is, you know, where their garage is.

There’s a variety of different situations. I just thought of something else. This isn’t just also land coverage. We’ve run into situations where it’s noise. Where your home cannot emit of more than 75 decibels at the lot line. Wow. So you think about that 75 decibels i think is like a typical conversation. Right. But let’s just say you had a pool there and your pool motor consist has a consistent hum. Right. That could annoy you or your neighbors. Right. Sothere’s different things like that that we can work with and it’s really interesting to see what goes on. And sometimes people would say, hey, what’s the big deal? You know, this is a little weird, but you can kind of understand what where these come through. But like i say, the big thing is, is that we can help people understand what’s going on with their land, and then how to use it and how to work around some of these details. And we’ve done it a lot. So it’s not a big deal for us to find a solution. If you’re building in one of the communities where it’s a tighter restriction, more restrictive to do it the reality is most people’s land. I would say 80 90 percent of the land there’s building setbacks you know so so you might have to be 20 feet off the front line 10 feet off the side and 20 feet off the back and that can vary by community we can work with those occasionally there’s an easement a power line easement an easement for a neighbor’s driveway whatever it is. Generally these things are are pretty simple and we deal with them every day i don’t want to scare people by getting into the deeper kind of rarer situations.

I just want to point out we’ve likely seen your situation so if you’re building in one of these more exclusive communities where there’s a lot of restrictions we probably worked with it before but if you’re working out in the country kind of in land where you know they allow you to do whateveryou want we could still work with you to develop a sensible plan to make sure that your house works well with the land so it’s a variety of different situation historic committees you know agricultural restrictions zoning setbacks planning setbacks building department setbacks easements for utilities we had one family there was a cemetery in their backyard well from way back it was a family farm and there was a little plot just a little like 20 by 20 plot that was a restriction on there because the county had rights to go in and maintain this thing. So every once in a while you get that little curveball whereyou raise your eyebrow and go, i never thought of that one. Well, we’ve run into that as well.

Interviewer: I just thought of something listening to you speak. You know, landmark not only helps customers build their new homes, you guys are good for neighborhood and community relations as well, making sure that people aren’t looking into each other’s bathrooms and stuff like that.

Steve Tuma: Yeah it’s it’s it’s uh we live in a different world and it’s it’s it’s you know it’s just hey do you want to be sitting there on your your you know your your holiday dinner and look at your neighbors uh right you know maybe if you like your neighbors you’ll do that but sometimes you know maybe uh but some people have that concern some people don’t a lot of our projects are out in the country where you know the neighbors the squirrel that runs through the yard every night or whatever it is but the the point is there’s there’s a lot of different situation oh there’s height restrictions. Uh-huh. That’s a call that an 18 foot high building but if you suddenly put that house on the side of a hill and it’s got multiple roof lines how do you calculate the height so some areas will take the average of the four corners now you know sometimes those homes have more than four corners but they’ll take the average of the four corners in relation to the peak the closest peak each one of those corners. But other communities will go through and say the height is based on the average roof height from the eve of the roof to the peak of the roof. The average height there down to the lowest point of the ground. We’ve also had situations, and this is becoming more and more common in Colorado especially, where they’re saying the height of the building is not based on the finished grade. It’s on the existing grade before anyone touched the ground. Okay. So it’s kind of unique. We even had one where the customer went out, got a surveyor and said, hey, this is your existing grade. And the county said, no, that was altered 20 years ago.

Existing grade is somewhere else. So if someone’s in one of those communities where they really get into it, it’s something that we work with upfront the design issue to make sure that the the home fits within the whole overall footprint. It’s kind of unique in situations like that and you know someone might say who cares i own the land let’s do it. Generally these are in very picturesque areas where they don’t want you blocking your neighbor’s view. Sure. Or they don’t want houses roofs peeking way above tree line so it just doesn’t look right in the in the landscape so so it’s kind of uh it’s kind of neat the way some of these communities run through now the example i just gave of you know looking back at grades 20-30 years ago that’s pretty extreme i just want to point out to people that we understand it we’ve worked through this and if they have a piece of land where this is this comes into play we’ve seen it you know we we understand the questions asked the building department maybe a local surveyor has to be brought in because a lot of these situations it’s not just the design it’s the verification at the building site that what’s being done is there so even at that point they would have to have a civil engineer come out and say hey the top of the foundation has to be here for the top of the home to be by the code so it can get pretty intricate but again that stuff that we process that we work to take care of it’s kind of like you know we kind of like everyone probably has a mobile phone. No one knows how they work. They just know they turned it on, put you know put a number in there and do it. We’re kind of the same situation where we can get it taken care of. But the nature of our business is a lot of our customers get involved with it and they enjoy seeing what’s going on with this. It’s kind of unique and someone will say well hey how complex is that? You just put my roof here and dig down. Well doesn’t always work that way because we have to make sure you can still get in your front door. Make sure the out of your garage floor is right make sure your gutters work so that’s that’s the that’s the fun and excitement we’re doing kind of in the back room as I say we’re just kind of working it out and customers may not even realize that that we’re working on those details generally they do because people that buy properties like that I I think just enjoy the uniqueness of their property and kind of enjoy the process of working through it.

Interviewer: Yeah of course now you brought up something just a few minutes ago and then we had talked about it on a previous podcast just a couple days ago, I think, but that’s the issues surrounding building in historic areas and the possibilities of running into speedbumps while you’re building. And some people may go into a neighborhood or buy a property and find out that it’s historic after they’ve bought it or something like that. But can you enlighten us as to the ins and outs of dealing with a home build in a historic district or a historic neighborhood?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it’s very interesting because historic areas can vary across the country. So generally as you get into the east coast or an oddity is more san Francisco as well, but generally more towards the east coast type of thing it’s a bigger issue where something happened at a certain point or it’s just a historic little town. So some of those can be very restrictive. You know, this is like the neighborhood where George Washington, you know hung out or something or had different activities. So some of them are can be very specific and the in the design of the house that it has to have certain features sure, others will go through and say it has to give the essence of those features but it could be modernized. So certain roof lines certain porches certain windows certain certain materials. I’ve never seen a historic district say you got to build like they did in 1820 you know just materials, you know, there’s different code safety fire issues ventilation issues things like that but that what they’ll want to do is mimic it and generally it’s the exterior only, right? So they’re not gonna say hey build build a master bedroom like back then when people had one shirt you know in your closet was three feet wide and 18 inches deep you know, they’ll allow you to have the amenities of today, it’s more a specific look. So some will get pretty deep to say we want equivalent-looking material. So even though it might be more of a man-made, more modern material, they still want to have a look. So some might say, hey, we want a wood looking siding. It can be made out of cement. They just want it to be that same type of wood.

Interviewer: So it’s keeping with the spirit of the neighborhood more than anything.

Steve Tuma: Right. It’s keeping with the spirit of it. But then we’ve seen others that are very limited in scope. They’re like, well, this was a historic area, and someone might come out and go, well, you can do this under the historic guidelines, or you can’t, or sometimes it’s more of a recommendation. But what we found is that the people that are building in these areas generally enjoy it. They’re moving into this neighborhood because they have a personal passion for it. So i haven’t really seen where these historic guidelines have been restriction. It’s been kind of more of a guideline for the person to make sure that what they’re designing is authentic. Yeah. For the area. So it’s kind of…

Interviewer: And if you’re building, if you actually buy a property in a historic area, you’re probably already aware of, you know, that’s why you’re buying it there. So it’s probably not as big an issue as people might think.

Steve Tuma: Right. You’re probably not going to go into Williamsburg, Virginia and say i want my 1950s palm springs mid-century modern, you know, driving them with my robin egg blue t-bird. You know, it’s just not, you know, people that generally don’t do that. Yeah. You know, usually the historic buffs, they’re kind of into it for what the community is made of.

Interviewer: Yeah, now i want to move on to a real sticky one, and that’s the issue of homeowners associations. And this has been an issue for and i know you’ve dealt with this a lot of course and some are good some are truly difficult to deal with but can Landmark Home and Land Company help to navigate some of those waters regarding working with homeowners associations.

Steve Tuma: Yes yes we can and it’s it’s it’s an interesting situation there because some homeowners associations are simple It’s you know you they just want to know that that home is built of a certain quality so they may or may restrict the architectural design or other features others can get very pretty specific and some of them i think they actually have rules that are nice you know in nicer neighborhoods it doesn’t necessarily mean higher dollar just people where they’re concerned they don’t want ten of the same house in a 50 home community so they want everyone to have a unique looking home so it’s kind of inviting so in some of these cases i think the issue is more that the story’s gotten around about some homeowners associations and some of them are, i’ll say, filled with interesting personalities, but it’s pretty rare that you have one that’s so unique that a customer might say, hey, these people are really being jerks. You know, generally they’ve got a set of guidelines, and you know, since we’re processing this, we understand it, we’re able to navigate what they want. But sometimes what I found, it was kind of funny.

There was a there was one this was 23 years ago and someone went through and their their homeowners associations it wasn’t written properly it said the colors of the home must be natural well that’s pretty vague well what they what this person that wrote it without understanding what they did they took natural as being earth tones mm-hmm so so they had a problem with the color that one of my customers was coming up with and i said well natural i saw a sunset last night that was bright red mm-hmm so sometimes what happens in a situation like that because as far as i know the sun and the sun sets natural it completely complied but the spirit of what they were getting at wasn’t worded right and that that’s how sometimes these go through so if it’s properly written it’ll be clear like you can have horses or you can have two horses on the property or you must have earth tones and they might give examples and you must include the colors on the plan so that people can can review it and then from there you know you you can go through now generally people aren’t wanting to do bright red houses you know they might have like an old barn red you know it’s kind of stylish but it’s it’s kind of a situation where  I’ve generally found that the homeowners associations if executed properly. And some of them do have people on the boards with attitudes. If executed properly, they’re really just trying to maintain the continuity of the community to maintain a value and a general real estate value and feel of the community. Every once in a while, you get one that’s odd. But we really haven’t run into one that’s been what I would say unreasonable in 15 or 20 years.

Interviewer: Full of Karen’s is what you’re saying.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, whatever. Whatever you want to call them it’s just just people people that are there the the situation is you do want to have a nice balanced community you know that that’s consistent with the the way that you you want to live and that you see in your in your neighborhood there are communities that there’s a couple counties and like Colorado where it’s kind of a free-for-all and those people enjoy it sure they like the little bit of wild wild west they’re and they’re able to do things. And we can work in those communities as well where it’s kind of everyone just kind of figures it out, I’ll say, there may not be a building department, the county over there might be a building department that’s very stringent, but the design of counties and how they enforce things are different. So each community, I guess you’d say there’s kind of a standard for each community. And some people like the very strict standards because then they don’t have to look over the neighbor’s fence and say hey why do you have an elephant in your backyard you know you could say hey the restriction says no animals or hey you can have two cats and two dogs you know different things like that you know if where if someone wanted to start a wild animal park you probably have to go to a totally different place right so it’s it’s easier with the enforcement on it you know in some places people want different animals they they like the ability to have a home business whether it’s you know an office thing or whether it’s a you know a mechanical shop in the back so i think what what people will find is that it it it gives the opportunity to have the continuity for what the people of the neighborhood want to be so if someone wants to be in a situation where you can’t work on your car in your own driveway they might want to work in a live in a community like that restricts that if they do want to work their car in their own driveway they should find a neighborhood.

Now what’s really interesting is way way back you could put certain restrictions on land that might still be on titles but a lot of those if they’re illegal or whatever have been erased or or in some cases the businesses are there i looked at a property once and said you can’t have a blacksmith shop okay i don’t know how many blacksmiths there are any more you know true blacksmiths i’m sure they’re there but it’s not something where each neighborhood as their own blacksmith and so it’s it’s it’s it’s kind of interesting to see the navigation so people should check that when they when they buy a piece of land to just see if there are homeowners associations that are there and and also is it recorded because sometimes there’ll be these informal things where people say oh there’s homeowners associations but it’s not recorded that could be a double-edged sword because you know people could be pushing rules that aren’t part of the community and other times you want to know you could be standing up for you know complying with a rule that really isn’t there. So so it it should be recorded. It should be on the the the deed, the title work, you know, so you know exactly what these restrictions are and we’re more than happy to if people want to get them on their land to send them to us, we’ll take a look at that we’re not lawyers, but we understand the situation of someone saying, hey, can I raise chickens here? Or can I have two chickens have my own eggs? What’s interesting is some even suburban areas are allowing chickens and beehives. Yeah, that’s interesting. I’ve read about that. Yeah, so it’s kind of sometimes things change just as the community goes, but mainly the situation is the ones that I see are more, you got to have a house of a certain size. They don’t want people putting 7,000 square foot homes up and you put a 600 square foot home up. So generally they want to have a certain architectural feel, a size, and then they want to do things to make sure it’s a quality built home. But it’s just something you have to kind of understand. It’s like kind of going to dinners. Someone might say, hey, I want to listen to music, Well, do you want classical kind of more quiet? Do you want to go to a head-banging metal restaurant, you know type of thing? So kind of same thing you just have to understand what’s going on with with your land, right?

Interviewer: I’m going through my notes here there’s i was going to talk to you about proximity and the issues of neighborhood builds and people’s privacy and but we kind of covered that at the intro, I think really well. So what about natural restrictions? Let’s move on to that. Of course, a homeowner builder will have to deal with whatever mother nature sets in his or her path rocks trees in the wrong place on the property you know things like that is that is that something that Landmark Home and Land Company can can help you sort out what? Do you need to see the property or do you how does that work?

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s kind of interesting because we we’ve we’ve run into situations where people in northern California have redwoods in their yard wow, you know mega trees we’ve run in situations where people have rock outcroppings or a pond or a seasonal drainage or stream. And then another interesting one is people building around Joshua Tree National Park. The Joshua trees are protected in certain plants. There’s also natural restrictions of you can’t really build in certain nesting seasons of raptors. Uh so if you’re if you’re in areas where um say eagles ospreys different different types of animals are you you can’t uh you can’t go and and impeed on them so the so the natural restrictions can can vary we we just ran into one a beautiful property in Colorado where they bought a piece of land and it was explained that there’s a rock out there so i’m like snooping around at google earth looking at stuff i’m like this doesn’t look like a rock this looks like a mega boulder right type of thing and after they sent pictures there there was like a little uh rock ledge right that that kind of restricted some thought oh we could just build around it well yeah how much money do you want to spend removing you know so you take that and you work through it um amazingly in some places with the WUI wildland urban interface for the fire restrictions um some fire departments need us to do a site plan. So a building and zoning department will have a site plan saying hey where’s your house where’s your driveway, are you within building setbacks but a lot of these fire departments in these remote areas you know if there’s a fire call they pull it up and they’re like okay this is a two-acre property there’s a driveway to the right the house is centered in the back but over to the left there’s a bunch of bushes we can’t pass through and there’s big boulders so they can get a plan of action of how they get in so you know that gets into the fire design and in certain areas mainly west coast of make sure a fire truck can get in there so someone you know so they’ll have hammerheads or different things where a fire truck can get in and turn around and come back so some of these things as communities become more aware of the services that they have to provide to their do the people that live there.

Uh, the building department wants to know, you know, do you have a driveway where a fire truck can’t get in because it’s curved, it’s up and down. It’ll bottom out tree overhangs, uh, rocks, you know, what, whatever it may be. So it’s a, it’s, it’s, it’s, you know, a lot of people might say, hey, why is Big Brother doing all this stuff? And I don’t know why they do it. You know, some of it you could see is logical. Some of it, someone may see it as imposing. The bottom line is we understand it so we can work through. Doesn’t have to be a big issue that there’s a big boulder in your yard and you can’t build on it well we just have to reposition the house or the driveway or work with certain things to.. to make sure that it that it works yeah also man hey this is another one certain states have imposed that you must have solar on your house oh really yeah California being one specifically there I shouldn’t say must but generally the energy codes dictate almost 100% of the time that you must have solar to have essentially a net zero house. So your house in theory develops the power it will need over the course of a year. So someone goes through and says, but i live up in Humboldt county, i’m going to cut down this thousand year old tree to have a solar panel. Well, in those cases, you can be, you can work around it and likely they’re not to say, hey, cut down three huge redwoods so that you can put a solar panel and be green. Those redwoods are probably way more green than the solar panels. So there’s a lot of different situations that can work out there. And it’s pretty interesting.

Interviewer: Yeah. It seems to me like it’s just a whole study into itself about building in natural areas like that. Here’s something that’d be important to know when you ‘rebuilding in areas, say, where let’s say city sewer and water supplies are not available on your property at all. I mean, how does Landmark Home and Land Company deal with things like septic systems, water supplies, et cetera? Is that simply a part of the early planning and design phase of the project, or is it dealt with at a later time, or how does that work?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it can become, it’s best to know all the information up front as much as possible. Generally, if people buy a piece of land, they’ll know if municipal water and or sewage is available. If not, they might have to go to a well. It could be a private well, it could be a community well, or in the case of sewage systems, it could be a septic system or some type of community sewage system. So these are all things that generally work. Now, if it’s a water line, like a municipal water line or sewer line, that’s usually a little more clear cut. People just have to know where the connection is. Because sometimes someone will use the word like, sewer is available. Well, what does that mean? That the main is in front of your lot or it’s a half block away. So available, you got to understand what’s going on there. That can be checked with the public works departments and the same thing with water. Now where septic becomes a little interesting, it depends on the types of soils and the terrain of the land. So generally septic systems, someone will need the soil scientist to go out, take a boring, and then make a recommendations to the type of soils that are there and the type of septic system that’ll work. Now with sewers, it’s pretty clean. A line comes from the sewer main to the house.

It’s pretty clean. A septic will take more area. So depending upon the nature of the land, it may restrict where you put the house. Or we might have to jockey things around. It isn’t as big of a deal as it as it may appear to someone that’s never done it before generally the the soil scientists have an understanding where the house would go but we tell people if you haven’t done let’s let’s kind of get a house design do a site plan and then you know have have the person doing the soil test look at to say hey the house is gonna be here what’s the optimal place for the septic if for some reason it’s really restrictive? You know maybe they’d have to move the house but that’s just something tha tthat you work out i would say nine out of ten tests or 95 out of 100 or go go pretty smooth with without big issues right what they are doing in a lot of places is they’re asking for reserve systems or reserve space if for some reason the the initial system were to fail in the future there there’s another another place to use so septic systems can sometimes like if building on the side of a hill you know generally they’re not in sloped lands you have to have a little flat area so there’s a there’s a lot of stuff that that can be worked out but again we’ve seen it before we understand what needs to be done we can work with their designers to it to get that worked out but that’s all of it that’s it’s also the same situation with electric or even gas you know sometimes people can’t get natural gas piped in so they have to use propane or or it’s an electric house so it’s the same on an understanding where the power line comes in. But you know these are all just typical things in a project. It’s a daily activity for us.

Interviewer: It’s day to day. It’s routine. Yeah. Well interesting. A lot of valuable information today. I always like that when we finish a show and it’s just full of things that I think the listeners are going to benefit from hearing. So there it is. Well thanks again Steve and thanks to all of you for listening to The Panelized Prefab Home Kit Building Show. But before we go Steve, let the listeners know how to find out more about your company Landmark Home and Land Company.

Steve Tuma: The best thing to do is look us upon the website because it’s available anytime on your phone or on your computer. LHLC. Com, that’s basically the initials of Landmark Home and Land Company.  LHLC.COM  You can also look at the website, look at plans, see videos, comments, and you could put an inquiry through there or if you’d like to just make a call you’ll first talk to Mike at 800-830-9788. You can check us out there. We also have a Facebook page and Instagram page but that’s basically the best thing to do is take a look at the website. The website has a lot of information but we available to talk everyone’s project is different everyone every customer has different concerns about what they like to see in their home and you know maybe they have opinions of how it needs to be built or they’re at a different stage of the process so we’re more than happy to talk in detail with people about you know their overall project and this isn’t necessarily just restricted to if you have land if you’re thinking of building in a year too. And you just want to talk and get some ideas and kind of you know fine-tune the direction and method of moving forward. We’re here to help as well. So we want to help people get their project lined up properly. The work that you do upfront and proper design, understanding of your project, minimize limiting factors. It’s just easier through the actual execution, budgeting and building of the home. So it’s kind of fun and our customers seem to enjoy it. They’ve chosen to build their own home, save the money and control their project. It’s pretty cool.

Interviewer: Well fantastic. Again everyone, you’ve been listening to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show and Steve’s right, it has been fun as always. So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great rest of your day and we will see you next time. Thanks Steve.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, thank you. This was fun. It was an interesting one.

In this episode, we explore how different building sites—ranging from flat parcels and sloped mountain bluffs to urban infill lots and oceanfront properties—directly impact custom home design, engineering, and construction costs. Drawing from over three decades of nationwide experience, Steve explains the hidden challenges beneath the ground, including subsurface soil conditions, historic wetland fill, utility access, and geotechnical soil reports. The conversation details how zoning restrictions, property setbacks, easements, building height limits, view-corridor preservation, and base flood elevations influence foundation engineering and overall project budgets, demonstrating how proper site planning helps owner-builders avoid costly construction surprises.

A: Building on a level lot allows excavators and concrete crews to install uniform foundation wall heights, consistent footing sizes, and standard slab or basement depths. In contrast, sloped or hillside properties require multi-tiered stepped foundations, variable wall heights, custom retaining systems, and specialized civil engineering to manage structural stability and drainage.

A: Many rural and agricultural fields contain ancient ponds or wetlands that were filled with loose soil decades ago to create flat farmland. Excavating on these parcels without prior soil testing can expose deep layers of unstable organic muck, requiring expensive engineering retrofits such as over-excavation or deepening basement walls down to solid load-bearing ground.

A: Coastal building codes and FEMA flood maps mandate that a home’s lowest finished living floor sit at or above the designated base flood elevation. If the natural building site sits below this level, the house must be engineered on elevated concrete piers or reinforced pilings with lower-level breakaway walls to withstand storm surges and secure affordable flood insurance.

A: Depending on municipal zoning rules, building height on a sloped lot may be calculated from the average roof height down to the lowest ground point or averaged across all building corners. Many mountain jurisdictions enforce strict limits measured from the property’s natural, undisturbed grade prior to excavation to preserve neighbor view corridors and natural tree lines.

A: Geotechnical engineers perform soil borings to analyze subsurface soil layers, groundwater levels, and load-bearing strength, identifying issues like expansive clay, solid granite, or loose sand. Structural engineers use these findings to accurately size foundation footings, rebar reinforcement, and anchor systems to prevent settling and structural foundation cracking.

Steve Tuma: So, what we look at is, you know, they have the idea, the dream. We’re the people that take that idea, put it on paper, get the panelized package so that they can then go through and end up with the house they want, but also control and understand what they’re building.

Interviewer: Welcome everyone to episode 48 of the panelized prefab kit home building show. With me as he always is for the podcast is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company a Company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want exactly as they want nationwide and around the globe since 1993. Mr. Steve Tuma Steve. How are you, buddy?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, pretty good. Another day helping people build houses

Interviewer: Pretty good is good. I’d say. Yeah I, since our last episode, I’ve been thinking about what this episode should be all about and I think we’ve been hitting on some things that we probably, I would have thought we’d have gotten to in past podcasts, but here we are on episode 48 and there’s a couple of
things we haven’t touched on yet.
So I want to get into something today that seems to me would have been a very important topic for anyone looking to become a new homeowner and builder, and that’s building sites, the actual physical property on which one plans on putting up a house. So if you’re good about this, let’s talk all things build site today, and I’d like to take these one at a time to be precise about the pros and cons of whatever sort of lot one might choose to acquire for their new home.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, that’s kind of interesting because a lot of people think a piece of dirt is a piece of dirt. You know, hey, I’ll just go buy an acre or city lot or whatever it may be or 50 acres and go build it.
But what I found in my own projects, and even as we get in a variety of different building sites, sides of mountains, waterfront, whether it’s lakefront or oceanfront or whatever the plains whatever it may be that there’s always little complication or potential for complications. What I found in my own is if it touches dirt there’s a bigger risk because first of all, you can’t really see what’s under the dirt. There’s also a perception situation like you know we’re going to talk about flat lots. What’s kind of interesting is you could go to what appears to be a flat piece of land Just a perspective from where our eyes are in relation to the ground It may be flat, but where the house is from the front of the back of the house There could be a two or three-foot difference, but if you’re walking on it it may appear to be flat. We also had a funny situation. This is more like you know funny Just a little building humor the person said I have a flat lot, so we asked for some topographical things We asked for some details, and I came out. I’m like this isn’t a flat lot this is a side of a mountain. The customer said it is flat. It’s just on an angle going down. So, sometimes we, we, we need to work on what’s going on with the piece of land. So that, that was once in a, it’s kind of more of just a funny point to, you know, understand what is a flat lot? What is, what, what is a slope? Because it can be very deceiving walking out there yourself to, to really get what’s going on. But it’s, It’s not just the grade, is it flat, is it on an angle, is it on the side of a mountain, whatever it may be, but it’s what’s under the ground, especially if you’re going to do things like get a well. Can you access water? Is it easy? If it’s a municipal water, is the water connection in the front of your lot, or is it half mile down the road? The same with uh sewage systems. Can you connect the sewer? Can you have a septic system? So some places you, Well, if you’re going to have a septic, you generally have someone come out, do a soil boring to find out what the soil conditions are like so that they can properly design a septic.

So someone could have a big piece of land and, you know, kind of think, hey, I could just put the septic everywhere. Well, that may or may not be the case there, but there might be more of an optimal place to have it, which can limit the location of the house. So, there’s a lot of things going on in the land and we can help them. But the big thing of how it affects the cost is the foundation. So if you have literally a flat piece of land or as flat as a piece of land can be, you can put a slab on there, a crawl space, a basement, you know, depending what’s typically done for that type of land and it should typically work. But then if you go to the side of a hill, there could be different geotechnical conditions, landslide conditions, but there’s also opportunity.
Walk out basements, look out basements, different things like that. But then some places when you get into more steep land, you got to have grading plans, drainage to make sure that you can access the house, a safe driveway, can you get into the front door, different things like that. But we’re experienced in that. We can guide people on the way to get it put together. So what’s interesting is we’ve worked on flat land. We’ve sort of worked on the sides of mountains. We’ve worked in waterfront communities.

Interviewer: Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, I actually wanted to take these sort of one at a time. I know it sounds, but just for the layman, you know, like we’ve hit upon flat lots, properties that are actually just straight level. And you say, well, one person’s flat places, another person’s slope, but give us let’s start with flat lots let’s say it’s an absolutely flat lot that I were to buy to build on give us the low down on are these usually an easier option and are they generally more cost-effective if it’s just a solid piece of flat ground..

Steve Tuma: Yes it’s just easier to work with you know laying the foundation out excavating and installing a foundation it’s a lot easier you know so say you had a nine-foot basement and a flat piece of land and these are rough numbers for the example you excavate give or take eight feet down and you put an eight-foot wall all the way around it and a simpler design it’s easier it’s easier to do that if you took that same house and stuck it on a side of a hill well the back of it might have a nine-foot wall the side might have a six-foot wall a four-foot wall a two-foot wall and then the front of it may not have a wall. It may have a little you know frost wall or some type of a little wall to support the front portion of a home. So just by making things simple, uniform, consistent it’s going to be more affordable to build than if you had a foundation with a bunch of different wall heights, a bunch of different footer depths, a bunch of different footer sizes. So, in general, the flat lot for the purpose of foundation will be easier to work with.

Interviewer: That’s not to scare people away from other types of lots. I would say it’s just that a lot of, like you said, it’s regional. If you’re in the Midwest, you’re going to find a lot of flat lots. But let’s say I found a piece of property that I love. I love the surrounding area, the views, but it’s a sloped lot. Now, you said something interesting about that. I thought it was interesting about opportunity. So there must be, what opportunities and advantages can there be to selecting a property that’s on a slightly sloped lot that the customer provides to you?

Steve Tuma: Generally the opportunities are those, it’s a lifestyle. They want the view, it’s a rustic area. Slope lot like that, it’s generally hillside or mountainside. So there’s something with the view, they like the view, they’re into different types of sports, in areas where they choose to be more active. Maybe it’s waterfront, it’s on a bluff overlooking it. So what it allows you to do is maybe have more houses, more parts of the homes with you. Sometimes people if, you know, if it’s a family getting together making like a little compound for the family, you know, each family takes a different level or the, hey, the kids are downstairs or hey, there’s a, there’s a, you know, a TV room or entertainment room. So It really allows the flexibility, but I found that the people that are doing those, they just enjoy the nature of the atmosphere. And they really want to take advantage of it because generally, if you’re on a slope, there’s some type of view there, a good viewer or an exceptional view. So that’s the opportunity to design your view to bring the outside in and while you’re inside, still enjoy the outside. So it’s in that case, it’s not just the cost of the foundation and the proper design and drainage of the water going around the foundation. It’s getting into windows. Where do you want the master bedroom? You’re probably not going to put your laundry room facing the ocean. There’s going to be a suite, a big grand great room type thing. So that’s what it is. So in that case, there’s different budgets, different designs that people might want to work with to really fully take advantage of that. It’s usually a different person that’s building on flat land than if they’re building on the side of a hill. It’s more of a, you know, hey, I want to do it, I’ve been wanting to do it, it’s my retirement home or hey, I just want to be in a different place.

Interviewer: A lot of people hate walking uphill.

Steve Tuma: A lot of people do, but if you’re a rock climber, walking up a 30-foot hill is nothing. That’s just something you do.

Interviewer: So do you find that do you find that people when they buy land that that their personality fits that land? Is that something that you think is that holds true?

Steve Tuma: Well, yes for different reasons because let’s just say you you have someone that’s into restoring cars Or a car collector They’re in general gonna want to have the flat land say they have a little track in the backyard or they just you know like to drive their car around if they have a lot of acreage or they just want place to park it and wash it and you know have their friends come over and barbecue and you know talk cars they in general will want a flat lot right okay we have done houses like that where it’s flat on the front and then you know the house goes down the back with the view yeah people that are into nature hunting fishing rock climbing whitewater rafting are probably going to be in areas where there’s where there’s you know those type of hillside lots to take advantage. So it kind of does lead to it. Sometimes people build by a beach because they love the beach. Sure. They want to be there and walk out their door and be on the sand and see the ocean on the sunrise or the sunset. So so it does do it people kind of gravitate.
There are there are also some people that are like, hey, I’m just a part of my life where I have to live in this
spot for my job, my kid to be in the right school. So we’re doing this, but we still want to take advantage of So maybe they want to retire in the mountains, but right now they’re in the suburbs someplace.
But we’re still at that point able to enhance the home so that it still gives them the quality of life that they choose.

Interviewer: And you brought up something interesting about you know living where your job is and a lot of people work in the city and even the suburbs are sometimes a little too far out. So what about building within a city itself? I’d imagine that provides its own unique set of challenges to anyone who has purchased land in an urban location. How difficult can those builds be?

Steve Tuma: Well, it can really be interesting depending on where it is because it’s not just the building of the soil. Some of these city infill lots are just big bureaucracies. You go into a New York or a Chicago, it’s a whole different game than finding a small lot say in a city but a smaller type of community. So there’s a lot of different situations there and sometimes just the actual method of building if if you’re building on a 25 foot lot where you could build right up to the lot line There’s just not a place when you excavate to take the dirt out. So they have to take the dirt out remove it Put the foundation in then bring it back in so there there could be different complications but within that There’s a the situation where a lot of these cities are giving lots of weight for a dollar if you develop them Wow, it’s because they they want to do it but also there there are a lot of people that build in the city But there’s also a lot of people because a telecommuting They might work in the city have to go on once a week or once every two weeks So they’re building in the country, but but building in the city Just because depending on what city it is You could have issues with you know, how how you can deliver materials how things get built local practices, union situations, whatever it may be. So cities can be an interesting challenge. But we have worked with development groups that go through say like a Habitat for Humanity that’s working and they’ll work with city infill lots. So we can work with them and in those cases sometimes a lot’s 25 feet by 100, sometimes it’s 32 by 75, whatever it may be. So that’s how able to go through come up with a design so they can still take advantage of the footprint to kind of get the bang for the buck on out of the lot and end up with with what they want but some of the city projects are they’re just they’re a different type of challenge but it’s just a different viewpoint on building a home or we’re able to help but like I say it’s different if you were to do one in an infill lot say in a Chicago compared to if if you like in a, you know, a smaller city, you know, where things might be accessible and just the processes for building might be a little bit easier.
Right.
Interviewer: So next on my list is, it’s one that we all sort of dream of at one time or another, and that’s oceanfront property. And I’d love to build my dream home on the ocean, aside from the crazy price of
oceanfront property nowadays. What are some of the challenges I’d face if I were to build the beach, and how can landmark home and land company help me to overcome some of those challenges?

Steve Tuma: Hey, let me back up. I forgot to mention something. Sometimes in the city, there’s historic commissions you have to work with.

Interviewer: I was going to ask you about that, but I thought I’d move on. But yeah, go ahead.

Steve Tuma: No, I got to bring, you know, hey, George Washington slept here type of thing. Yeah, let’s talk about that. That’s interesting. That’s more on the East Coast sometimes San Francisco but yeah sorry I meant to bring this up but but it’s it’s really cool because sometimes you have to like really hit exactly the essence of the old home kind of the old home old home design new products right and then other times you have to have the essence of it so a steep roof with you know 10-foot ceilings and taller windows but you can still kind of give the little modern twist to today’s Sure. Like in some of these old communities, they’ll have port co-shares when you would bring your horse carriage up and get out of your horse carriage.

Now, I don’t know that many people that do that. There are some, you know, some communities that still do that. But you may not build a port co-share and something like that. You’d have a different type of car set up or or something for transportation. So some of them are flexible. The point to it is we can work with those different communities and that also gets to homeowners associations which are they’re a little different but it’s a variety of rules that you have to work with to to make sure that the home complies with the regulations to build in the community.

Interviewer: Have you guys said Landmark Home and Land Company had that experience of dip built like building in historic areas and

Steve Tuma: oh yeah we have a couple right now you really

Interviewer: I can imagine that might be a headache in a lot of ways. You know it’s a it’s a neat challenge because we’ve been doing this for 30 years and you think you see everything right and then Like we have a family building in, in Leadville, Colorado. It’s the highest populated city and in the 48 states, I believe.
And it’s a, an old mining community with a real eclectic kind of design, kind of little hodgepodge of put this here and put this here, but over time it’s developed of its own unique architecture.
So even though it’s funky kind of little hodgepodge put together, it’s character of the neighborhood that makes it such a unique place where people want to live. So sometimes it’s like hey everything’s Georgia and it’s kind of east coast. Other times it’s like hey it’s a mining community. People built houses that were a little different. Right. They had a certain look. Some of times there were miners so there were more affordable houses. Other times it was you know on the wealthier side where people had to have certain And some of these communities are actually very planned to go through to make sure that the house really, really blends in. Not just the architectural design, but sometimes the landscaping, the flow of the land. It’s actually kind of fun. It’s just a different type of challenge.

Interviewer: Just to build something that sticks out like a sword farm in an historic district, I can imagine that there would be rules and regulations for sure.

Steve Tuma: Right. Right.

Interviewer: so let’s get back to my dream yeah my dream the oceanfront property so you know let’s say I want to build on the ocean what are the challenges I can expect on an oceanfront lot.

Steve Tuma: Well that’s really interesting because the ocean covers a lot of place so there’s kind of West Coast you know in California with coastal commissions earthquake situations landslide situations and then also some of those areas are pretty affluent where there’s big restrictions on design. And sometimes just the natural terrain pulls it up. Then you could go like to the East Coast. You know, we’ve helped people from the Florida Keys all the way up into Rhode Island. So a lot of people think, Oh, I don’t need to do hurricane engineering in Rhode Island. Well, yes, you do. You know, so there are situations there with a geotechnical reports, different, and you pretty much need a geotechnical report everywhere. But what a lot of don’t always realize is that you’ve got to work with base flood elevations like how high off the ground off of the flood that the house has to be does it have to be a foot above the flood two feet above the flood now maybe by chance your ground is high enough if it isn’t you put a house on pilings sure so sometimes you end up with different situations different types of pilings different types of situations and different types of materials and some the permitting is relatively simple you know certain parts of Florida on the ocean are easier than other parts of Florida what what’s interesting about it is it’s not really consistent there are places you could build on the ocean are very close to the ocean and their regulations are nothing compared to the town across the street so we always look at is you know whether or not the building department has an opinion of how to do it there’s a way do it because what people don’t realize is if you don’t put your house at the right elevation it can really affect your uh your insurance rates yeah i would imagine right and then there’s a lot of different ways of interpreting how high a home has to be off the ground especially on a slope piece of land so the neat thing about it is um we can help anyone with it but there’s just different situations for environmental purposes, seabirds, hurricanes. The wind speed of hurricanes one thing, but the surge is also another thing.

The ground conditions and how you attach the home to the ground. So like in the Keys we’ve done a few projects and they basically pin the pilings to the coral, the ground right there. You know other places it’s a different of rock other places they just have to bore down a certain percentage of the height of it so there’s there’s kind of been different practices that that uh that evolve in different places but the key thing that i think people have to understand is building oceanfront waterfront in general is going to be a different story the ocean being what it is a lot of communities have a lot of regulations on what you can do and sometimes there’s things that aren’t really there for you know the structural or the wind it’s these are beautiful communities you can’t build a big monolith in front of your neighbor and block their view right yeah so in a lot of these places you’ve got to go through and kind of put the frame of a home up sure so that people can see how your proposed house mm-hmm blocks someone else’s view and they can have it so if someone’s gonna go build like in Southern California on the ocean expect a few years and a lot of work to get through all the different regulations. If you’re going to go build in certain parts of Florida, it’s kind of a general process of if you were building say something in the Midwest, you put the plans together, the building departments review when you go through. But there’s just a lot more civil engineering that needs to be done to make sure the ground is right, how you access the house, where’s the flood elevation, where’s the current grade, where’s the proposed grade going be. And in some places, you can use the space in the pilings for breakaway walls for parking or storage. So there’s all different types of flood zones. So there’s a lot of concerns there. There’s the, hey, how are you affecting your neighbor’s view? There’s the hurricanes, there’s storm surges, there’s wind situations, there’s landslides, there’s earthquakes. It all kind of depends on where, I mean, I think about all the oceans or waterfront properties. There’s Pacific, Atlantic, the Gulf.

Interviewer: Well, I’m sure that it’s even if you talk about, because we’re gonna move on and talk about lakefront properties in a second, but even that, I know from experiences that I’ve talked to friends about that there’s also environmental impact stuff when you’re building on water that isn’t anywhere else. Can you talk about that for a minute?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, a lot of times there could be protected wildlife. They want to keep septic systems or whatever sewage farther away. Sometimes there’s, like on rivers, they can rise and fall. There’s also currents there. So a little bit of this depends on what it is.
Is it an inland lake, a big pond? Is it a flowing river? Is it something like the Great Lakes? You know, building on those, you can still have challenges, you know, in the Up getting onto big bluffs or you could have a beach situation, just kind of like you would have in like a Florida situation. So there’s a lot of interesting things going on. But yeah, there’s environmental. But like I say, sometimes the environment is not blocking your neighbor’s view. Yeah, sure. You know, sometimes the environment is a bird situation or the migration routes. But I don’t want to make it sound like it’s hard, it’s just the nature of enjoying beauty of where you choose to live right you know and there’s there’s ways to get through that but um one thing which is kind of interesting and it’s something that I tell people when they’re they’re building and and uh by by uh you know rural areas that are big open fields is I read something somewhere I can’t remember where but someone said that 80 or 90 percent of America’s natural wetlands have been filled in right that’s awesome I mean that’s awful yeah yeah but but it’s it’s kind of it’s kind of one of these situations where way back a hundred years ago 150 years ago to make farmland because back then
95% of America were farmers now it’s like 5% so what what happens is they they see a pond or a wetland they go through they fill it in with with soil and suddenly they’re growing beans or corn or whatever they choose to grow on it and and and people don’t realize that you could walk on sand. Your great-grandpa could have been walking on that land, but someone filled it in. So even though people say, hey I’ve owned this, you know, this has been in for a hundred years, it’s always good to kind of have an understanding of water tables and geotechnical conditions to see what’s there. Because although rare, people have excavated. It’s more in the Midwest that it’s happened, but it could theoretically happen anywhere. And they dig down four feet for their, you know, crawl space and then they hit muck. Right. And that muck is 10 feet deep because there used to be a pond there. And suddenly there’s a situation.

Interviewer: So again, it’s not to scare people. It’s people should have an understanding of what’s available. And I think that’s the level of knowledge that we provide and experience and knowledge to say, Hey, you might want to check this. Now some people say, Hey, you know, I don’t need to do that. And, you know, maybe it works out okay, but we want to bring it up to the people to point out the situation of what they should be looking at. As we mentioned a little earlier, there’s a lot going on with land. You can’t see into it to see what’s going on. You don’t know where your water connection is until you check with the water department. You don’t know where your sewer connection is.

You don’t know where you can put the septic until the soil scientist comes out and does a review. Other things, power. Right. You might see a power pole a block or two away, but that doesn’t mean there’s enough juice in it to just away..

Interviewer: Right so well and we’ve been talking about city areas and rural areas and lakefront properties usually as you said that that kind of falls into the mountain properties kind of thing yeah there’s a there’s a bunch I want to cover but I don’t want to but you know have you talking all day long about and going over the same thing but mountain properties that’s always interested me because I live in the mountains and and it seems to me that also, you know, can provide some situations that unique challenges to building in the mountains. It’s got to be something that, you know, Landmark Home and Land Company deals with all the time. So if I want to build in the mountains, there’s the environment, there’s the slopes, there’s all kinds of things. What do you think that building in the mountains is something that is an easy process or is that much harder or is it just the way you handle the project itself, the build.

Steve Tuma: I’ll tell you the answer. The people that want to live in the mountains want to live in the mountains. That’s good. They’re kind of like, hey, I want to, I’ve always been a mountain person. I like skiing, I like kiking, I like whatever it is. So it’s not an option. They don’t want a flat piece of land someplace. They don’t want to be in the city. And with the telecommuting, people not able to go into the office, people are finding the value of nature just for their own kind of sanity in a sense their own enjoyment and it’s beautiful so what it is is when you build on the side of a hill a mountain a big hill whatever someone may choose to call it you basically have to do some civil engineering sure which is basically like a surveyor civil engineer that would go out and figure out hey this is how you can properly place a house to have a reasonable and and code compliant driveway access to your might ask for a fire make sure a fire truck can get there or sprinkler systems whatever it may be so that person can go through to make sure that the house works so depending upon the nature of it sometimes the pad or the footprint where where it can be built dictates the house other times someone could pick the house and then by chance it happens to work with them so sometimes there’s a little bit of back and forth but i got to tell you the mountain properties are are amazing. People just love them, the views that are there, what they’re doing within the part of life that they’re in. It’s just absolutely amazing what they can put together and the effort that they do to take advantage of nature. So overall to us, in a sense, if you have a flat piece of land, you know, there’s deserts where they want plans and drainage plans just because of storms these monsoons that come through they want to know that your house that you’re not putting your house in a hundred-year flood zone right yeah you know so excuse me so to build on the side of a hill you can say is it harder the people that build there don’t look at it they look at the opportunity and the enjoyment of the property that’s what it is.

Interviewer: Everything I’ve heard you say basically just tells me and it’s telling your customers, your potential customers, don’t be afraid of anything. If you really want to live there, think about building there. I think that’s an awesome attitude to take for a company. It doesn’t sound like you try to discourage people from building wherever the heck they want to build.

Steve Tuma: No, I think people should build where they want to build. There’s some people that are on the stage where they want to build a duplex or a quadplex so that someone else pays for the rent or part of their rent. And to them, they’re looking at a home as an investment. Other people want to make sure their kids are in the right school or want to make sure that they’re by their parents or by work. Other people want to be far away from work. During the whole pandemic situation, we had people working for big tech companies living a thousand miles away from from from where they were they quote worked at the time. So different people have different things. Some people are car guys, some people are into horses, some people just like their home bodies, they enjoy their home, they want to have the inside the way it is.
Other people are outdoorsy, where they just want a box.
Sure. Just keep me dry inside place for my dog, wife, kids. And I want to be able to hike every day or I want to hang glide or whatever it is, or people on the lake, I a fish or I’m a photographer. So what what we look at is you know they have the idea the dream this is what my house I’m envisioning it. We’re the people that take that idea put it on paper get the panelized package so that they can then go through and end up with the house they want but also control and understand what they’re building. Sure. So we actually look at it. We do custom homes every single one I shouldn’t say every single one in 30
years one person chose the exact house off the website everyone else has changed or drawn up their own plan and we’ve made it work for what they want so we’ve chosen to take on the excitement of saying hey customer let’s help you get the house you want instead of kind of making something work we’re not the shoe store that says hey you need a ten and a half but work just make it work we’re not no let’s get the right ten and a half so that it works for what you intend to do it’s a it’s money it’s a lot of work it can be stressful building and you better get the enjoyment out of it is the way we look at it you know so it’s a it’s it’s it’s a cool move you know the value of enjoying your life is is pretty amazing..

Interviewer: yeah and and to not be scared off by where you think your dream home should be

Steve Tuma: Why not it’s it’s just a week or two ago i got a text from a customer we we helped 10 years ago in the Rockies saying Steve look at this view you know it’s like they’re sitting there 10 years later enjoying a glass of wine watching the sunset and they thought i mean they say Steve we wanted to share this this is amazing that’s great you know that that’s that’s like the biggest pat on the back in the world you can get.

Interviewer: yeah i would imagine so what this this all funnels into one all of these scenarios well you know as as a builder you’re at some point you’re gonna come across geotechnical issues so first of all I’d like you to define for the listeners the term geotechnical and then give us a rundown on how Landmark Home and Land Company can best serve its customers regarding this area of home building because I have to tell you geotechnical is something that I’m not familiar with at all.

Steve Tuma: Basically it’s the of the soils and the makeup of the soils where your house is going. Ah got it. So are you on granite? Are you on mud? Are you on sand? Are you on expansive clay? You know is it a variety of it? Is it a certain soil going down a foot? Then one foot to two feet it’s something else and two feet to three feet it’s yet another soil. You need to know that so that you can then go through and make sure that the footers and the foundations are right. Also get in a Situation is there water around there, right? So the situation that I say is if if you’re out hiking with someone and you’re standing on a piece of granite You’re probably pretty solid. You’re not going to sink into it, right? but if you took those same two people and went to like a lake Where you might stand at the edge of the lake and a hundred fifty or two hundred pound person might sink six inches, right? So that in a sense is telling you the strength of the soil. Now a geotechnical engineer is an educated licensed person that understands soils.
They take a boring, they test it and say, hey, you know, here’s what’s at these different levels. These are the strengths.
And then they make a recommendation to the structural engineer on the type of foundation that can be done in the area that the customer chooses to build. So then our strut our structural engineers take that geotechnical engineers a recommendation and Then design the proper design we then send them the geotechnical engineer the design They can verify it’s done right and move forward and then that gives you the best possible design so it’s it’s something that people don’t want to pay for because You know might be a couple thousand dollars, and you can’t exactly tell your friends like hey Steve look at this I got the coolest geotechnical report ever. People usually like to say, check out my garage, my kitchen, my great room.

Interviewer: It’s not sexy, geotechnical.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it’s just kind of there.
But the reality is, is you don’t want to crack foundations. So some areas, the building departments require it. Other areas, they just say, hey, go with code minimum. So we could work with what the customer
requests or the building department require. We just suggest in certain places that people get a geotechnical report. A lot of people are building in areas of Texas that don’t have building departments. Really? And there’s expansive soils. So as things get wet, cold, hot, cold, the soil expands and contracts. Well if you have a foundation on it, it’s gonna lift your foundation and lead to a crack. Right. That’s the same thing you can be on anything by water. It’s also something around mountain ranges with the erosion of mountains over time. There’s different soils. So it can be weaker. And then there’s some places that get even deeper into the geotechnical report. They want a geotechnical report done at the location
you’re building your home. But then when you excavate they want the geotechnical engineer to come out and confirm that his test is what’s actually showing up at the building site. So it’s kind of interesting in
different parts of the country. They’ve kind of demanded that you really check and double check what you do. Other places will have a compaction report where you excavate an engineer goes out there and does a test of the soil to see if it’s strong enough for the design foundation. And one thing which is kind of misleading someone might say well my friend lives half a mile down the road I know the soils are the same can’t I use his report. I’ve seen situations where soils change in inches or feet. Right. And there be different situations that can greatly affect the foundation design and therefore the cost. So again, it’s one of these do your homework up front to find out the parameters of what you can build.

Interviewer: Yeah, it makes sense even if there isn’t a strict building commission or one at all, you still want to do your homework.

Steve Tuma: Right. A weak foundation is like having a weak foot, you know, type of thing. But again, that’s something that we review with the customer project by project. It can be a little, you know, one of these kind of little flying the ointment things of, oh, why do I have to do this? But what we found is if sometimes the code minimum actually requests that you build a bigger foundation than your land requires. Other times when you do a geotechnical report, you find out that your soils aren’t as strong you believe. So the foundation has to be done. You can basically build on any land. It’s just a matter of how much of a challenge and the money side of it. Does it make sense? But it’s a smart thing to do.

Interviewer: Well another interesting episode. I never cease to learn things just talking to it’s it’s it’s great so that’s gonna wrap it up for today but before we let you go Steve as always please let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company.

Steve Tuma: The easiest thing for anyone to do anytime is look at our website at LHLC.com that’s kind of the initials Landmark Home Land Company and we’ve got videos on there we have these ways if someone wants a custom plan kind of take a standard plan and adjust it and it kind of explains what we do so they can also put an inquiry through there and we also have an 800 number 800-830-9788 where they can call in and ask questions talk to Mike. Mike will work with them on the the details of what they want you know just kind of get things put together and then at a certain point when they’re ready to move forward I’ll step in and and help the customer but one thing which is important is we’re very customer service oriented we care about our customers projects we have a lot of customers that come back and build with us again multiple homes or the earth a family member comes in or a friend of theirs come in so we’re really concerned about doing it right we’re not just selling a panelized home we’re helping with the design making sure it works with your land making sure that it’s a set of that will work for your building department and also your contractor understands. So it’s a lot more than just a panelized home. It’s the proper design permitting and support to help you through the process. I think that’s where we really excel is caring and really getting into the project to make sure we can help you get the house you want. It’s fun.

Interviewer: And there you go. Well, thanks again, Steve. And thanks to all of you for listening into the panelized prefab Kit Home Building Show, and for Steve, Tuma, and myself, have a great day, and we will see you next time.

Interviewer: Thanks, Steve.

Steve Tuma: Well, thank you.
It’s been fun.
Thank you.

Learn how comprehensive, permit-ready building plans serve as the master communication tool to keep custom home projects on budget, on schedule, and aligned with local building codes. We discuss the essential role of structural engineering, mechanical rough-in coordination, and site-specific topography in avoiding expensive on-site change orders and contractor miscommunications. Discover how detailed floor plan blueprints allow owner-builders to solicit accurate subcontractor bids, navigate zoning and environmental hurdles, and design adaptable spaces that seamlessly transition through multi-generational living, future additions, and evolving lifestyle needs.

A: Comprehensive blueprints act as the primary communication document between the owner-builder, subcontractors, lending institutions, and building inspectors. Having exact dimensions, structural connections, and mechanical layouts detailed upfront eliminates job-site guesswork, prevents failed inspections, and stops expensive contractor change orders.

A: Blueprints that clearly define foundation wall heights, step-downs, beam sizes, and finish materials allow trade contractors to calculate exact material quantities and labor hours. Without detailed drawings, trade subcontractors include high contingency markups or provide vague estimates that lead to budget overruns once construction begins.

A: Custom home plans can be pre-engineered with structural headers, roof tie-in points, and roughed-in utility chases to support planned future wings, second-story additions, or converted suites. Designing multi-functional spaces during the initial drafting phase allows rooms to easily transition from nurseries or home offices into private in-law suites as family needs evolve.

A: Enlarging a window opening or replacing standard windows with a wide folding glass wall removes solid wood framing that provides lateral shear strength. In hurricane or earthquake zones, structural engineers must recalculate the wall’s load paths and specify engineered headers or steel moment frames to prevent structural flexing.

A: Specialized properties require functional transitional layouts, such as mudroom entryways with built-in dog wash stations, direct-access garage workshops, or dedicated tack rooms. Incorporating these functional zones into the initial architectural floor plan keeps outdoor dirt, work gear, and heavy recreational equipment organized and separated from primary living spaces.

Steve Tuma: A lot of people say, Hey, we supply panelized homes and it’s true, but the way you use a
piece of wood, how it’s used and is it used right for codes and the structural concerns
and the aesthetic designs of a home is very important.

Interviewer: Hello everyone, and thank you for joining us for episode 47 of the panelized prefab
kit home building show. With me as always is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, A company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as
they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993. Mr. Steve Tuma, Steve, how are you, my friend?

Steve Tuma: Things are well. People are building and we’re actually getting in a time in our history.
We’ve been helping customers for 30 years. We’re just a whole variety of different houses, different types of houses, homes for different purposes. Sometimes they’re vacation homes, third homes, fourth homes,
retirement homes, first homes, spec homes, builders building things. So it’s kind of an interesting time, but we’re able to help people because they’re fundamental businesses help people design the home they want at the price and for the location that they want to build.

Interviewer: Right. Well, for today’s episode, I wanted to get something. I wanted to go over something
believe it or not, we have yet to touch upon as yet on this show something so simple that I think we just let it slip under the radar but it’s actually a very important topic and that’s the question of why a complete set of plans is important and how it helps the customer to actually understand what it is they’re building. I know it sounds silly but I’d imagine that some customers have a dream and vision in their heads but the actual knowledge base surrounding what it is to be an owner builder might be a little vague in their minds. So, you know, without a great set of plans and also let’s talk about how Landmark Home and Land Company is so adept at helping the customer understand the ins and outs of planning and building their new panelized home and how exactly you guys at Landmark are able to get them up to speed before
beginning the process.

Steve Tuma: You know, I think that’s a very important thing, because a lot of people say, Hey, we supply panelized homes, and it’s true. But the way you use a piece of wood, how it’s used, and is it used right for codes and the structural concerns and the aesthetic designs of a home is very important. So the reality of what we supply, it’s the actual product that shows up on site is a panelized home package. But most homes, like almost anywhere in the country, you need to have a set of permits, you’re going work with contractors, you’re going to work on your budget to understand what’s being built. So having an accurate set of plans is very important. That, although it doesn’t give the appearance that of being the most important part of the project, the plans are the most important part.

So you can understand what you’re building. You know, if you have to get financing, you’ve got to work with building permits, you’ve got to work with the contractors. Everyone can understand what’s going on. Sometimes we’ll have people that say, hey, we sketched something up, we found an architectural design thing online, I don’t need plans. It’s like, well, that’s a conceptualization process. But the actual details, the structural design, how’s it standing up? Are hallways wide enough? Is there enough space around toilets? Different code issues have to be considered. Can duct work be run? Can plumbing be run? How does the electric work out? It’s there. So I kind of joke with it. you know not having a good set of plans is like letting someone randomly go through the grocery store and hope they bring stuff home for the dinner that you want to have someone could be like hey I saw a piece of bread I saw a piece of chicken I saw a pineapple and then then I saw a pig’s feet or something let’s go make dinner out of it you’re gonna be like well so what does that do for us so it’s probably better to have an idea to say hey we want to have a you know we want to grill chicken and make a certain type of a salad, so you have a better idea of what you’re going to do. So building a home is a lot more complex, but it’s the same understanding. You want to know what it is. It’s not just get a pile of wood, nail it together and hope the house you want is magically there. It’s an idea that you want to go through and properly design it. So all the different contractors understand what’s going on. You know what’s going on. The building department knows what’s going on.

So it’s clear to everyone what’s there. So a detailed set of plans takes some time. There’s a cost to getting them put together, which is all part of our package. We wrap it into an all-in-one. But in the long run, the time that you spend accurately planning your home will save you money and headaches down the road. Right. And change orders and scheduling issues. So it’s, we look at it as doing your homework up and also it’s easier to change something on a piece of paper you know PDF in today’s world then then it is to build a house and say gee I don’t want something there mm-hmm I didn’t know that and we’re also trying to eliminate situations where people design a home and then they walk into it and they’re like I don’t want that there you know they can look at it the plants take the time to understand things and work it out yeah and that that is the key element to it is the work that you do up front to design it yeah now something someone might say well how do you think of this I mean how do you possibly know what size window you want in the living room how big of a garage door how how tall your basement should be so we’re we’re knowledgeable we’re understanding we can help people guide through the process and have an understanding the reality is most people know what they want they might say something like hey I want a two-car garage well okay that depends on where you’re at. If you’re out in the country, your two car garage is probably bigger than in a beach community on the oceanfront in California where garages might be smaller, just because of limited lot sizes. It’s also something we get into some people where their car is a big dual cab extended bed truck.

So that idea of a car compared to people that live in a tighter community tighter you know geographic space might might have a smaller car so we’re able to work with people to help them sort the issues out draw it on paper so that then they can review and verify that everything’s there and I can’t stress the value of the time that you take up front to design a home how many headaches will save you scheduling issues budget issues that that it’ll help. It also really helps in the what I believe is the communication between all the people that are involved. When it’s on a set of plans clear it’s hard for someone to say I didn’t know you wanted that right because it’s right there on the plans. So it actually helps in the the planning process, the permitting process, the building process, and the approval process. And that’s compounded by also helping with the schedule and the complete overall operation. So it takes a little bit of time up front. You know, people are always excited. Hey, when can I start digging? Well, that’s important, but it’s also very important to know why you’re digging the hole, where it’s gonna be in the house that you’re gonna build. So I gotta tell people at a certain point, it’s like peeling an onion. You’re not necessarily gonna know everything up front and every detail of your house. Initially, people start with the general form. What does it look like on the outside? What are the rooms like on the inside? Then when they work with that they might fine-tune. Hey, how’s the kitchen laid out? How’s the bathroom laid out? How’s the family room laid out? The man cave? The garage?
So we can go through a variety of revisions of plans just to get things really fine-tuned so it works. Now
What’s what’s kind of cool is behind the scenes I’m working with the structural people the production people to make sure that we’re doing something that makes sense Because, amazingly, you can draw things that are very expensive or hard to build. Our process minimizes the chance of that occurring by going through and having these reviews during the process, making sure the trusses are built right, the roof system, what type of floor system for your particular project, and that’s very key. And ultimately, how is the home setting on the land? Yeah, you know if you build a simple box home say on flat farmland in the Midwest It’s a lot different than if you took that exact floor plan and put it say in California on the side of a hill on an earthquake zone, right or took that exact plan and put it on stilts in Florida Where it’s hurricane so there’s a lot of details of how it attaches to land is the land flat Is there a slope are there geotechnical issues? You know different things like that, but I don’t want to make it too complicated I just want to point out say that’s how we help people You know so people say hey, I want to build this house here. We can help them through the process It’s kind of cool, and I think once people get into it. They they kind of enjoy it.

Interviewer: It is funny how you talk about just the basics But if it’s not laid out for you in black and white like to walk in and say well Yeah, I didn’t think the fireplace is gonna be against that wall Okay, right Now, another important thing is, and tell me if I’m wrong, but you guys at Landmark Home and Land Company, you’re also there to help in the development of an actual building budget, which let’s face it, without a true understanding of a customer’s budget, the project budget, and how best to adjust the bill to that budget. Things could go a little south before they’ve ever begun, so how do you guys at Landmark and land company help develop the budget for any project?

Steve Tuma: Well the budget situation is kind of interesting because that gets back to the plans situation having an accurate set of plans like what siding you’re gonna have are you having stone is a vinyl is it a cement board is it a real wood whatever it is we develop the set of plans so that when our customers are working with their suppliers or contractors or doing some of the work themselves they have an Understanding of what’s there so we don’t get deep into getting the actual budget and saying hey, you know Here’s three bids we give people the information and if they need guidance on how to obtain bids They can go through and get it get it put together There there’s a lot of situations in different parts of the country where different communities can cost a lot more than one ten miles away So sometimes people will say well I found this app or I found this website or someone had a book and I they say what do you think of that I’m like well you might want to use that as a target just to see if you’re in the right thing but the reality is you should go get estimates for the actual processes so that that it is because take that example I just spoke about if you had a boxy home in your building in a flat farmland in Iowa it’s a lot different than if you took that exact same design and put it on the ocean in California or on stilts in or on expansive soils in Texas. Right. So that’s that’s one of these things. Your your land situations, your location, the market that you’re in can greatly do it. So we’re believers in like I say doing the homework up front. Know what you’re getting into. You don’t want to look at it and say hey my friend knows everything you know he’s a champion on the bowling team and he told me this house is gonna cost so much and he wouldn’t misrepresent it. I’m like sure he wouldn’t but you want accurate information to go through to make sure that what you’re building is right whether you’re going with financing or your own cash because you don’t want to be in a situation where you’re guessing or you know looking through your budget with your rose rose-colored glasses you want to make sure you’ve got an accurate budget and that’s what’s key the support we provide by having accurate plans for your house on the can then look at something and say hey this is a house with a walkout basement the foundations 20 by 40 this is how high the wall is these are step down walls here’s frost walls we can then go through and and get those details put together so I think that’s that that’s the point where we give them in a sense all the support so they can go get accurate bids now sometimes our customers are more experienced some are less experienced but Amazingly, they’re able to go through get good contractors, but if they ever have questions, you know contractors like hey, what’s going on here? What’s going on there? We are always available For them to email text or call us to to get details so that the contractor is a full understanding.

Interviewer: Mm-hmm, you know this all boils down to Communication really I’m thinking that without without some very solid communication beforehand In other words, without a company like Landmark Home and Land Company and your hands-on approach to customer service and follow-up, the chances of miscommunication can become a real problem when building a new home.

Steve Tuma: Right. The chances are there, but we do everything to minimize. With accurate ground information, you know, hey, are you building on the side of a hill? Are you on flat land? Different things, just experiences that we’ve had where we go through and we can kind of talk to the customer to see what really needs to be taken care of. So that over time evolves into a set of plans that’s accurate for the site as well as accurate for what our customer intends to build.

Interviewer: Right. Do you find over the years, because a lot of, I’ve heard it so many times people say, you know what, we’ve gotten jobs just because we answer the phone. And I’ve heard you say that too. And how, that’s part of the communication thing. How much do I think Landmark Home and Land Company has been able to grow and to help more and more people simply because you guys are there.

Steve Tuma: Customer service is extremely important. This is a partnership. It’s our customer choosing to build their home, but in a sense, it’s our home too. We don’t want a customer to set themselves up for failure, nor for us to say, yeah, go do something. And no, it doesn’t make sense. So it’s in everyone’s best interest to be available and communicate clearly and have a very solid relationship so that the customer feels comfortable calling. We’ve had some people call 10, 15 times a day saying, hey Steve, I was thinking about this, or hey, I just met my foundation guy, or hey, what about this? That’s what we do. It’s that support so that the customer understands the project, not just in their mind, but on the piece of paper so that they can go through and do it. We’ve worked with extremely experienced builders, developers. We’ve also worked with people that probably know what a hammer is, but have never used one. But they have an ability to manage and coordinate the project. So the support we supply, you know, I have a rule, you know, once a customer starts working with us, if a customer calls, you answer the phone. That includes nights, weekends, if I’m awake, you know, I’ll answer the phone and help something through because not everything happens during the business week. You might be meeting a contractor on weekends or nights, or the husband and wife are only together at certain times to really review things. So we want to be available. So if we can take a call and answer a question for a minute or two and help the process move forward, it’s there. And I think that’s where the big difference is, where we really excel. Because I’m a consumer myself. All of us have experience calling, quote, customer service lines. You know, you hear the same music, you sit there and then you talk to someone that may not actually be a pro.

They have an ability to answer the phone, but they don’t have an ability to answer the question. Right. So what we want to do is make sure that people have an accurate set of plans so that on site and permitting, reviewing the contractors, etc, they know what’s going on. But if for some reason there needs to be a change, something’s unclear, something up being a little bit different, we want to be available to help them. We have a very strong team. Designers, engineers, mechanical designers. It’s all a really cool process.

Interviewer: And what you’re talking about is building relationships with your customers and that’s something you don’t hear enough about you know.

Steve Tuma: It’s it’s very common for us to get someone that built with us 20-22 years go to say hey Steve remember me I’m rich up in Ann Arbor hey I’m over here I’m doing this or hey you you did my house you did my daughter’s house my son’s getting married let’s do that or other stuff like hey we sold it we made some money we’re scaling down doing our retirement home you know we’ve had this land on a lake for a while we’re finally settling down can you help us so so that’s the key it’s it’s a it’s a team effort it’s not It’s not a situation where we want to work with people where it’s a it’s a negative relationship. We want it to be positive the The amount of housewarming barbecues and everything that I get invited to is amazing But it’s also just really really cool to see when someone calls you up, you know as a friend to say hey Steve, can you help us with this house? You helped us five years ago ten years ago You’re my house guy. You you helped me in my house in the northern suburbs of Chicago. You helped me outside of Nashville Now I’m in Michigan Can you can you can you help me? We’ve had people One one particular customer lived in Napa was building rental units outside of Oklahoma City And he’s gonna retire in the Canary Islands You know to have someone trusted to work with where we understand the customer. It kind of becomes really cool. It’s like to have that variety of capabilities of helping people, it’s kind of fun when you sit back and look at the whole thing and go, wow.
We’ve also had situations, one man, it was a little while back, he worked for an airline and he was, he worked in the St. Louis area, but then he got a transfer to Dallas. So we were about to finish the plans and he gets his transfer, suddenly we had to everything from what was required in the St. Louis area to Dallas. 10-15 years later he goes Steve I’m putting a pool house on the back of my house can you help me? So we helped him with the design and the details of that. So there’s something kind of cool when someone remembers you two years later five years later 15-20 years later. Yeah of course. And then we remember them it’s like hey how you know how you doing?

So it’s kind of it’s kind of and say hey I’m gonna nail it together and make a house but making sure that the house is designed right the pieces of wood is used properly it’s it’s good for permitting it’s good for building it’s good for your budget and the end results you’re proud of that that’s pretty cool there’s a there’s a lot going on there this isn’t just like going to a lumberyard and saying hey I need a stack of two by sixes can you tell me how to put them together you know we go through and give people the complete thing from A to Z concept of hey how do I even think about designing a home to getting them the panelized home all the plans and everything so that you know little time later they’re moving into the home and as far as we’re concerned it it’s really cool when you get a picture of a family outside of their house the dog their baby their kids their grand kids everyone having a good time saying thanks to you yeah thanks landmark thanks Mike it’s it’s it’s an amazing it’s an feeling.

Interviewer: We should get back a little bit to plans, but you know it’s funny as you said that that guy who actually got transferred and had to take his plans to a whole other state, but I know that’s an extreme case, but let’s talk about some last-minute changes to plans, or even worse on-site changes. That seems like that could really propagate some major delays in the building’s schedule, and even worse for the customer. It can affect the cost in a negative way. How does Landmark Land and Home Company help to mediate the chances of that even happening? I’m sure that you can’t have your eyes on everything, but how do you guys make sure that you keep your eye on the ball enough that the customer doesn’t end up having to make on-site changes?

Steve Tuma: Well, a lot of that is just the communication with them and the understanding and respect of each other that you’re better off taking an extra day think it through you know this isn’t a race you know sometimes people have a schedule for for financing reasons or weather reasons or whatever it may be but the the reality is is if people have the time to do it and think it through now customers generally have a good idea they might they might go through and do it look at something but occasionally there will be a customer that just watches a show looks at a magazine you know go it goes and does something and they’re like oh I got to have this I got to this we’ll do everything we can to make sure the customer ends up with a house now if it’s in the preliminary plan stages that’s just part of the design stage but if we’re in the finalization stage you know where plans are being finalized it all depends on what they want mm-hmm say someone says hey I had a I had a window that’s three feet wide five feet tall I need to change it to three feet two by five feet too tall or something you know kind of simple generally something like that doesn’t a big deal but if someone says hey you know I’m in a hurricane zone and I had three little windows looking at the ocean and we just decided we want to have a 20-foot nano wall there you know one of those big like accordion foot doors that’s that’s that’s a pretty big change we can always go through and do things but we have to work with the customer to understand the that just does it.

We have to go through and work to do architectural changes, do the structural things. We’re known to do everything we can to help a customer, but we just have to work to make sure it’s done properly. So even if there’s a last-minute change, it’s not something where we can always just push it through on one hour notice. Sometimes we have to take a step back to take three steps forward.

You bring up the situation of, hey what if happens on site. Right. You know, that’s exceptionally rare. But occasionally what happens is people’s budget change. They win the lottery, they have money, they what it is more. It’s kind of, they fall in love with it. Right. They’re like, you know, we’re out here. We’re, and it’s like, we never realized that over to this side, there’s this view of a lake, a tree, a meadow, a mountain range, whatever it may be. So if it’s something like during the phases where something happens, someone has a kid, there’s situations, the in laws, you know, aging parents need need a place to move. And suddenly the den has to become a little master suite, we’ll do everything we can to help people, it might be a little bit of a hassle at the point. But the reality is, is to do everything you can to help a customer. You now say it takes an extra day two three two weeks three weeks whatever it is to really do a significant change like that if someone’s gonna live in a house for 20 years it’s not a big deal sure you know it’s it’s a little bit of a hassle depending on what it is but the way I look at it is I want to make sure do everything we can that after a customer builds their home they pull up to it after hard days work or coming back from vacation and say I’m But here’s something interesting, you know, you’re you’re making my mind wonder. That’s a great question Sometimes we have people that say hey I’m I’m a bachelor now. I am gonna get married.

I want to have a wing put on so we’ll design a house of Hey, here’s phase one in five years. Here’s phase two or We’ll set it up for a future thing that person might say hey might get married or hey my in-laws might move in or hey it might turn into the family vacation home so sometimes you it’s kind of exciting to figure out hey how do you put this together there’s also situations a lot of situations now just just the nature of the world right now is sometimes someone’s kid may move in sometimes aunt and uncle move in sometimes they have relatives that pop through for a month you know so they want to have kind of a convertible area but kind of private from them so that’s a situation and then you know where that really comes into play is basements you know what what are people gonna do with storage now is it a wood shop later is it a walkout basement on a lake or the side of a hill but what I think what what you’re kind of getting to here is you’re indirectly asking do we have good planning and stuff to take care of what people want do we have the designers the engineer and the desire to get the right house the answer is Yes. And the adaptability. You know, changes are going to come no matter what you do.
To be able to be adaptable to a situation is pretty important, I guess, for any company, especially what Landmark Home and Land Company are doing now. Well that’s exactly what it is because people’s conditions do change. People might get married in the middle of building. People might need a place for a family member that needs medical help or support or temporary life change type of situation. People have done stuff like, hey, my kids are going to be around, but once they go off to college, I need to know that that room can become an artist studio or a music room or whatever it may be. So we’re able to do that. And sometimes these thoughts come through the designing process. It’s not initially there in the front, but like I say, the unpeeling the onion when they go through.

So I think what you’re kind of getting at is flexibility is here and there’s our attitude there to help people get the house they want and some people we do the first set of plans they’re like Steve that’s it bingo other people there could be a lot of changes with fine tuning and and different things that happen on on site conditions a lot of those are really driven by the people as they get into the project they just start enjoying it and as their thoughts get deeper into what’s this house about we helped a family do a retirement home in Colorado and as they cleared some of the land and worked on it and got a few things going they realized they had a beyond exceptional view. So suddenly that meant we had to reposition the house to be a little higher we had to make sure windows were a certain height we had to make sure the deck was there so it takes a little bit of work to do that while you’re also balancing the reality of budgets. Right.

Interviewer: Well This has been interesting. This has been informative. I’m glad we touched upon this because we hadn’t really gotten into this before. But you know it’s every time I start thinking about what subject matter and the things I can ask you just you know off the cuff even sometimes the more the things I the episodes I learned the most from are things that aren’t what you would think. It’s not the most precise you know it’s more like hey so let’s get does you know let’s get into something as simple as how exactly you guys are able to to get people up to speed just the process just learning how to you know it can be a daunting task I would think building a house and so I think..

Steve Tuma: it it’s it’s an exciting task but you’re right once sometimes when you get into it it’s like hey wait it’s not just dig a hole and put some cement in there and magically this foundation shows up it’s it’s got to be right height, consider drainage, you know, make sure it works with the flow of the land, make sure it works with some engineering concerns. Now, we don’t ask customers how to do that. We just want to know what they want. We’ll fill in the places to make sure it’s put together, drawn up on a set of plans. They can review it. We can review it with them so they understand. And then it goes through. A lot of people build houses with us because they enjoy the process. They want to do it. They’re learning. They may already know, they just want to do it. We have customers, some people have done a dozen, 15 homes with us. So it’s a variety of situations to just be supportive and provide the information that they need to go through and do it. This isn’t quite like doing a moonshot, but does the astronaut know how to project a moonshot? Does he know how to build a rocket? Probably not. But I’m sure he or she’s pretty good at getting in it, being healthy, driving it, doing whatever experiments they want, coming back and going through their debriefing things. So we’re kind of like that same situation. We’re the crew supporting you to get to the end results. So you don’t have to be an electrical engineer. You don’t have to be a structural engineer. But you do have to kind of just say, hey, this is what I want. We have a city infill lot. We’ve got a lakefront lot. We’ve got a mountain lot. We’ve got an agricultural property.
A lot more people doing equestrian properties. You know so each of those have a different thing so they may not know every single detail but they all know what they want. Of course. You know hey it’s an equestrian property we have to have a tack room off the back or hey we have a lot of dogs we don’t want
them running through the house so we have this back door dog room with a little dog bath dog shower they clean up and they go through. We’ve had other people in ranching farming communities where the wife says he’s coming in the house with all that dirt you know so there’s a little you know little shower room to enter where there’s it’s kind of like a little private uh you know shower workout area where they people can clean up and come in so we were able to adjust things a family did one it was a recreational home off an island in Washington State where their big concern was how do you get kayaks canoes all these water sports things out from underneath the house to the water without needing you know a crew or a or some other mechanized system so a lot of the design was really on how do you get stuff in and out of water and then how do you have ten friends sleep there right you know eat you know so it was more like a like a little you know operation of how do you have 10-15 people show up your house all have fun and no one go crazy yeah that was funny though have the dog room on one side of the house in the husband room on the other side jokingly some people might say it’s the same room but you know we can work on that too if someone wants to.

Interviewer: Right well that’s gonna wrap it up for today’s episode but before we go Steve let’s let the listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and what you guys do over there.

Steve Tuma: We’ve got a pretty cool website at LHLC.com that’s like the initial of Landmark Home Land Company LHLC.com where there’s a lot of there’s videos there’s these podcasts, there’s a couple thousand plans. You can peruse it, send an inquiry. You can also call. Michael will take the calls at 800-830-9788. And that’s a way just to go through and take a look at it and understand the process and go from there. We’re also at an Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. But most people just go right to the website. And what’s really cool is you can send an email in, we’ll respond to it, we do respond to it, we do answer the questions directly, and then we’re also available by phone if someone really wants to get into
details of saying how does this work for me? What about me? I’ve got a limited budget, I’ve got an unlimited budget, I’ve got this challenge, I’ve got an infill lot, I have a farm lot, you know, how do we go through and really get this put together?
So this is a situation of working out the details and being supportive so that people understand the project that they’re about to get into and we’ll take time to review it and it’s exciting to us.
We’ve been doing this 30 years.
It’s a lot of fun.
It’s just cool.
We enjoy it.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s what the way it should be. And there you have it. Thanks again Steve and thanks to all of you for listening to the panelized prefab kit home building show. So for Steve Tuma over at Landmark Home and Land Company and myself, have a great day and we will see you next time.

Steve Tuma: Thank you. This was fun.

A: Square-foot pricing is heavily influenced by vertical volume, structural complexity, and exterior roof geometry rather than simple floor area alone. A home with 20-foot cathedral ceilings, multiple foundation corners, or complex roof valleys requires significantly more structural lumber, specialized engineering, and labor than a standard single-story home with eight-foot flat ceilings.

A: Small footprints can be elevated by incorporating single-pitch modern rooflines, vaulted cathedral ceilings, strategically placed dormers, and expansive view-oriented window banks. Eliminating wasted hallway space and configuring open great-room layouts creates the spacious ambiance of a luxury estate with only a minimal increase in baseline framing costs.

A: In coastal or high-wind regions, expansive 20-foot walls act like large sails against lateral wind pressures, creating significant lateral deflection. Structural engineers must reinforce these tall wall assemblies with heavy-duty framing members, engineered point-load connections, and specialized shear bracing to prevent structural flexing and interior drywall cracking.

A: Framing expenses on larger floor plans can be reduced by standardizing the exterior foundation footprint to fewer corners and streamlining the main roof truss geometry. Focusing construction dollars on clear-span open living areas while value-engineering complex exterior roof valleys delivers maximum usable living space within a realistic budget.

A: Building on a sloped site requires stepped foundation footings and variable-height foundation walls rather than a uniform flat slab or single-depth excavation. Hillside designs frequently incorporate daylight walkout basements or drive-under garages, converting natural site slope into functional living and storage space while maintaining stable driveway access. 

Steve Tuma: We like to listen to what a customer says and needs and believe they need. That’s where we are able to help. We are able to work with them on designing the home right, making sure it fits on the land, and making sure that they are happy with it.

Interviewer: Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us for Episode 46 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me as always is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want exactly as they want across the nation and worldwide since 1993, my friend, Steve Tuma. Steve, how are you man?

Steve Tuma: It’s another great day. It always seems to be a good day.

Interviewer: That’s a good attitude.

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s fun. We get calls from people, “Hey, I want to build this weekend home. Hey Steve, we want to build another home. You helped us two years ago.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And it’s kind of invigorating actually.

Interviewer: Well, when you love your work, you never work a day in your life. Isn’t that what they say?

Steve Tuma: Right. We are the only company with 10 days a week and 30 hours a day. But we figure it out.

Interviewer: Like a Beatle song, Eight Days a Week.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, exactly.

Interviewer: I thought today we would get into a subject that has been asked about by a customer too. And that’s the subject of big homes versus small homes. We all have that thing. Should I get a big dog or a small dog? But when it comes to building houses, I think it’s a little more complex. So I guess you might equate it to expensive homes as opposed to lesser expensive designs but I’m sure it’s much more complex than that. So if you’re good, let’s dive in. What are the differences between the two?

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s kind of interesting because if you put that on a matrix, you’d be kind of like OK, so a smaller – does smaller mean that it’s less expensive? Does larger mean that it’s more expensive? Well, there are ways of making small homes simple. There are also ways of making small homes very intricate. There are also ways of making big homes simple and big homes very intricate as well. So there are ways to control budgets. If someone says, “Hey, I want a smaller, just really, really detailed palace.” That could be done. Other people say, “Hey, I need space. I just want a big simple home so I could get the most square footage for the dollars.”  So there are ways to adjust it depending upon what a particular customer needs, what their budget is, just their personal lifestyle. Some people like the simple designs. Simple is more. Other people want stuff that’s more intricate, get in different architectural features, just different looks, different roof pitches, ceiling height, porches, different architectural features and finishes.

So the basic difference is kind of what does a customer want and to what degree do they want it? We’ve done extremely simple homes. We’ve done extremely complicated homes. So it’s more we believe the listening of the customer to find out what they need because some of this is relative. If you grow up in a very boxy home, putting a front porch on it might be intricate or if you grow up in a very intricate home, simple might be what someone else considers to be intricate. So we like to listen to what a customer says and needs and believe they need and talk to them and kind of help them put it together on something that’s workable for what it is. A lot of customers understand what they need but don’t have the exact solution yet. And that’s where we are able to help. We are able to work with them on designing the home right, making sure it fits on the land and making sure that they are happy with it.

Interviewer: As a person standing back, I’m under the impression that the planning process must be a lot different for a less expensive home than a more expensive one or am I wrong?

Steve Tuma: It kind of depends. It depends on where it’s at because sometimes people will build simpler designs to keep the structure simple in an area where there’s a lot of structural concerns like earthquake or hurricane or high snow loads area. So it depends. If you are taking a simple home, say putting it on a simple lot in the Midwest, there aren’t really hurricanes and earthquakes there to do it. So that will be simpler. But we’ve had people build simple homes on more expensive area, you would see ocean front, beach communities, things like that because just the cost of building in those areas is more typical to get a simpler design and dress it up.  So there really isn’t something – some steadfast rule because if you take a simple home and put it in a complex building site where the complex building department, suddenly that simple home will need more work. And you could have a complex design in a place, say, a flat piece of land and Iowa. It’s a lot easier to build there. So a lot of this really depends on how, when, and where you’re getting it put together.  With us, it’s the same bottom line situation of we go through the preliminary architectural details, understanding the site conditions to make sure that the house is designed the way our customer wants it. But also, matching it to the land that it’s going to be sit on and the building department. So let’s just say someone wanted to build a boxy ranch home, just a 1200-square-foot ranch home and put it in a Midwestern area, kind of flat land. They bought 2 acres from a farmer. They are putting a house up. It’s going to be a lot different process to go through that because it’s flat land. It’s in a simpler building department situation.

Let’s just say that same family said, “You know, I want to move to Key West and I’ve got a lot that faces south and I’m right on the ocean.” Suddenly, we are dealing with hurricanes, we are dealing with flood zones, storm surges, a stickier building department, hurricane engineering, and different situations like that. So we would – even though it’s the same kind of 1200-square-foot home, we would have to because of the nature of the building site and the municipality and the permitting department, we would have to get more details put into place and work the design and structural engineering a little bit differently. So I guess it depends on how simple of a home and where it’s at. The location can really affect how we approach the design of a home. Some areas, there is height restrictions. An area might be 25 feet, well, if you want to do a 2-story home with a steep pitch roof, that’s very hard to achieve. But if suddenly the building department allowed 35 feet, suddenly it’s easier. So we have to know those elements upfront so that we can go through and design a home. Now, as far as how does this affect the customer, we just need to know. We can check with the building department. They may already know. But those are things that behind the scenes, our team, our designers, or engineers, energy code people, different type of engineers and designers that we have, we are able to put that together. So the customer doesn’t always have to have the answer of, “Hey, I want my wall like this. I need to have my floor system this thick. I got to have this roof pitch to make it work.” We will put it together so our customer can come to us with the general concept of what they are looking for. They can go through and say, “Hey, I want a 2-story in this area. I got 30 feet to build in.” And then we will work them through the design elements to massage the design so that it goes through.

Interviewer: It’s funny that I didn’t think about it until afterward I asked the question. But I would imagine there are probably smaller designs that are more complex and there are big designs that are pretty simple.

Steve Tuma: That’s exactly the situation because one thing that people are kind of trained to believe is, it’s square feet. And a lot of people say, “Well, Steve, why is this 1000-square-foot home this price but this 1000-square-foot is 50% more?” What people don’t realize is every square foot is different. So let’s just say you had a square foot of a home that was in a boxy home with an 8-foot flat ceiling. That’s going to have one price. If you had a home with a 20-foot ceiling, that same square foot, you got a 20-foot wall there.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: So even though the square footage hasn’t change, the features of that square feet are there. So even a different parts of a home, there will be parts that can cost less and cost more. It’s not a uniform thing. Kind of like the story, I think I mentioned this a few times. It’s not like a bag of groceries. You don’t call up the store up and say, “How much is a bag of groceries?” You have to find out and say, “Hey, I want so much chicken. I want some lettuce. I want some milk. I want some cheese.” Whatever it is that someone would want, and that determines the cost. So that’s what we are able to do is work with people to get them the pricing for the designs that they want so we can work with them to figure out what makes sense for what they end up choosing to do. And it’s this upfront legwork and conversations that we have with them. But yeah, you brought one fallacy up where people think every square footage of a house is the same. If that were true, everyone would be living 1200-square-foot palaces with 20-foot ceilings and steep pitch roofs and turrets and stuff like that.

And people also don’t realize that the way you count square footage is different. Some people count square footage by under a roof. That includes the overhangs. Well, you are not really living under your overhang. But some people do it that way. Some people include garages. Some people include basements. Some people include porches and breeze ways. So people have to watch when someone going by a square foot price, well, what’s in that. So you got to understand what the cost is. And we are able to go through that with someone. So if someone were to say, “Hey, here are two houses.” Let’s just arbitrarily say it’s a 1500-square-foot house package. Why one would cost more than the other so that they understand it, because amazingly, when people look at plans, Steve we could take a plan. Let’s just say a chalet house, something you’d put in a mountain in Colorado. You might look at it and see something. I might look at the exact same picture and see something different as far as what value is to me. I may see a chalet on the side of a hill with a walkout basement and go, “Wow! Cool! That’s like a separate living down there if friends came over.” Someone else might come out and say, “Wow! I could put my office down there.” Or, “Hey, I could have a drive under garage.” Or someone might say, “Ever since I’ve been a kid, I’ve wanted a chalet with big windows overlooking a mountain range.” So there are different values that people have for their home. So it’s not always safe to assume that there’s a 1500-sqaure-foot with 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, that that’s what everyone wants. Some people look at it and say, “Hey, that 3 bedrooms, 2 baths is really 2-bedroom home office.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Or whatever it may be. Or they may see a different future use if in-laws move in or whatever. So people are going to have different priorities. Some people worry about their garage more. They are just more centered about whatever hobbies they may have and they just figure, hey, the inside of the house is where they sleep. It’s not a big deal. Other people’s life is more home-centered so they want to have a certain inside for their particular lifestyle and they are not really as concerned about a garage. So, that’s what we do is work with people to figure it out what’s the priority, what makes sense, and then the house can be designed to what’s a priority for them.

Interviewer: Oh, we are talking about assumptions just now. So I’m assuming again, let’s say I’m a customer, I might assume that a panel package from Landmark, it is going to be completely different on a bigger house than a less expensive home. Am I wrong in that?

Steve Tuma: It all really depends on the structure and where you are building it. OK. So let’s just in theory, you had a 200-square-foot 2-story, just a regular boxy home. So there’s a 1000 square feet downstairs and a 1000 square feet configured the same upstairs. The structure of that home is going to be pretty simple. The load pass from the roof are going to go down the exterior walls down to the foundation be supported.

So let’s just say that you were looking at some very expensive architectural magazines or books and you look at and you go, “Wow! Look at these 2000-square-foot home!” And it has got 1500 square feet down, 500 square feet upstairs, and then there’s an open area roughly 500 square feet where it has got a 20-foot ceiling in the living room so you can look up to the second level. So someone could say, “Well, that’s 2000 square feet.” Well, the difference is in the intricacies of the design, the more intricate design is likely to have a more intricate roof, different point loads going down to the ground, different beams to support open balcony areas, different floor systems, different open span areas. So if someone were to take a say, a 1500-square-foot, 2-story that was boxy and make it a 2500-square-foot, 2-story that was boxy, the structure is pretty much the same. It’s just bigger. But if you were to reconfigure it and make completely complex roof system, a lot of ridges and valleys in the roof, a lot of corners in the home, suddenly the complete structure is differently. So it really comes into the design. Now, I don’t want to create a lot of confusion but if you were then to take the design and take it from where you might build in the Midwest where the engineering isn’t as strict as say if you were in Key West, in hurricane zones, suddenly, the house has different forces against it. So that example where the living room where you had a big glass wall and you can look up to balcony on the inside, maybe you’ve got a 20-foot tall wall there. Well, in the Midwest where generally the engineering is for 90-degree – 90-mile an hour winds, it’s not that big of a deal. Suddenly, you go stick it in Key West, that exact same house, you’ve got a wall 20 feet tall, say 20 feet wide, 20 feet tall and it’s in a 180-mile an hour wind, suddenly that wall needs to be reinforced.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So the point that I’m getting at is a small home, simple, medium, the general structure is the same but we adopt it for the particular use in the codes and design elements. So I think the point of what you’re asking is, is a smaller home necessarily cheaper built? No, it isn’t. It’s still a quality product that we supply but the conditions that it’s being built in might require to have a beefier structure, more engineering in different situations to do it. That example that I was talking about with the 20-foot tall wall is in a big wind, that wall in a sense becomes kind of like a kite or the underneath of a porch might become kind of a kite with the strong winds. It will push against that wall and flex that wall. Now, someone will be like, “Well, how do you know that?” Well, we know that by engineering and what we need to do is reinforce that wall, put different structural members in there, different design so that you drywall and interior finishes don’t crack.

Interviewer: Right. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: So a lot of people will question that. They will be like, “Well, Steve, I’ve lived in a house and I’ve never seen that.” And I’m like, “Well, you might not know what the current house is like but we are in the business of making sure it’s done right to avoid problems. But yeah, I think your question was, is there kind of something different if I were to do a simple home compared to a more complex? No. We are going to supply a very, very good structural system, good design, good structural engineering whether you are doing a simple design or where you are doing a very complex. Even though it is our customer’s home, we still look at it as a reflection of us. We want our customers to be happy. We want them to tell their friends and hopefully their friends or they buy again from us and we get to work with our customers again.

So, we always have an eye on quality to make sure that it’s done right. And that’s the key element. Just because someone is building a $100,000 home instead of a $2 million home doesn’t mean that the $100,000 person doesn’t want quality. And that’s what we supply.

Interviewer: Well, are there ways – let’s say, I want to downsize. I just want to make my life more simple but I don’t want to get into a smaller house that feels like a cheaper house. I mean are there ways to make smaller homes feel like more expensive larger homes?

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah, there are a lot of things that can be done. And that’s kind of a trend right now where people are looking for modest comfortable but still the cool factor.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: They want something that has that little extra something to it. So let’s just say you are to take a typical ranch home. We can go through and dress it up with architectural features they like, different cables on it, little dormers, porches, different types of roof designs, hip roofs, angled more modernistic roofs, different types of situations. On the inside, you can do cathedral ceilings, tray ceilings. Make one part of the house, the wall is taller. You can put a different interest in there with some angled walls, the way the kitchens are designed. So there are actually a lot of work that can go in to really make a small home feature-packed. I’m not always a believer that a bigger home is necessarily better than a smaller home that’s well-designed.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: So it kind of depends on what someone is looking for. Sometimes customers will come to us with some plans that they got somewhere and they would be like, “Steve, look at this great 2500-square-foot home.” And I look at it and go, “Yeah, effectively, you’ve got 1800. Look at all the hallways and weird spaces.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So yeah, that square footage but a hallway isn’t always considered to be highly usable.

Interviewer: Right. Of course.

Steve Tuma: Let’s take you for example. Would you rather have a nice comfortable home theater or just that really cool long boring hallway?

Interviewer: Give me a minute.

Steve Tuma: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: It doesn’t take that long. Yeah. So that’s kind of the scenario is you look into the design to say, “Hey, how is this family using it?” I was just talking to a customer. He is building a home in Albuquerque. His name is Kevin. And he happens to have a nice lot in a nice neighborhood, built this house. But the key, what he called the money shot is looking out the front of the house where it’s this absolutely beautiful views of mountain ranges.

Interviewer: Oh, right. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: So to him, it was making sure that you could sit anywhere in the house and look out to the front windows whether you’re in the bathroom or in your bedroom, in the kitchen, in the living room, you could just look up and see this majestic view. So we were able to do that. It was in that 1300-square-foot.

Interviewer: Oh wow!

Steve Tuma: He said, “Steve, this is absolutely amazing. I got this little deck. Everywhere I go, I could look at this view.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And he said, “My neighbors are building million to $2 million homes.” The little subdivision right next to him, he was just across the road. He said, “I got the same thing. I did it myself in a 1300-square-foot home.”

Interviewer: Wow!

Steve Tuma: So sometimes it’s not the design of the home or it’s not all the design. Sometimes it’s in the positioning on the lot to take advantage of the environment it. That makes a home more enjoyable.

Interviewer: Sure. Yeah. I see a lot of simpler, smaller homes. They look like modulars. And I would never want that. I mean is Landmark able to design something that can give me a simple smaller home that doesn’t look like some little modular box?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, this is kind of a follow-up situation of what we were just reviewing. We could take that concept of hey, keep it simple but let’s give it that little extra zinger type of a thing. So we’ve got a customer who is building in Pahrump, Nevada. And it’s a 1200-square-foot home. We put kind of a modernistic roof on it, some pitched angles, kind of some overhangs so it has got a little bit of mid-century modern vibe going to it. It’s a beautiful open concept. He happens to like to entertain. He is on the road a lot. So when he is home, he wants to make sure that he could have fun with friends and family. So we took that 1200-square-foot ranch, put these nice angled modernistic roofs on it, design the inside with a bit cathedral ceiling in there and he is going to make a little palace out of it. That probably cost, I don’t know, 1%, 2% more to do.

Interviewer: Just that. That’s interesting.

Steve Tuma: To dress it up. But if you look at it in comparison to like a regular gable end home, they both be beautiful homes but if you are into that kind mid-century modern look, you’re going to be like, “Man, check that thing out.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So, we understand how to do it. We just have to get a feel for what people want. Sometimes a lot of these things to get away from the modular, just that box that everyone can identify.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: It’s different things. Porches extended on eaves, adding windows, putting bay windows, putting a little jag in the house design, the way the garage is attached to it, the pitch of the roof, the type of roof design, the gable end, the hip roof. Some people do mansard roofs. They are not as common but it’s possible to do that. So yes, we are able to do it and it’s something that isn’t as hard as people believe it to be. We are in the business of making sure people get a house that makes sense, that they enjoy. We don’t necessarily charge more just because it’s something that other people would charge more for. We go through and say, “Hey, this makes sense.” The customer is going to be happy. It’s just a little bit of a change in the truss design and suddenly we’re off. So yeah, we’ve done that a lot. And I think that’s why people enjoy our design is they have control but we don’t tell them what house they are going to live in. They tell us. We draw it up. We make sure that it works for the lot, for different scenarios, and put it together. Make sure that hallways are right way, the doors are the right size, different stuff like that. And kind of take their concept and put it on paper.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So yeah, we’ve got great designers that can help people through those issues. And that’s also a situation where people that want to do big houses. Sometimes they look at it and say, “Yeah, I like this design but it just doesn’t – it’s not a hundred percent there for me.” We can go through and work with them on the design elements.

Our customer base loves designing their own home. They love knowing that they were involved with the design. They love knowing that they can control it, understand it, and make it happen. That’s the fun part.

Interviewer: You just brought up larger homes. And that was – I was going to get to that next. Let’s go to the other side of the coin. So let’s say I’m an owner/builder. I need space for my family. It’s growing. But my budget just isn’t that big. Can Landmark help me control the cost of building a larger home?

Steve Tuma: Yes, we can. And it’s a situation kind of the same that I just described but a little bit backward. So if someone comes through and they come out with this – they say, “Hey, I need a room. I’ve got four kids. I need to have a home office. We need to have a craft room. We want a home theater and we got a couple of big SUVs because we are active and we like to get away on weekends and do different things.” We might have to kind of work with them on simplifying the roof systems, because roof systems are a big component in expense and complexity and the design. So work with them on getting rid of a couple of corners, kind of simplifying things.

Now, I don’t want to say we are going to sterilize the design so it’s no fun.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: We are just going to look at them and say, “Hey, if you get rid of this element, you’re likely to save this amount of money. How important is that element?” And what’s interesting is a lot of times, people might say, “I never even noticed that. It wasn’t something that was important to me. I didn’t notice it. I was looking at the big family room. That’s what I want.” It’s like, “OK. Well, let’s reconfigure a few things. Work with the roof structure, work on different structural elements, the types of floor systems, different spans, so that we could give the big open spaces that they would need for their family get together for that particular family’s use. So yes, we are able to go through to work with them to figure it out. If someone is really, really pushing a budget, sometimes there are situations where you have to – there are certain things you can change and certain things you can’t change. So if someone were to say, “Hey …” if they were cutting it close, we might say, “Hey, it’s good to get the house you want. Maybe put less expense, put carpet in now.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Or some – because you can change that down the road or do different adjustments. So yes, we are able to work through with people to do it. And bottom line, we want to make sure that the customers end up with a house that they want and that they are proud of. So we will do whatever we can through the way we purchase lumber and work with our engineering and designing processes to really work it out so that then end result is what they want.

Interviewer: Let’s talk about retirement homes or weekend homes, even retirement or weekend. How do I make let’s say, a retirement home, how do I make it cool and yet keep it cost-affordable? I mean I have some great ideas or a house. How do I keep the cost down?

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s really interesting because you’re kind of combining a few of the ideas here. Retirement kind of implies people are scaling down but they still need space for the grandkids or friends to come over, that occasional guest.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: Sometimes these retirement homes are more remote places and mountains or big open areas or on forest or whatever it would be. So it’s a matter of how do we keep it affordable and still hit that kind of relaxing type of design. We found that there are different ways of creating roof structures and designing roof structures and floor plans that give the people those nice relaxing designs. Let’s just say, Steve, you had a lake house. Let’s just say, you found a spot in Colorado, somewhere in the mountain area, there might be a stream or lake or something around you. And you came into us and said, “Ever since I’ve been 12, I want a chalet. I want the angled prow on the front. I want a 20-foot glass wall. I want to go look at this.” And for some reason, your budget didn’t work because of site condition cost, access cost, power cost, septic cost, whatever to do it. The essence of what you are looking for is a big, grand, great room where you could sit there, read the paper, watch TV, and look out at your really cool view. There are different designs that we’ve come up with, with different types of roof systems and floor plans that allow people to have that same effect. It’s done a little bit differently.

So there are a variety of different ways of achieving the end goal. And again, this goes back to what I originally spoke about, of finding out what it is that the customer values and then working that design so that it works within the budget.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So sometimes, like I say, someone might come in and say, “Hey, I want this big grand chalet. I want a lodge.” And then – but when you talk to them, they are alike – what they really want is a big glass wall to sit there, look outside, have the fireplace and the TV to the right, a glass wall to the left so they could sit there, have dinner, read a book and look at the magnificent view, still what a show, watch the fireplace and enjoy it. So through these conversations, we are able to work with people. Sometimes this gets a little deeper and controlling cost because that idea that I said, say a house in the mountain in Colorado, well, is it in a flatter lot or is it on the side of a hill? So sometimes, we have to look into the design elements of how you use the land like how the house is accessed. You can put a driveway here or you can put a driveway there. Different types of foundations might be affordable. Different types of designs might limit the size of the foundation that would control the cost. So it’s not always just in the floor plan. It’s kind of stepping back and saying, “Hey, what’s the overall design challenge? What are we looking at?” Because if you were to build that same house by a lake in Colorado on flat land, it’s going to be different than if you are on the side of a hill.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: So that’s what we try to do is look at – kind of a holistic approach of saying, “Hey, this is what the customer wants. They want a view out their window, still be involved with the family and friends that are over and have a big grand ceiling so that they can see the sunrise, the sunset, the night stars, but also look out in the field and see deer and animal doing whatever they do. So that’s the element. So sometimes what someone will tell us saying, “Hey, I want this,” the reality is they want a different method of achieving that this. So it’s not always the big, expensive chalet that they are looking at. They are looking at, “Let me sit in a living room and enjoy my view.” So there are different ways of designing that with different designs and that’s what we are able to do. Again as I mentioned though, a lot of people know that we are a company that helps people build their own panelized homes. That’s important. What’s more important is listening on what the customer says, determining how to design it and work it right in the budget so that it’s easy for them to see it on paper, easy to get permits, and then follow through and build a cool home.

Interviewer: Right. Fantastic! Well, that’s going to wrap it up for us today. But before we hit the dusty trail, I want to give Steve a chance as usual to tell us how we might get a hold of Landmark Home and Land Company and find out all the amazing things that they are doing over there. Steve, give us some idea of how we can touch base.

Steve Landmark: The best way is to check out our website. Our company is Landmark Home and Land Company and you can see our website at LHLC.com, kind of the initials of Landmark Home and Land. We don’t have the and in the URL but LHLC.com. You can check out I think we’ve got thousands of plan ideas there. We’ve got this special select plan section which talks about kind of simpler designs if that’s what someone is interested in. We’ve got our podcast on there. We’ve got a variety of videos. We’ve got different pages discussing what we include, how we do different things.  That’s a good place to start. You can send an email to us through an inquiry through the website. And there’s also a number there, 800-830-9788. Again, that’s 800-830-9788. And Mike will answer the phone. We always try to answer the phone. If you leave a voicemail, we will get back with you right away. But Mike will work through the initial phases with you and then as you move on, I would get involved. You can always reach me at [email protected]. I can help people through the process, understanding what needs to be done. And you can also see details on the internet on Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and get some ideas of what we do. We are very in this in talking and communicating with our customers to kind of help them at the beginning phases so that they kind of understand how we can help them through the process. The idea is our customers like to know what’s going on with their house. They like the design. They enjoy it. They want to budget it. They want to build a house to their priorities and get the house they want. It’s a lot of fun.

Interviewer: Makes sense. And there you go. So for Steve Tuma and myself, we want to thank you all once again for listening in to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. Happy building everyone and we will see you next time.

Steve Tuma: Thank you.

Learn how an integrated one-stop-shop model streamlines the custom home building process by uniting architectural drafting, structural engineering, energy calculations, and framing kit manufacturing under a single team. We discuss why coordinating independent consultants—such as architects, civil engineers, and HVAC designers—often creates communication breakdowns, permit delays, and expensive job-site change orders. Discover how pre-engineering roof truss cavities for mandatory insulation depths, designing dedicated mechanical duct chases, and guaranteeing delivered framing materials match municipal-approved blueprints empowers owner-builders to manage their projects with confidence, predictability, and budget control.

A: A one-stop shop manages the entire pre-construction and structural production pipeline under a single roof, integrating architectural design, stamped structural engineering, mechanical layouts, energy calculations, and framing manufacturing. Unifying these services eliminates the friction and miscommunication that occur when homeowners attempt to coordinate separate, independent design professionals on their own.

A: Strict energy codes frequently require high thermal insulation values like R-48 or R-49, which physically cannot fit into standard shallow rafter framing without compressing the material. Coordinating architectural roof designs with structural engineering ensures raised-heel trusses or deeper rafter cavities are drafted upfront to provide adequate depth and ventilation clearance.

A: Designing dedicated mechanical chases and duct pathways on the blueprints ensures heating and cooling lines do not conflict with load-bearing beams or structural floor joists. Planning these pathways early prevents subcontractors from cutting through structural framing on-site or dropping ugly soffits through finished living spaces.

A: Many national kit providers sell standard, unengineered framing packages off the shelf, leaving the owner-builder responsible for modifying blueprints and sourcing additional lumber to satisfy local plan checkers. A coordinated design-and-build process guarantees the delivered panelized wall and truss package matches the exact, locally approved engineering permit set with no surprise site modifications.

A: Resolving structural dimensions, trade connections, and local code details on paper before breaking ground allows owner-builders to leverage their time effectively rather than troubleshooting issues in the field. Clear, fully coordinated drawings enable owners to schedule trade subcontractors smoothly without having to manage daily job-site conflicts.

Steve Tuma: I would say almost a hundred percent of our customers, they said, Steve, it’s the knowledge, the availability I feel comfortable. You guys are on top of it, I didn’t even realize how important it was.

Interviewer: Greetings everybody. Welcome to Episode 45 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me as always is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want exactly as they want across the nation and worldwide since 1993, my friend, Steve Tuma. Steve, how is it going, buddy?

Steve Tuma: Hey, it’s another great day. We’ve been helping people just design more and more homes all for different purposes across the country, some main homes, some vacation homes, some retirement homes, sometimes first-time homes.

Interviewer: A company with a purpose. That’s good.

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer: I’ve been to bring this up on a podcast before but I haven’t been to squeeze it in until today, and that is something Landmark is known as a one-stop shop when it comes to panelized home building. And I think our listeners who have been through the website and seen the various videos and et cetera might like to know just what one-stop shop actually means. So let’s kick it off there. Tell us what makes Landmark Home and Land Company a one-stop shop?

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s kind of interesting. We always do what we can to help customers out and help them through their project. And this was something that a customer labeled us 15 years ago. They said, Steve, this is great. Landmark Home and Land Company is a one-stop shop. I don’t have to deal with a bunch of people. I could just call you, email you, or text you and say, ‘Hey, this is what I want.’ And somehow it gets done.  I guess what specifically works in our situation is that there situations where people will need an architect, the structural engineer, an electrical engineer, a plumbing designer, an HVAC designer, energy code people, green code people, someone to work with civil engineers, and a whole variety of different people. So what happens is how do you juggle all these people? How do you keep them in line?

Like one of the customers said, it’s kind of like chasing greased pigs. How do you do all this stuff? It’s like training monkeys. It’s like how do you keep10 people all set and moving forward? And that’s what they saw. It’s like,  Steve, by calling you, we can just get everything done. I don’t have to deal with it.  So a customer actually labeled us a one-stop shop and it kind of made – it kind of made sense. So we are able to solve the customer’s needs by taking care of a lot of aspects of the home design and panelization so that then they are able to go through and live their life, have their job, and do the elements that are important on site for the building of their project. So that’s the key element is we kind of work as a catch-all to be supportive for the customers. It’s pretty interesting.

Interviewer: So nuts and bolts break it down, how does that help me as an owner/builder?

Steve Tuma: How it helps you is you have one place to get support for your project. So a lot of people say,  Well, that’s not a big deal. I’ll just call an architect then I’ll get a structural engineer then I’ll get an electrical designer then I’ll get a heating ventilating air conditioning designer then I’ll get a guy to do the gas pipes and I’ll just do this.  And that sounds good but it’s not quite that easy.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Because there’s a level of knowledge that you need to get the job done, keeping the guys on schedule and attentive to the project and then working through the different situations that arise, and understanding them. So, someone might go through – a classic example that I see since energy codes are getting more and more common across the country is a lot of people will go through and say,  Hey, my insulation has to be thicker up in the roof.  So they figure, hey, that’s no big deal. But depending upon how your roof structure is put together, you may need more space.

Interviewer: Right. Right.

Steve Tuma: So suddenly, you can’t go sticking an R-48 typically in a 10-inch rafter. So you might have to have a different roof design or come up with a different situation or just have different structural members to have that all put together properly. So that’s where it comes together is the ability to coordinate it and understand it and ultimately be responsive and very supportive of our customer base because there is a lot of complex details out there. Building departments are tightening up where people are building. There are more and more interesting lots. It sometimes has different restrictions or requirements to them. So what it does is we become that kind of guru to them or if they need help, we will jump in and help them through the process. But we already have the system set up. We’ve been doing this since 1993. We have the system set up so we can just fill in. So it’s kind of a situation where in theory, someone could be a surgeon but are they going to be their own surgeon? Probably not. They are going to need help. Is everyone going to fix their own car? Is everyone going to paint their own house? What are people going to do?

By us being the one-stop shop, we are able to fill in the blanks so that the customer is able to work out the details on the site, take care of issues that they want design elements, closing on the land, working with the financing. But not just that, but also, living their own life. Going to their own job, having some time off, kind of be able to keep the project under control.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: And a lot of that, we are just available and knowledgeable. We are proactive to help people.

Interviewer: Well, you mentioned the work guru and that’s kind of how I see Landmark in the overall way you guys help your customers. But how did that process – how long has it taken you to put that together where you can become that? What makes – to make yourself a one-stop shop, that had to have been a lot of trial and error, et cetera to get yourself to that point.

Steve Tuma: Well, it wasn’t necessarily a trial and error situation. It was something where we realized that hey, customers aren’t able to get the help. You would think that hey, if you call someone that’s in a certain discipline, they are going to call you back, take care of you, be reasonable.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: Be knowledgeable, help you through the process. And even though that you would think that that’s the way it is, it doesn’t always help it much less, the information that you need to tie all these disciplines together, the architectural design, structural design, energy codes, and on and on. So it was something where we always listen to the customer and want to help them and understand what they need. And we got drawn into it because suddenly, it’s like,  Hey, why can’t people get their energy codes? Hey, why can’t they get their heating and ventilating and air conditioning systems done? Why aren’t the contractors calling them back? Why isn’t the structural engineer working with them? And it’s basically we found that there was a need for people to be taken care of. And also, it kind of helps us because when we do it internally, we have control over this. If I need to get an answer on the size of a duct for a heating system to make a chase of a proper size within a home, I can do it. If a customer has a question, they can call. Chances are, we will have the answer right away. If not, we will get it. So it really becomes a customer support issue where we are able to be responsive and help a customer. So if a customer said,  Hey, what about this? Or I need to change that. Or hey, we’re on site, what’s going on?

If they don’t understand something, we are able to help them through the process. So it was really based out of a desire to just make sure the customer is taken care of properly and also streamline our system so that we could have a complete set of plans that a customer can use to understand their project with their family, work through the building department permitting, work through inspections, and then also go through the actual building processes. And these plans, because they are accurate and complete, it allows people to better budget their project as well and schedule it. So it’s the kind of that homework that you do upfront to properly design your home, helps you schedule it, stay on budget, and work with people and keep the priorities of the project in place. It’s pretty interesting. Sometimes people say,  Well, I just need my furnace design.  Yeah, you do. But understand, if it’s designed right, how much it’s going to help you later through the project.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: That’s a key element in it that people don’t always understand. It’s planning upfront so that when you are building, you are just building the home instead of making decisions and changes. Those changes during the building process will hurt your budget, they will hurt your schedule, and it will just make it a harder project. Our system makes it easier for people to control and understand their project.

Interviewer: Right. If you guys hear a phone going up, that’s Steve. His phone never stops. He is always busy.

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer: Let’s talk about – I would imagine the one-stop shop concept also would make as an owner/builder would make my building process a lot more easy, seamless almost as far as designing plans, engineering, the actual building process.

Steve Tuma: Right. That’s exactly the situation. I kind of presented it on the way of how we help customers. But if you were looking at it as the customer that you are, you’ve got a job, you’ve got a family, you’ve got to take care of yourself, you need some relaxation time. There is just stuff that goes on in everyone’s life. Do you want to deal with 10 or 15 people to design your house or do you want to call one reliable person, get it done, get a straight answer quickly so that you can move on? So that’s what it does is it leverages our customer’s time to make sure that things are taken care of properly. So that’s a situation. So if someone were to say,  Hey, what’s going on with this?  Or,  Hey, we decided to have a bigger window or can we do something – can we look mini-split heating systems instead of conventional HVAC systems? What are the differences?  That’s what we are able to do and carry it through. So our customers have an understanding of what’s going on but we are able to provide the depth of knowledge in a proactive method to help them shorten the learning curve so that they have a full understanding. Now, that’s implying that someone hasn’t built before. We have a lot of customers do that. But we also work with a lot of people that develop properties, have built multiple homes with us. They help other family members or friends. So what it is is it’s kind of like having your own design and engineering department but not having to pay for it on payroll and it’s also an availability issue and a knowledge base.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So that’s the key is it’s a support system that gives our customers an understanding and control of the project.

Interviewer: I was just going to say that going back to the word guru, it’s like having that support system, a phone call away has got to really reassure the builder.

Steve Tuma: Right. And that’s the key thing we communicate with our customers. We let them know what’s going on. We say,  Hey, this is happening. This is going on. We are at this stage of the design. We will need this from you and keep it going.  And we’ve done a lot so we understand what customers need but that being said, if someone has some special need, they are in a different situation, we are more than happy to step up to the plate. Chances are, we’ve already done special request for someone else. So doing it for a newer customer or current customer, it’s not a big deal.

Interviewer: So there’s not much you haven’t seen yet.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Now that I’ve said that, there are situations – there are always different selective enforcement as I call it by building departments or uniqueness in building site or special requirements or emerging technologies but the key to it is we have access to the information. If for some reason we don’t have the answer right off of our head, we’ve got a lot of projects going around the country and that gives us the depth of the knowledge is by having these different experiences and different places, the chances that a customer is going to run into something that we haven’t experienced is probably extremely limited. But even so, if it’s happening, we have the people that are on the frontlines taking care of engineering and all these different details to get answers and get it taken care of.

Interviewer: Right. Now, the Panelized Home Kit which I as a customer would purchase from Landmark including plans and everything that arrives on the truck, that kit is going to match the approved plans, right? I’m not going to have to upgrade the panel package later.

Steve Tuma: Right. And that’s a great point that you bring up because a lot of people automatically assume that if you buy something somewhere, it’s meant for their intended use.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s not always the case. It’s kind of an interesting situation where you would think that hey, if someone is doing something, it’s going to fit the use. Well, I was actually in a building supply place once and they were selling what they called a handrail.

Interviewer: OK.

Steve Tuma: But it wasn’t – it didn’t meet the code. Now, it was a long stick. Yeah, you look at and go,  Yeah, it’s fine.  It was a quarter inch too small. Now, does the typical person think of that? Do they even know about it? Do the people at the store realize it? No. So you wouldn’t realize that,  Hey, it’s got to be a certain size or it’s got to be supported certain ways or it’s got to be able to support a certain amount of weight.  You would just never think that a product that didn’t make sense was sold in that way. And that’s what we do is we go through and when we do the design, the engineering, and all these details, we send the plans out. The plans get approved. We then build to that approved set of plans.

The point being is that even though it’s a national code that’s enforced selectively and per the particular situations at the site, there can be different interpretations by building departments on what they want. So if for some reason, a particular building department wants a couple other items in the structure, they tell us during the permitting stages, we add that to the plans, we go through and do it and include it as part of our package. We guarantee the cost and make sure that it will get through the building department. So that’s a key element. And what’s timely about this is normally, we didn’t hear a lot about this because we just thought,  Hey, you do their job right.  Well, just this last week, we had two people say,  Hey, I just realized these other companies, they send me a house and I have to adapt it to the code.  And I’m sitting here thinking,  Well, that’s pretty strange. That puts the customer in an awkward position.  So since 1993, we’ve been doing it that way to make sure that when someone has a home that they want that it’s designed and engineered and then the panel package comes out exactly to what was approved so it’s easier to build and easier for inspections to go through and get done.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: That’s a key element to it that people don’t always realize is something that’s necessary. People know what they know. Well, we’ve been doing this since 1993, making sure that what’s planned is the panel package we delivered so inspections are there. So it just makes it smoother and easier. It makes the whole process better. We are in the business of making sure that the project is planned right to avoid unnecessary issues through the permitting and building phases.

Interviewer: Going back to the handrail and things like that, I mean it seems to me like you guys do so much work upfront that those little things aren’t going to happen or hopefully something like that isn’t going to happen. It’s that little garbage that seems to be what bogs down building projects.

Steve Tuma: Right. Sometimes the smaller things, now things occasionally come up, but again we are extremely supportive. We work with people through the process whether it’s an issue that has got to do with our system or just part of the building trades. We are always supportive of it. But you’re right. I mean just one little thing can create an issue.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: So if we go off that handrail situation, if there is a hand – if someone were to buy a handrail from someplace that didn’t fit and they install it and the inspector comes out and says,  Hey, what about this?  Suddenly, they get to take it down and redo it. That’s wasted time. It’s wasted money and it’s aggravating.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: So that’s what we are able to do is work all this all upfront so that our customers have the plans. They could review it with their subcontractors, building departments, general, whoever it is that they seem to be working with so that everyone is on the same page at the beginning of the project. And if there are issues, they can do it during the planning stages when everything is on paper. So a contractor could come through and say,  Hey, I’d like to make this little adjustment.  OK. We could do it on paper before it goes through permitting to make sure that everything is in process and then it’s just easier, because,  Steve, Murphy’s law is alive and kicking.

Interviewer: Yeah, of course.

Steve Tuma: Problems like these don’t come up Monday at 9:00 o’clock. It’s always Friday at 4:58 when someone is like,  Hey, wait!  And by us doing the plans upfront suggesting our customers review with contractors, we are suggesting that people actually look at the plans. It sounds weird but there are a lot of times where contractors don’t look at the plans until they are sitting there on the site. They are like,  Hey, what’s up with this?  We are like,  Well, that’s why we sent it out earlier.  So we want to create an awareness and help the customer through the process so that everyone is understanding of what’s going on before they actually start digging and start nailing panel packages together. So it’s kind of helping the customers understand the road that they are going down. That’s the key essence to it.

Interviewer: Are there different levels of customer help that Landmark provides? I mean is everybody pretty much gets the same excellent treatment or …?

Steve Tuma: We all go through and do everything we can but different customers need different levels of help. So we are always available. We are always supportive whether someone is doing a basic lower cost home or a huge mansion. We are always available. We take care of our customers. It just really comes down to some customers have different levels of experience or some customers they may understand framing but they may not understand energy calculations or the HVAC system design. So if someone wants to get particular details, all of that is available. And the nice thing is, that’s just part of our service. We don’t go through and say,  Well, Steve, you asked a question about your doorknob. It’s a $100 an hour.  We don’t do that. It’s just part of taking care of our customer because we believe that the value is in supporting our customers so they understand what they are doing.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And we want to be available so that people aren’t embarrassed. They might ask 20 questions and our attitude is,  Hey, if you have 20 more, let’s talk about it. Let’s help it.  Because it helps them understand and get through the process and realize what they are doing.

Interviewer: I mean how long does it take you or Mike or whoever at Landmark picks up the phone for the first with a customer? How long does it take you to kind of be able to assess what that customer’s needs are going to be, the unique things that you might be able to provide to someone? Is that something you can pretty much figure out in the first conversation?

Steve Tuma: Well, we always know we are available. We have a full gamut of how we can help them. But yes, generally talking to people, people are very open. They are calling to want to get some help. They don’t always realize – they make call thinking, hey, panelized homes are what we do and it is, but they don’t always realize the planning, the engineering, all those steps upfront are equally or more important type of a situation. So through the conversation, we are able to just have a nice dialogue and exchange so that they are like,  Hey, wow! Now, I understand.  Or,  Hey, I was looking for this. I didn’t realize there was a company like Landmark Home and Land Company. I didn’t realize this was available.  So it’s an exchange that we have of getting to know each other.

A lot of people want to know about our company and we are happy to tell them about it but we are equally as intrigued knowing who our customers are to make sure that they understand what’s going on, so that they understand the scope of a project, the involvement, the type of work that will be, and the help that we do because sometimes people don’t always realize the amount of work that will need to go into a home. So we try to point it out to them so that people don’t kind of bite off more than they can chew. Now, all these people can work on the houses, some of them just need different levels of help or they will need different understandings of how to schedule or where to work through different things. So a lot of people will go through and say,  Wow! It must be hard if someone is a first-time builder compare to having built five homes or a professional that builds two, three, four, five, ten homes a year. But everyone has their strengths and everyone has points where they need a little bit more help whether they are pro or first-time homebuilder. We can help either one of them.  And it’s that clear communication. It’s enjoying our job and being supportive. And yes, we do want quality customers that intend on building a quality home. It is a lot of work. It’s a commitment. It’s a time commitment. It’s a financial commitment. It’s an effort but it’s really, really rewarding.

Interviewer: Right. Now, one of my pet peeves is when you call for service and you can’t – you go through your whole list of things that you’d like to have happened with this transaction and you have to talk to a completely differently person the next time you call and it’s like you have to start – it’s almost like starting from scratch with the next person that you are dealing with. So when I call Landmark as a customer, do I get one customer service person that I can go back to time and time again?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, and that’s the key thing. We set it up this way because I was always – it was hard when you go to a customer and you say or a company and you say,  Hey, here is my problem.  And they look at and they go,  Oh, great. Let me hand you over to that person.  And then you get to spend 20 minutes again bringing them up where they are like,  Well, I’m not the right …  and then 12 people later, you end up with someone that might pay attention and know what they are doing.

Interviewer: It drives me nuts. I hate it. I hate it.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. So what we do is initially, our customers will call in, talk to Mike. He will go through, work through the process, the understanding of what is – what the need, getting preliminary ideas. But once they are at a stage where they are ready to go, I work with them. I’ve worked with every single customer since 1993.

Interviewer: Oh wow!

Steve Tuma: To understand exactly what it is. So that’s the key. Someone could call up and say,  Hey Steve, this is Joe. I’m over here. What’s going on here? Hey, can we change this?  And I will have a very strong understanding of their particular product. So we can just get down to the point. It’s actually kind of funny because a customer may call in and we may talk for 2 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever it is. A lot of it is 5, 10, 20% of it is talking about the project. The other is like,  Hey, how are you doing? Is the project going well?  Kind of us wanting to offer the help. So because we have an understanding of what people need, how they need in our support system, I think people will really, really appreciate that. And there was one particular customer, he is building a very large home in Phoenix. Before he decided to work with us, he said,  Well, Steve, I got all these different people and this and this and that.  And I said,  Well, hey, call me if we can help. If you want to go work with your architect and all these different people, that’s fine.  A year later and I think he told me a substantial amount of money, he had preliminary plans that we could have gotten done in a couple of weeks but he went through the back and forth and he said,  Steve, I never realized what it was.  He ended up working with us. We are currently going through the process and I said,  Michael, what could have I told you upfront that we supply a complete service. We’ve been doing it – this is our system.  And he goes,  Steve, I totally believe what you said. I just didn’t realize it until I tried to juggle these 10 people myself that it’s just hard to do.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And that’s the interesting thing. Sometimes people don’t realize that customer service exists. Knowledgeable people that care exist. It’s just not out there in today’s world pretty much in a lot of industries, so they don’t believe that it’s there. But once they are there, I would say almost a hundred percent of our customers, they come in wanting to buy panelized homes but while we are there through the process, they said,  Steve, it’s the knowledge, the availability. I feel comfortable. You guys are on top of it. You’re almost making me move faster.  Because we are sitting here moving the project along. They said that’s the value. And I say,  How can we tell customers that the value is being on top of it, being proactive, being available, being communicative. They said,  Steve, I didn’t even realize how important it was. You could have put a red flashing neon sign in front of me and it doesn’t register.  I’ve that so many times. So I guess this s my point to say, building a home is important. Panelized homes will help you. Our ability to design and support and kind of help you through the process I think is the real claim to fame that people don’t realize as something very important that they are going to need through the process. That’s what we do.

Interviewer: Well, awesome. I think we now have a better understanding of just what Landmark’s one-stop shop vibe is all about. So, very cool. Well, folks, that’s going to do it for us today. But before we head out, I want to as usual, give Steve a chance to tell all of you how best to get hold of the good people over at Landmark Home and Land Company. So Steve, take it away. Let us know.

Steve Landmark: The easiest way is to check out our website. It’s up 24 hours a day. It’s LHLC.com. That’s kind of the initials of Landmark Home and Land Company. It’s just LHLC.com. You can look at plans, see videos, listen to these podcasts. There are some discussions on on what we supply and how we do different things. You can submit and inquiry in the upper right corner. There’s an email tab. There’s also a phone number, 800-830-9788. And people can call and talk to Mike and whatever is easy for people. They can call us, text us, email us. We will do everything that we can. We understand the process that they are going through of trying to decide, hey, how do I build my house? And since we do do this differently, it’s – I think they find it to be interesting that we are able to take care of them. That’s – the key thing is check out our website. Give us a call. You can always email me directly at [email protected]. I’ll do whatever I can to help.

And then we are also on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube. We are out there. But bottom line is, we want to help people understand their project and have a good time designing and building it.

Interviewer: You mentioned texting just now. It looks like more and more businesses are having people contact them via text. That’s awesome. It’s great.

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s pretty cool. And once I get working with people, they have my direct cell phone. It’s the same number that my mom calls me up. So if they need something, I kind of have a general rule of thumb, if I’m awake, I answer the phone, because we realized that sometimes customers, the family get together on a Friday night or a Saturday morning or different times so we want to be available. And just the nature of anyone’s life today, they are busy. They are going to pick the kids up. They are going to work. They are on an airport. They are shopping. If there’s something that needs to be taken care of, we can do it. Just today, I was going lunch. A customer calls, have a little 5-minute conversation before I order food, we got him taken care of. So we are here to help people through and get them taken care of. And enjoy the process. We enjoy working with our customers and I believe that they really enjoy working with us as well. That’s very important to us.

Interviewer: And like your mom, they can call and just make sure you are eating right or …

Steve Tuma: Yeah, exactly. Hey, what’s happening? We get invited to so many housewarming parties.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s great.

Steve Tuma: Different cooking events or whatever that person is having. I wish that we could get to every one of them but it’s …

Interviewer: Yeah, a lot of travel.

Steve Tuma: You want to hear the most interesting one?

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: I’ve been asked to be best man in people’s weddings.

Interviewer: Wow!

Steve Tuma: Isn’t that trippy? It’s like …

Interviewer: They must really like their house.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. And someone asked me, they said,  Steve, what …  they called me on a Tuesday and said,  Hey, what are you doing this weekend?  I said,  Well, relaxing, catching up on sleep.  They were like,  Are you going to be my best man?

I did it. It was kind of …

Interviewer: That’s awesome.

Steve Tuma: It was kind of interesting. That was 20 some years ago and I still keep in touch with that …

Interviewer: That’s great. Fantastic.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, it’s …

Interviewer: That’s funny.

Steve Tuma: It’s interesting of how people remember us and we remember them.

Interviewer: Perfect. OK. So for Steve Tuma and myself and Steve’s lovely mom, we want to thank you all once again for listening in to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. Happy building everyone and we will see you next time.

Steve Tuma: Have a great day.

Discover how to design, engineer, and build custom detached guest houses, Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), granny flats, backyard studios, and compact homes under 1,000 square feet. We discuss the financial realities of small home construction, examining why cost per square foot increases as footprint decreases and how to maximize usable living space on tight building envelopes. Learn how to navigate local zoning restrictions, distinguish non-habitable accessory structures from full secondary residences, manage kitchenette appliance rules, and build over detached garages. Explore creative architectural solutions—such as sleeping lofts, built-in storage, and multi-generational floor plans—that keep smaller homes highly functional, stylish, and cost-controlled.

A: High-cost mechanical systems and fixtures—such as bathrooms, kitchens, plumbing rough-ins, and electrical services—remain necessary regardless of total square footage. Concentrating these fixed infrastructure expenses into a 400- to 600-square-foot footprint results in a higher cost per square foot than spreading them across a large, simple home.

A: An accessory building is zoned for non-habitable uses such as a workshop, detached garage, art studio, or storage building without full living accommodations. A guest house or ADU is legally permitted as a permanent secondary residence complete with dedicated bathroom facilities, sleeping quarters, and approved cooking provisions.

A: When local zoning restricts a parcel to a single detached residence, homeowners can build an attached home addition connected by a common structural wall or shared breezeway. Designing the expansion with an efficiency kitchenette rather than a full secondary range often satisfies municipal single-family zoning rules while creating private living quarters for extended family.

A: Yes, constructing living space or a studio over a garage maximizes property utility without expanding the foundation footprint. This multi-level approach requires engineered floor spans to carry the residential dead load over wide vehicle bays, fire-rated ceiling assemblies between levels, and dedicated exterior or interior stair access.

A: Incorporating vaulted cathedral ceilings, elevated window banks, sleeping lofts, and open-concept great rooms removes restrictive partition walls and expands interior volume. Aligning sightlines toward outdoor patio spaces and incorporating multi-functional convertible zones creates the open ambiance of a much larger custom home.

Steve Tuma: Yes, and that’s the key element. We can help you control the cost, understand what you are building, and work with you to get the house you want.

Interviewer: Hey, everyone. Thanks for joining us for Episode 44 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me as he usually is because I drag him in here and make him talk is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want exactly as they want across the nation and worldwide since 1993, and that is my friend, Steve Tuma. Steve, how are you, buddy?

Steve Tuma: I’m doing great. I was just thinking of that introduction, build their homes. We are going to talk about smaller homes today. So these are additional homes, guesthouses.

Interviewer: Yeah, smaller homes, tiny homes. There is so much talk about that. On our last episode, we spoke specifically about California building and building the ADUs, those – this is the accessory dwelling unit is what we mostly talked about. But I thought it might not be a bad idea and it sounds like you’re up to it, if we broaden the subject and talk about like tiny homes and guesthouses and …

Steve Tuma: Studios.

Interviewer: … or studios.

Steve Tuma: Studios, workshops.

Interviewer: And what some people call as you explained to me the last episode, granny flats. So I would like to talk more about that. So shall we do that?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. It’s a pretty interesting situation. What’s happening is a lot of people are building like a guest house on their land. The zoning will typically allow that in different parts of the country. So there are different purposes whether it’s to move the parents in so that they can have their own home but still be separate. Sometimes it’s kids coming back. Sometimes it’s a separate home office, an art studio, like I mentioned, different woodworking shop, car restoration areas. So there’s a difference if it’s an outbuilding like storage or like a workshop compared to if it’s living space. But we are getting a lot more people that are inquiring about these especially with the tiny home movement after the economic crash. People are like, “How do I live affordably?” And sometimes living affordably means a couple of generations move into one house, maybe it’s on one piece of land with two separate structures. Depending on zoning, it could be different on are they actually separate structures or do they have a connecting wall? See, some places would not allow a separate house on the same piece of land. Others will allow kind of a separate area as long as it doesn’t have a secondary kitchen. So the main thrust of this I think is how do you get another living space into a piece of land whether it’s – if it’s a rental situation, short-term rental, for families, for home office, or whatever it may be.

Interviewer: Well, I’m fascinated by this whole idea of tiny homes but it seems to be kind of not so much vague but there seems to be such a variety, a lot of different ideas as to just what a tiny home is. So you’re the guy to talk to. Can you give us like a definitive overview of what exactly a tiny home is?

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s the interesting thing. I don’t know that there’s an industry-wide sharp definition of it. I think tiny homes initially when this little situation came up is like little 200, 3000-square-foot homes and what people were doing is getting around zoning restrictions buy building a little house on a trailer and getting it licensed as a trailer, therefore the building codes didn’t really apply. Well, pretty soon, people got smart too and said, “Hey, how is this little home connected to water and sewer and what’s going on with all these people in one lot?” And neighborhoods kind of went up in arms. So the evolution works out of how do we take care of the overall situation of get people living spaces? So I think the tiny home of a couple hundred square foot home using every single square inch in different ways, it has evolved to what I would say is more of a smaller home, something under a thousand square feet because I’ve read some interesting situations in tiny homes and a lot of people are intrigued of what they can do in 200 square feet. But I don’t know what their position is two years later, a husband and wife and a dog and two kids in 200 square feet.

I talked to one person that built it and they said, “Yeah, it’s pretty cool. The only problem was we cooked a garlic dinner.”

[Laughs]

Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah. I never thought about that.

Steve Tuma: And they are like, “The place was so small, everything smelled like garlic for a week. It got in my clothes.” So sometimes there are these neat ideas and then there’s like, “OK, how do we kind of fine tune it?” And then there’s a reality of space. So everything is a little smaller but there’s certain space that I think people become accustomed to. So the idea of a smaller home, say under a thousand square feet, sometimes there are restrictions for zoning or restrictions in the lot size or whatever it may be as to how big or small this guesthouse can be. So that’s – to answer your question, ten years ago when a tiny home was a couple hundred square feet on a flatbed trailer. Now, I think it has evolved because of zoning and reasonableness and what makes sense. There’s also a situation where building homes is what I equate to purchasing milk. If you buy a gallon for $4, a half gallon is $3.50, but 12 ounces is $1.99. There is a point where if you’re putting – we will use a bathroom as example, if you’re putting a toilet sink and a tub, shower unit, that’s going to cost a set price whether you are putting it in 300 square feet or 1000 square feet.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: So sometimes what people are realizing is although it might be cool to try and cram everything in 200 square feet, the cost of making of making it 800 square feet probably really isn’t that different.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So that I think is what’s happening.

Interviewer: I still get the visual of the garlic dinner.

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer: I knew an old guy who was a friend of my uncle’s who had a single wide trailer and he smoked. Oh my God!

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s a similar situation and it’s just small space. I thought the idea when they first came out was pretty interesting, “Hey, use your living room as a dining room, as a workshop, as this and this and that.” And it was a neat concept. But I don’t know the longevity of it. And there are also just communities that don’t allow it.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: They want to make sure that there’s certain land use and this kind of affects the quality of the neighborhood and the values in the neighborhood and just the overall feel of it.

Interviewer: As you know, I have always been fascinated by alternative types of building and things like that. You and I had a great discussion once about these people who take these storage units and make them into houses and it ends up costing more if they built the house. And I was just wanting to know what tiny homes are. Is it expensive to build? Is it – what’s the low-down there?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Well, you’ve got kind of two questions there where people take ideas, one of them is container homes. They will be like, “Whoa! I bought this container for 2500 bucks. I’m just going to put my house in there.” And I’ve seen stuff. This man built this home for $2500. Well, the container costs $2500. By the time he cut holes in it, put windows in it, do all this other stuff …

Interviewer: Insulation.

Steve Tuma: Right. There are different challenges to what that is. And by the time you make it, finish it as a home, I think people will find that the dollars are there. It might be a unique concept. It might be a different situation. But you asked about tiny homes, I’m going to blend it into smaller homes. The interesting thing is when someone says, “Hey, is it less expensive to build a smaller home?” You’ve got to kind of say, “Hey, what are you looking at? Are you looking at a generic per square foot number or are you looking at an overall budget? So in general, the smaller you build a house, the higher the square foot cost will be. It’s kind of like my example just a few minutes ago talking about a bathroom. If you have one bathroom in a 200-square-foot home, that bathroom probably cost about the same as if it was in an 800-square-foot. But as you amortized it over 800 square feet, the cost per square foot is less, kind of like the milk cost that I described. But on the other side, if you build smaller, it will be less dollars out.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: But there’s I think a point of diminishing return type of situation of let’s just say you could build a 500-square-foot home for a price, let’s just put a value of X on it. And then you say, “Hey, I want to do a thousand,” and it’s 20% more or 30% more. Some people would say, “Hey, I’m better off building a thousand square feet for 20% more than 500 square feet.” Now, those are arbitrary numbers depending on site conditions and a variety of details. But it shows the point that when people say, “Hey, is it less expensive?” What are you looking to do? Because if you have a big, simple home, that cost per square foot will be considerably less than a smaller, very intricate home. So we’ve always got to qualify when people say expensive. What are they looking at? How do they determine expense? Is it square foot or overall cost? The difference of going 500 square feet to a 1000, whatever it would be.

But either way, we can work with them on designs and review the different concepts so that our customer has an understanding of the elements of cost and how different features affect the pricing of the home and then they can determine what they want to do. Do they want to go small and more intricate? Do they want bigger with more space? What is it that they value? And then we could work with them.

Interviewer: We touched on something on the last episode which I wanted to expand on, we were talking about building these ADUs with garages underneath. Well, let’s go the opposite. Can you build a garage and then put a living space above it? How difficult and how much headache does that add to a project?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. When we started, we can do that situation. And sometimes the square footage of the living space can be the same and you could still have the garage below it. There could be little nuances on how square footage is calculated. But yeah, a lot of people are doing that because they will have the space for the footprint available for a garage and then they put on an apartment, home office, studio, kids coming back from college, parents moving in type of living space. So that’s becoming more and more common.

People are trying to figure out how to control the housing cost for a variety of different reasons. Like I mentioned, it could be the parents moving in. It could be the kids coming back from college. It could be people need space because of a divorce or whatever type of situation that they would need living space. And a lot of people are doing it for short and long-term rentals so that they can create an income on their property to cover the cost of living, and that’s something that people are doing nationwide.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: It’s literally everywhere where we’ve worked with people. They’ve had interest in doing this.

Interviewer: Let’s talk about restrictions from like building departments. What if my local building department would not allow me to build a separate living space for some reason but I still want to expand my home for a home office or a studio or something in the like? What do I do in that situation?

Steve Tuma: Well, the point that you’re bringing up is in some areas, you can only have one home on the lot. Sometimes it’s restricted by space. But other times, it’s actual zoning. Other places, they will let you put a separate house like the smaller guesthouse in the back. That could be a living space or studio. So sometimes when there is a restriction of you can only have one home on the land, people are putting simple additions that just brought up to an existing home and then that becomes the additional living space.

Now, there are little tricks of the trade type of situation here. When it’s like that, they usually want to make – consider it one living space, meaning, there can only be one main kitchen. So you could have – in this additional area, you could put like a kitchenette, a sink, a little refrigerator, but you can’t have a stove. A stove seems to be the determining factor. So what a lot of people do is just ask us to design in a little kitchenette and we design it that way and then what they do afterwards is up to them. But that’s how we’ve been able to do it so that say, it’s a family member moving back in or rental or whatever, it can be considered a separate living space.

Interviewer: I would imagine that really the way that people are using appliances now, there are microwaves and toaster ovens that are so advanced nowadays that if it was a matter of something like a stove, I think people would figure how to work around.

Steve Tuma: They always seem to.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: I don’t know exactly what they do but they call back and say, “Hey, Steve! Everything is great. My parents moved in.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: And they are happy. So somehow it comes together. So we’ve got to work with them to make sure that the plans conform to the guidelines of the building department and zoning.

Interviewer: Kind of looks out his back window and mom and dad are out there barbecuing and they’ve got a fire pit

Steve Tuma: Exactly.

Interviewer: Who needs a kitchen?

Steve Tuma: That’s actually happening more and more with the lifestyles. Kitchens are – they’re not just a formal place to cook with a formal dining room. It’s becoming more of a pass-through on-the-go type of situation. More and more people are doing peninsulas or islands where people …

Interviewer: And dining rooms seem to be taking a backseat islands nowadays.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Basically yeah, and they are becoming game rooms or big great rooms or big TV rooms. So yeah, we are flexible. We will figure out a way around it.

Interviewer: I wonder if that’s just from a societal standpoint. I wonder if that’s a good thing that people are moving away from dining rooms and actually just everybody is in the kitchen. I think it’s kind of a good thing actually. It’s not less formal and everybody in the family is just sitting around, who knows? I don’t know.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. I think every family is going to work a little differently with dual incomes, different situations. It works. I think overall, whether it’s a recreational property and everyone is going kayaking or fishing or whatever they choose to do, it’s becoming less formal. And even if people aren’t more active, they are more home-centered. The dining room is, if it’s there, it’s getting to be smaller and smaller. With the exception of people that have large families and for the birthdays, the holidays, they want to have a layout where 20 people can show up. So sometimes it’s a great room that somehow furniture gets pushed to the side and big tables get in there and it goes. So, that’s the neat thing about it is whatever someone wants, we are able to work around it to get a design. And sometime that’s what’s happening with these smaller homes. The people still want to have their own individual space to have their own privacy but they are still part of the family group. So when people get together, they want to know that there’s space for everyone and everything works out well.

Interviewer: Yeah, we are human beings. We are adaptable. It’s not quite like the cockroach, but almost.

Steve Tuma: Right. Hey, we did one house awhile back where the guesthouse was actually for their animals. Yeah, they wanted a separate place for their dogs and their cat. It was like a separate little playpen. So whatever goes, we can figure it out.

Interviewer: And let’s talk about something I got in my notes here, accessory building. Now, what’s the difference? I mean is an accessory building the same as a guesthouse or the same as an ADU? Run that down for us.

Steve Tuma: An accessory building is more like a storage place, sometimes a home office or a studio or workshop would be more of accessory compared to guesthouse. We are kind of thinking the guesthouse as a – it’s a living space, a kitchen or kitchenette, separate bedroom, maybe one open bedroom, bathroom type of a situation. But we are able to work with people in different situations because sometimes zoning will allow an accessory building but it would not allow that to be living space.

Interviewer: Oh, got you. OK.

Steve Tuma: So depending upon what people are prioritizing. So the point that I’m getting at is if someone wanted a separate say, art studio or home office, you don’t necessarily need a kitchen in your office or a separate bathroom. You just need a distinct spot to work on your projects. So we are able to work with people in different situations and sometimes it’s just a matter of how zoning dictates things and what that zoning will allow. So that’s the key to it. The accessory building is more just space where the smaller home, tiny home, guest home is considered to be living space.

Interviewer: Well, a guy like me like I’m not married. I don’t have kids. So I don’t need a MacMansion. But can I build a smaller home and control the cost and still kind of get a place that I move in and I really enjoy?

Steve Tuma: Yes, and that’s the key element. We can help you control the cost, understand what you are building, and work with you to get the home that you want, whether it is a McMansion or whether it is a small home, a home office, a guesthouse, ADU, whatever it is. That’s the key is we can work with you to get the house you want.

Interviewer: Oh, I see. That’s everything. And this question kind of – that kind of leads into this. But we had talked before about being able to adapt your design even for a small house to make it kind of even more cool or more fun. So can I dress up like a mini house, a mini home so that it looks just fantastic on my land? I don’t want it to look like a modular. I want it to be something kind of unique. Is it adaptable that way?

Steve Tuma: It’s very adaptable because we are able to come up with a design that you want as far as the general structure of the home, what does it look like? Is it simple with four 90-degree corners? Does it have corners? Does it have a steep pitch roof? We can design the guesthouse, the smaller home to be exactly the way you want. Sometimes this gets involved with the finishing materials, the architectural details, the types of windows, setbacks and walls, roof pitches. We can work all those details. And then also on the inside, do we put lofts in there? How tall are ceilings? Just get the general feel to be tuned up exactly the way you want it to be.

Interviewer: Anything that when you guys have designed smaller structures, smaller living spaces, have you run into anything that’s just completely like so cool that who thought of this? I mean I’m sure you guys get some pretty interesting adaptations to your own designed. People must – people are really artistic and really the average person can come up with some cool ideas.

Steve Tuma: We’ve had a bunch of people do a variety of things. I spoke once about the lady, it was a retirement home in Arizona where the wife was just into cooking pies and she wanted to have her kitchen exactly one way only with windows overlooking the yard so she could see the grandkids and the family running around. We have gotten into man caves.

Interviewer: That’s after my own heart.

Steve Tuma: Right. Whether they are detached unit spots in the basement. And like we laughed about once, urinals and man caves. There are different situations like that. But – and I don’t know that this has really been labeled. There is almost like kid caves, that has been something where people are finding spots for their kids, rock climbing walls, little loft areas, and ceiling areas where they have their own little spot where they can crawl up there and have their games and kind of work and then slides coming out of …

Interviewer: That’s awesome.

Steve Tuma: … these kind of hidden areas. So we’ve run into that. We’ve had people put safe rooms in their houses. We’ve also had people put in their own speakeasies.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s cool.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, you push a button and like the cabinet spins around and then there are some situation like that going in. We’ve had people that are into equestrian properties, work on different type of – I don’t want to call it a formal tack room but they can come in from working with the horses, clean up and not bring all the mud and everything into the house. We’ve had people have pet rooms. Some of them where they’ve got their own little tub showers type things to take care of dogs, some of them literally eight pet rooms. In one case, it was one third of this house. I was asking them, “What are you guys doing?” They just had a big like a couple of glass walls looking at this – the end of this house. They said, “Our cats are our kids.” So they build this little internal jungle inside and it was almost like a zoo where you look through the glass or the bars and to the animal space.

So there is a lot – a big situation with that. A lot of people are getting into audio or home theaters. And then there are also situations where people are working on different hobbies whether they are creating their home studios for audio and video work or it’s crafts or woodworking situations.

Another thing as we help more and more people that are doing their retirement homes, it’s just locating the house properly to take advantage of the view, if they are waterfront or by a mountain that they want to take advantage.

Interviewer: Yeah, nothing wrong with that. That’s great.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, there has been a lot of work on site, make sure windows are right so if see can see out. So I guess you asked a question. I’ve kind of rambled on for a little while.

Interviewer: You know what? It’s OK because what I’ve been doing that whole time is dreaming about, “Man, if I could just have a urinal and a fireman’s pole, I’d be happy.”

[Laughter]

Steve Tuma: We actually did that in a house once. I joked with the people. They are like, “Oh, where do we stick a staircase?” I’m like, “We will put a fireman’s pole.” The guys are like, “Really?” Yeah, so we have done situations like that. Then other stuff, kitchens. People get into some big gourmet kitchens if they are really into cooking. So now that we have started talking about mini houses and tiny house and we’ve got man caves and slides and rock climbing walls, I guess we are back to talking about regular size houses.

But the point is, even with a smaller home, you can still do stuff like that. If you wanted a rock climbing wall for your kid, it could still be done in a little house. If you wanted a little loft for a little kid’s cave up there, you can do it. If your ADU or guesthouse needs to have a certain view, we can work with that. Or sometimes you want to avoid the view. You don’t want bedroom windows looking in bedroom windows. We can work with people on that. So the general concept of Landmark’s ability to pay attention on what you are looking at and what you want and how people put together, it’s what we desire to do and that’s the really fun part of all of this.

Interviewer: Awesome. Well, folks, that about wraps it up for us today. That went by really quick. We’ve been having some good discussions on the podcast and sometimes they are a lot of fun. Today was a lot of fun.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. I hope listeners enjoyed it. It’s pretty interesting stuff to talk about. Some families decide to build it right away. Some families decide to think about it for a little while. Either way, we can help.

Interviewer: And put in a fireman’s pole. [Laughs] Before we go as we like to do on the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show, we give Steve a chance to let the listeners know how to get a hold of you guys over there and your great team at Landmark Home and Land Company. So give us the low-down on what’s the best way to find out more information and to reach you.

Steve Landmark: The best way is to look at our website at LHLC.com. That’s kind of the initials of Landmark Home and       Land Company, LHLC.com. You can email me directly, Steve Tuma, at [email protected].

You can call, Mike will answer the phone. We answer the phone. If for some reason you do get our voicemail, please leave a message. We will call you back right away. We are proactive. We want to help you. But that number is 800-830-9788. Again, it’s 800-830-9788. You can also see us on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and we will do whatever we can to help a family decide what it is that they need for their home.

Interviewer: And there you go. So, for Steve Tuma and myself, we want to thank you all once again for listening in. Be safe out there, people. And happy building. And we will see you next time.

Steve Landmark: Have a great night.

Learn how California’s updated zoning legislation has streamlined the design, permitting, and construction of backyard Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs), granny flats, and in-law suites. We discuss how municipal fee waivers, reduced property line setbacks, and transit-oriented parking exemptions make adding detached secondary housing more accessible and affordable than ever before. Discover strategies for maximizing living space within standard 1,200-square-foot caps by incorporating non-counted areas such as storage lofts, covered outdoor living porches, and ground-level garages. Explore why panelized framing kits offer significant logistical and cost advantages over rigid modular boxes when navigating narrow backyard lot lines, power line clearances, and urban infill sites.

A: Recent statewide legislation has reduced mandatory property line setbacks, eliminated minimum lot size barriers, and waived costly geotechnical report requirements in many jurisdictions. Municipalities also offer streamlined plan review and relaxed off-street parking mandates for properties located near public transit, significantly lowering pre-construction costs.

A: A standard ADU is a fully independent secondary dwelling unit up to 1,200 square feet, built either as a detached backyard home or attached addition complete with a private kitchen and bathroom. A Junior ADU (JADU) is a smaller living space created entirely within the footprint of an existing home or attached garage, featuring an efficiency kitchenette and shared or dedicated sanitation.

A: Square-footage limits generally apply strictly to enclosed, heated living areas, allowing builders to expand usable space with non-counted amenities like covered outdoor porches, attached garages, and bonus attic lofts. Utilizing open great-room floor plans with tall cathedral ceilings and zero hallway waste also maximizes internal volume and livability.

A: Modular prefabs arrive as large, rigid volumetric boxes that often require expensive heavy cranes to lift over existing homes, mature trees, and neighborhood power lines. Panelized components are delivered as banded, flat-packed wall and truss assemblies that can easily be maneuvered through narrow side yards and assembled on-site with standard equipment.

A: Architectural blueprints can position primary living room and bedroom windows toward private garden views or high along the wall line as clerestory glazing to bring in abundant natural light without creating sightline overlap. Strategically angling window placements and patio entries prevents direct lines of sight into neighboring yards while satisfying all emergency egress building codes.

Steve Tuma: And making it easier for people to put in ADU in their yard is something that should really, really be important to people and make them realize this is an opportunity for them.

Interviewer: Hello, everyone. And welcome to Episode 43 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me again in studio is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want exactly as they want across the nation and worldwide since 1993, Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how are you doing, bud?

Steve Tuma: Excellent. Always a good day.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: We had another busy day helping people design their homes and a variety of different projects around the country. So …

Interviewer: Is there ever a bad day to build a house?

Steve Tuma: Not really.

[Laughter]

Steve Tuma: Waiting for tomorrow is you should just start now.

Interviewer: There you go.

Steve Tuma: You get the project going.

Interviewer: So for today, I thought we would get into something specific to California home building, and this I think will – it will lead us in the future to our doing episodes here and there that are specific to different states as Landmark owner or builder customers are diverse and nationwide group. And so far, our first foray into that, California seems a good place to start and maybe we will go from west to east as we go along. And to that end, let’s talk about something, accessory dwelling units or ADUs as they are called in California. So let’s start off with you explain to us just what is an ADU? That would be a good place to start.

Steve Tuma: Well, this is what’s interesting. It’s called an accessory dwelling unit. That’s the common word in California although in other parts of the country, it could be a granny unit, a guesthouse, an in-law suite, a separate home, a secondary home on the land. So they can be done anywhere. But I think you brought up the California thing because lately, California has made it easier for people to add these living units. So there is difference in – if you have like an outbuilding, like a storage building or something like that, an accessory dwelling unit is one that’s meant to be lived in.

Interviewer: As a – not a storage unit kind of thing but something …

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: An actual residence. It has got a bathroom, a sleeping area, a living area, and things like that. So what’s kind of happening is what the cost of housing in certain parts of the country specifically California by the larger cities, they are trying to figure out how do we make this affordable for people to live there? So previously, there were a lot of restrictions on building these accessory dwelling units or the ADUs. But now, they figured, “Hey, this is a way to offer affordable housing in these communities.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So yeah, that’s basically what it is. It’s an accessory dwelling unit. Basically, it’s a separate little guesthouse. They do have a thing called a junior dwelling unit which is like if you converted a garage, an existing garage, to a living space. But we are looking more at the new construction of complete separate – basically, a smaller home that would be put on a parcel of land.

Interviewer: Right. Now, what about this restriction on size? I mean is there such a thing as an ADU that’s too small or obviously, they are maybe restrictions on how large you can build one?

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Generally, the restriction is more how large. Some areas say it’s 1200 square feet. Other places have limitations on the size. So you would have to check with or we can help check with zoning to see what’s their – other places go a certain percentage of the main home, up to a certain size. So there are different methods of calculating the size but generally, every place we have run into, you’ve been able to create a livable space.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So something that’s there. Now sometimes, there are restrictions where they say, “Hey, you can only go up to 1200 square feet.” Other times, even if you can only go up to 1200 square feet, there may only be so much space on the land to – so that this will fit there. So it’s kind of a little bit of work to jockey through to see exactly how it would fit. But we can help with that. That’s part of what we do is determine – make sure that the house fits and the guidelines work with you to make sure that the ADU is set up to be one that you like that matches the neighborhood, matches the main home and also has the floor plan and features to make sure that it’s usable for what you intend to do with it.

Interviewer: Right. Now, that seems to me we would get into a question of zoning. I mean is zoning the same for an ADU as it is the main house? If I just want to move my grandmother in, that would be one thing. But if I want to rent it out, would that be different? What is the zoning issue with ADU?

Steve Tuma: What’s interesting about it is some communities have actually loosened up the zoning, where previously, they might say, “Hey, if you were building the main home to be a certain distance from the lot lines,” well, because some of these homes – these ADUs are going into higher density communities, they are realizing that they wouldn’t be able to fit any there. So some communities are actually easing up on building setbacks and different setbacks between buildings, lot lines, neighbor’s lots, neighbor’s existing homes. So what’s interesting is now these areas have one, they made it easier for people to put these ADUs in their yard and making it easier for people to put an ADU in their yard is something that should really, really be important to people and make them realize this is an opportunity for them.

Interviewer: Now, what about Landmark is famous for the customization of its designs. People are pretty much able to build the house they want but if you build a mini little ADU, is that still customizable?

Steve Tuma: That’s exactly the same situation. It’s just a smaller structure than a typical home. So we can go through and customize it for the footprint so it fits within the allowable area on a lot. We can also customize it by the heights, ceiling heights, type of roof, and architectural feature. So some customers like the ADUs that are just simple boxy units. Other people want to dress them up. And what’s interesting about it, a lot of people are putting garages underneath them.

Interviewer: Wow!

Steve Tuma: So the living space – so they are kind of sneaking in a little bit extra garage space or “workspace” and then the ADU, the actual living space above. So yes, we are able to go through and customize the ADU so that the unit is exactly the way you want it. It complements the neighborhood. You are proud of it. And it suits the purpose that you need.

Interviewer: Yes. So you are actually creating more space than you would think if you would do that and you kind of double up a garage an ADU.

Steve Tuma: Right. You can do it. Now, some places restrict that. Others allow it. So it’s kind of one of these situations you’ve got to work with the zoning and building department to see exactly how it can be put together.

Interviewer: But what about permits? Now, you get building permits or is it going to be the same or different from your standard home build?

Steve Tuma: We have actually seen a lot of communities where it’s easier to get the building permit for the ADU than it is the conventional home. We have seen municipalities where they don’t require a geotechnical report. The zoning setbacks are different. Or in some cases where there are burned areas or whatever situations, they kind of fast track it. So they don’t always pull out the big magnifying glass for building permits. It has still got to be done right but we are actually seeing a lot of situations where it’s considerably easier to go obtain this permit than it is if you were to go build a brand home. So it’s kind of interesting. I think this is just the local municipalities who are trying to entice customers to do this so that they could meet guidelines to have affordable housing in the communities. There are also advantages in communities if your ADU is closer to a public transportation. They give you certain advantages on off-street parking and lot parking and different situations. So it’s pretty cool.

Now, they still have to meet energy guidelines and work with the green codes but as far – we are seeing that the attitude of the building department is much easier and enjoyable to go through for an ADU than if it were brand new home. But either way, we are there to support the customer and make it as easy as possible for them.

Interviewer: I want to go back to something a little but that we were talking about, how adaptable it is or how you can kind of customize your ADU. Accessory dwelling unit to me just sounds like something so specific to four walls and a basic utilitarian kind of building. But it sounds to me like you are saying you can really tweak these things out a little bit.

Steve Tuma: Oh yeah. It’s something where we are able to spend some time on the design and the preliminary plan stage to go through and dress it up. So in the case of someone that does want a simpler design, there are still certain things we could do with cables or windows or how you do corners or different trim work or decks or whatever where it can be dressed up. So it’s not just a box in your backyard.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Now, if you want something simple to control cost or it fits in the community, we are fine. But what’s also cool is a lot of these places, we talked about the size restrictions, they don’t count decks and porches and garages. So in a lot of these situations, we are able to design some pretty cool houses. Sometimes a well-designed smaller home is better than a larger home that isn’t designed well. So it has been pretty interesting to see what people do with these – the space that’s allowed. They are really neat design areas. They are neatly designed areas, I meat to say. And we are able to work with our designers to go through some revisions to make sure things are right.

Sometimes people say, “I’m putting an ADU in my background, I don’t want my neighbor looking in the window.” Well, we can adjust locations of windows and doors so that it’s comfortable, so that it’s an attractive unit in your backyard.

Interviewer: Right. Well, I’ve known people that have built on their property these sort of complementary units, smaller units, but most of them have been like modular. Do you know what I mean?

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer: Like I know a young woman who was an artist and she – her dad throw up this modular thing for her which was her workspace below in the actual apartment on the top. But what are the advantages to Landmark’s ADUs designs versus like that, like modular unit?

Steve Tuma: Well, what our Landmark unit which is a panelized home, we can completely customize it. So if you are in an area that has – you’ve got a restricted footprint, it has got to be 16 feet by 32 or 30 by 30, we can make that design to take advantage of the space that you have.

Also, a lot of these areas where these homes are being built you can’t get a modular unit in it. The reason being is you might be able to get it down the road but craning it over the neighbor’s house, power lines, different situations, it can be very restrictive on getting a modular unit it, where in ours, you bring in pieces in and then assembling it. So basically, the difference is you can get a design that you want. We can work in pretty much any community. We are not restricted by the size of a module that you might not be able to get into your area. But I think bottom line, people also look at the cost. We’ve had people contact us after they looked at those modular units and they say, “Steve, those are expensive.” Some of them are super modernistic and they have this stuff. But they are saying, “Steve, the cost of the modular ADUs are just out of reach.” So some of them are $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 for 400 square feet.

Interviewer: Oh, wow!

Steve Tuma: That’s a lot of money. Now, if someone wants that design and whatever, maybe it makes sense. But even so, when we could customize it to exactly what you want, give you a look, maximize the space, fit it within the restrictions of your building site, and customize it the way you want, that’s the advantage. You get more of what you want instead of saying, “Hey, here are two options. Which one do you want?” In our case, it’s, “Hey, what do you want? Let’s make it work in the space and the budget that you choose to work with in.”

Interviewer: Let’s kind of touch upon on something we talked about just a little earlier, and that’s the zoning aspect. What can an ADU actually be used for? Like let’s say, you want to do a short-term rental building or just rent it out as an apartment or like an Airbnb, what are the restrictions on that? What can you and can’t you do? I’m sure it changes from district to district. But give us kind of a low down on what your experience has been?

Steve Tuma: Well generally, these communities are doing this to give longer term rentals. Now yes, someone could do an ADU or a tiny – a smaller home on their yard and do the short-term rentals. But a lot of these were the communities allowing and what they want to do is keep affordable housing so that people at different pay scales can still live in and around the community and not have to commute two hours to their job. So that kind of goes community by community but a lot of the gist of what the building departments are trying to promote is a long-term tenant, so not someone for the weekend. Now, how do they know exactly what you are going to do today versus tomorrow? I think would be something that they would have to sort out. But to answer your question, it can be used for a short-term rental. It can be used for a longer term rental as far as how we design it and how we put it together. So that’s the cool thing about it is by us being able to work directly with our customer, we can find out what their priorities are, any restrictions from the building department and then come up with a design that makes sense for them.

Interviewer: Now, imagine it would be a lot – you probably run into homeowner’s association difficulty sometimes as well with building – all of a sudden you are building another sort of small apartment on your property. I’m sure people might have to deal with that in certain instances.

Steve Tuma: So far, we haven’t really run into that issue. The theory is there than if a homeowner’s association is there, they are going to have architectural guidelines to make sure it has got a certain look, a certain quality, that type of thing and blends in. So as far as that, it really shouldn’t be an issue. I think most communities are pretty inviting of these homes.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s interesting.

Steve Tuma: But there is always the situation where you have to go case by case to see what’s going on. I think people will find that the opportunity is there because it’s something that’s kind of mandated by the state in some cases.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: In most cases.

Interviewer: It’s so – sometimes you think I’m going to build something and in the old days, you could kind of just put it up. But now, it just seems like there are so many restrictions in so many places that to add on this extra thing up to your house is already built and you’re going to add on it. I can imagine the, I don’t want to say headaches, but there are probably a lot of problem-solving you have to do when you are building these things on preexisting properties.

Steve Tuma: That’s the case pretty much any project. There is always something here or there that you’ve got to kind of work through. With these, the biggest issue is just the actual usable space.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Because let’s just say, you have a pie shape lot and with different setbacks, what can you build in there? What can you fit in there? But so far, we really haven’t run into anything that I would say is abnormal or really, really strange. It’s just – what’s interesting about these is this is kind of like cool projects for our customer. They enjoy it. It’s kind of like building this cool little house. They always enjoy it with their main home. But when it’s the accessory unit or in-law suite, whatever you would call it, it’s kind of a different type of a pet project. They kind of get into it.  And I think what it is, is they are still trying to build a really cool home but within restricted square footage. So you get a little more creative, “Hey, let’s put this type of window here. Let’s put an arch. Let’s do this in the bathroom.” So they are kind of quaint places, get a little more character, sometimes they end up with lofts, sometimes they end up with different types of windows or different types of porches where they could bring the outside in. So it’s kind of interesting to see the additional kind of excitement and putting an ADU together to just a large main home. It’s kind of interesting. I don’t know why. I think it just kind of …

Interviewer: I think it’s the same thrill. It’s like dads who build or moms who build tree houses for their kids. They really get into it. [Laughs]

Steve Tuma: Right. It’s kind of like that. It’s interesting to see they are like, “Oh man, I got to make a smaller kitchen but I’m going to make it cool.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Let’s put this in here or let’s put this in here. Put a wine rack here. Can we stick a little hot tub in the bathroom? And so suddenly, these little units are pretty cool.

Interviewer: Extensive builds. That’s funny.

Steve Tuma: Well, it also gets into something of you still want to put like saying – say you’ve got a unit. We are working on one by San Francisco, about 520 square feet and there’s a bedroom. The way they want to have it set up is in that bedroom, there needs to be desk so that someone could work on their computer. But they don’t want that desk to look out a window into their main home or into the neighbors. So we’ve had to work on different types of windows, things that have worked to let light into it, into the room but also not allow the neighbors to look in. And then we also, like in bedrooms, have to look at the egress codes for emergencies so it’s kind of a neat little challenge but it’s pretty cool and then the customer goes, “Wow! This is me!” It’s kind of an interesting situation to see how in a smaller space, there’s just a lot more you’ve got to deal with. The design can be a little bit more tricky trying to get a lot more in a smaller space. But so far, every single one that we’ve done, the customers who have spent time said, “Hey, I want this here. I want this here. I want this here and they are very specific and it’s – doubt come over. Every single one has been a pretty charming house.

Interviewer: You know what? As I listen to you talk, there is something that always strikes me and I never mentioned it in these podcasts but it’s your enthusiasm. You are talking about not just on the small houses like these ADUs but when you talk about building bigger houses, your enthusiasm, it seems like Landmark just love doing what you guys do.

Steve Tuma: Well, it’s a lot of fun. And we’ve been doing this since 1993 which is quite some time but it’s kind of interesting to see the excitement that comes out. First of all, building a home is exciting. But then when you are adding and ADU or doing these different things, these different challenges, the people kind of get into it. They are like, “Hey Steve, how can we design this kitchen to do this and do this? Or how do we add a desk into a bedroom? How do we put a lot of light into this little house but not allow the neighbor’s dog to look over the fence and look in my living room, whatever the situation is?” So yeah, it’s kind of fun. And the customers that are doing this, they are energized. I mean it’s interesting to see excitement on putting one of these together. It’s kind of like, “Hey, we are getting this little rental unit. It’s going to kind of pay for the property. It’s going to increase the value. We are doing something good for the community.” It’s kind of fun. It’s actually really fun.

Interviewer: Let’s talk about the actual labeling of this stuff because you hear about ADUs but you also hear about granny flats, guesthouses, mini or tiny homes or what’s the difference between ADUs and all of these others?

Steve Tuma: I think it’s really just the word because in some cases, ADU is …

Interviewer: Come on. We can do better than that. No. [Laughs]

Steve Tuma: Yeah, but that’s about it. It’s like keeping it simple. It’s accessory dwelling unit. It’s some technical term for a guesthouse.

Interviewer: Yeah.

Steve Tuma: So in parts of Arizona, it’s a guesthouse. In California, it’s an ADU. Well, if you have a 600-square-foot home with one bedroom, just going from one state to other the name changes. It’s just a kind of – like in some places, it’s a soda. At other places, it’s a pop.

Interviewer: Right.

[Laughter]

Interviewer: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: It’s kind of a regional type of situation. So in some place, it’s called like granny flats, guesthouses, secondary house. Some parts of the country call it residential additional unit. Additional residential units are – so they are backwards. But it really comes down to the same thing, a separate living space.

Interviewer: A place to put the in-laws. [Laughs]

Steve Tuma: Right. Exactly. But there are also a lot of situations that sometimes where the in-laws are allowing the kids to move back in for whatever reason.

Interviewer: That’s the more norm nowadays I think.

Steve Tuma: But then there are other cultures that they move the parents in. So there’s a whole different varieties of reasons or methodology. But to answer your question, ADU, accessory dwelling units, granny flats, guest home, mini home, tiny home, it kind of falls in the same unit. Now, sometimes tiny home might be a little different because people are thinking 200 square feet.

Interviewer: Right. Right. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: So that’s – I think that phase is kind of over because people are realizing that putting your dog, husband, or wife and two kids in 200 square feet is not exactly the fun thing to do, much less not many places will allow it. So the concept of tiny homes I think they are growing. And I’ve heard discussion that anything under 1000 square feet could be considered “tiny home.” So it really comes into whether it’s California or Arizona, anywhere in the west where the guest homes are more popular. It’s just a matter of the lingo and the area but the idea of designing the same home, making sure that the plans are right for the building department and the customer and everything gets taken care of properly. It’s the same process for us. Some places just make it a little easier for others but that’s as far as I know what the difference is. What’s interesting about this industry is there are a lot of words that are kind of used generically that could have a whole variety of different meanings to different people. But we take an ADU, a granny flat, a guest home as just being a smaller individual living space in the back of a property or some are on the front but generally, generally in the back for zoning.

We’ve also had people go beyond ADUs and just have outbuildings, big craft rooms, woodwork shops, car restoration buildings, whatever it is. So there is a difference in zoning and building departments if someone is living in it compared to if someone is just using it as space say, for workshop.

And one other little thing that I want to bring up is sometimes places would not allow an ADU but there might be a separate section of a home that is a separate living space. And depending upon how it’s attached, they may not call it an ADU. They might just say it’s an additional home and as long as that additional space doesn’t have a full kitchen, generally meaning it doesn’t have a stove, they can do it. So sometimes we’ve got to see what someone’s particular use is because in some areas there are restrictions on ADUs, just old zoning, lot size, whatever but you could add space to it connected by a door, put a kind of a kitchenette in and move forward. So there are different ways of approaching the zoning if someone needed a separate space, say for in-laws to live there compared to an actual complete unit. So sometimes it’s just dancing around the wording. What we look at it is there’s kind of a separate apartment or if it’s attached, whether it’s directly attached or kind of indirectly attached through a breezeway or a complete separate building.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: But either way, we are able to work through the zoning. We’ve been able to help a lot of customers around the country.

Interviewer: Back in the old days when they used to turn their garages – people have turned them into apartments and there was the old hot plate thing.

Steve Tuma: Right. Well, now what has happened is they made that legal.

Interviewer: Right. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: Yet before, there were very, very few ADU permits issued in California. Well, I think that last year it skyrocketed because the communities are realizing that people can’t afford to live. The teachers, the policemen, the first responders, people in different jobs and some of these jobs don’t allow people to commute two hours to get to the job. So what they are trying to do is balance it out in the community so that there is different people that work there are able to somehow be able to afford to live there and not have any big problems in commuting to their jobs.

Interviewer: ADU, is this kind of a newer concept? I mean you’ve been doing so long. Is this sort of a newer thing or has it been around a while?

Steve Tuma: Well, guesthouses and ADUs have been around forever, long, long time. But the law was just changed very recently in California that promoted ADUs.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So that idea is there. And like I say, I think it’s that the building departments are just trying to do something to put affordable housing in there. But I think you could go to a lot of older homes built in the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s and they would have a little kind of casita. That would be another word. Some people call it, it’s a casita.

Interviewer: There you go.

Steve Tuma: Just a little living space that may be connected by a wall or not connected to the main home.

Interviewer: Right. Have you been thrown – I mean I’m still fascinated by what we were speaking a little earlier in this podcast is people customizing these units. Have you got – I mean I know you’re never thrown for a loop. There is never anything you can’t work out but do you ever just somebody come up with an idea and you go, “Dang! I wish I had thought of that. That’s pretty cool.” There has got to be something like that once in a while.

Steve Tuma: Well, what we’ve run into is situations where people want variations of something. So the concept of let’s just take something a simple concept like the ADU where they are saying, “Hey Steve, I can build 1200 square feet.” I mentioned this in another podcast. It doesn’t mean that the municipality allows 1201 and that doesn’t mean the customer wants 1199.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So it’s 1200 square feet. So how do you work with this? So sometimes we’ve really got to work to eliminate hallways. In some cases, there are lofts that can be put in roof systems.

Interviewer: That’s cool.

Steve Tuma: Those aren’t considered part of the square footage.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Other times, we can work with different designs of porches and the footprint that kind of make the 1200 square feet bigger. Garages aren’t always considered. And what’s interesting about this is different building departments have different methods of counting square feet. So sometimes you can actually take a 1300-square-foot home and call it a 1200-square-foot home. So you’re kind of sneaking on it. So there are little tricks of the trade that we can work through.

Interviewer: That’s something for a future podcast for sure.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s kind of interesting. And yeah, we have had situations where people come up with something and you go, “That’s pretty interesting.”

Interviewer: Which you shake your head over that one.

Steve Tuma: Well, this is – I talk about these lofts and basically if someone has got a steeper pitch roof, we can put some space kind of up in the roof system with different roof structures and cathedral ceilings. People are putting yoga, little yoga spots in the roof system or little mini offices or meditation areas. Sometimes they put windows in these areas and they have ability to put their plants there.

Interviewer: Right. Yeah.

Steve Tuma: Storage spaces. Recently, people have been putting little kids playgrounds in the roof system.

Interviewer: Oh yeah, yeah.

Steve Tuma: So they go up there and they will have like a little ladder and a little kind of hidden little kid’s only area with like a slide coming down from outside of the ceiling. So in most cases, that falls within the 1200 square feet. So if someone were say, building one of these units for their kids, say, they have some youngsters around, suddenly these little houses are pretty amazing. Grow up in a 1200-square-foot home with a kid’s area, yoga studio, a slide down from the – in the roof into the living room for the kids, climbing wall, it’s pretty interesting to see what happens.

So as I mentioned before, the creativity that comes into working in this, it gets amped up a little and people are kind of excited. They are like, “Well, if my kids are going to be in 1200 square feet, let’s make it a cool 1200 square feet.” And sometimes they work on how they intend to use porches in the future by adjusting different things, putting certain patio doors where suddenly that porch becomes an extension of the living room even though it’s not in the restricted space. You can do things like taller walls. Give it a volume. Cathedral ceilings add volume so it feels better. But overall, I think people are pretty proud of these places. They are proud because I think they put a little more into it and the thought. It’s kind of their idea.

Interviewer: Well, we are about out of time but this has been a pretty fun episode. I wasn’t expecting it to be this sort of fun. I learned a lot. That’s awesome.

Steve Tuma: Yeah. These projects are all cool.

Interviewer: Right. Yeah. Well, that’s – if you’re going to build something it might as well be cool.

Steve Tuma: That’s right.

Interviewer: So we are about out of time here on the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. And I want to thank you all for listening in once again. But before we go as we usually do, I want to give Steve a chance to let you all know how get in touch with Landmark Home and Land Company and just where to find out more information. So Steve, give us some idea of how to find out more and get a hold of you.

Steve Landmark: The best way to do it is look at our website at LHLC.com. It’s kind of the initials of Landmark Home Land Company. It’s actually Landmark Home and Land Company but LHLC.com. That’s our website. There are plan ideas. There are videos. These podcasts are there. There are discussions and different processes. And I think we can help people a lot by them taking a look at the website. They can email me directly at [email protected] or they can call, Mike will answer the phone at 800-830-9788. We do answer our phone. If for some reason you do get a voicemail, we will call you right away. We are very proactive, very customer service oriented. We enjoy what we do. We want to work with you and help you along.

You can also look at Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter and YouTube.

Interviewer: And YouTube. Well, there you go. Great. Well, for Steve Tuma and myself, thanks again everybody for listening in to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. Be well everyone and we will see you next time.

Steve Landmark: Have a great day.

Learn how to transform initial concepts, rough napkin sketches, and online floor plans into permit-ready blueprints and precision-engineered panelized home packages. We discuss why generic plan service blueprints often face municipal rejection and how to adapt layouts for complex civil site challenges—such as natural drainage ravines, driveway access bridges, and strict zoning setbacks. Discover how upfront design coordination, professional land surveying on tight lots, and written guaranteed pricing prevent costly job-site change orders, keeping owner-builders fully in control of their schedules and construction budgets. Helping people turn new home ideas into real plans and then a Prefab Home.

A: The design process begins by identifying your core lifestyle priorities—such as required bedroom counts, open living areas, or garage workspaces—and translating rough dimensional sketches into fully scaled CAD drawings[cite: 1]. Designers then integrate structural engineering calculations, local energy code compliance, and building code egress requirements to turn conceptual sketches into buildable, permit-approved blueprints[cite: 1].

A: Stock catalog blueprints provide general conceptual layouts but include legal disclaimers requiring local structural, environmental, and site-specific verification[cite: 1]. Municipalities reject them because they lack location-specific calculations for regional snow loads, high wind speeds, seismic shear bracing, and local foundation soil conditions[cite: 1].

A: Natural lot features like drainage ditches, protected waterways, or steep terrain restrict driveway access, building envelopes, and septic drain field placement[cite: 1]. Incorporating civil engineering into the preliminary site plan ensures driveway approach slopes meet emergency access codes and structural crossings—such as private bridges—are engineered before submitting for building permits[cite: 1].

A: Hand-measuring setbacks on narrow building envelopes creates a high risk of encroaching into mandatory municipal buffer zones or building across property lines[cite: 1]. A certified boundary survey precisely locates legal property corners, reveals hidden neighbor fence encroachments, and ensures the excavated foundation complies with zoning setback minimums[cite: 1].

A: A guaranteed price agreement fixes the cost of architectural drafting, stamped structural engineering, and the delivered panelized framing package upfront[cite: 1]. Locking in these major pre-construction and structural material costs protects the owner-builder against surprise price spikes, lumber market volatility, and contractor change orders[cite: 1].

Steve Tuma: We are kind of filling in the blanks because most customers know the house they want but how does it come together? That is what we are able to provide to a customer along with the product.

Interviewer: Hey, folks. And thanks for joining us for Episode 42 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. With me as usual is the President and Founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want exactly as they want across the nation and worldwide since 1993, Steve Tuma. Steve, how are you, my friend?

Steve Tuma: It’s an excellent day. Another great day in the Landmark’s home building land.

Interviewer: [Laughs] Every day at Landmark is good.

Steve Tuma: Yeah.

Interviewer: I thought today we talk about customer needs and how Landmark goes that extra mile to make a panelized home building project as painless as possible for its customers. Nothing is absolutely painless but I know that Landmark is known for easing the process a little bit. So let’s start with availability and responsiveness. Tell us about the support Landmark provides that heck, some customers might not even realized they need.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s actually a pretty important situation because a lot of people think, “Hey, I just get my plans. I get them panelized to build the house and mysteriously this all just snaps together.” And the theory of that is right but the actual implementation of making things flow and work together are key elements to this whole situation and that’s where we are able to help. And we are very responsive. We work hard. We are knowledgeable. We take the time to work with our customers to make sure they understand what’s going on. It’s just not just the situation of, “Hey, here’s a house. Go build and enjoy.”

Interviewer: Here’s your Legos.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, wouldn’t that be cool? Just everyone just has fun and builds what they want.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: We do allow them to build the house that they want. But what – I think what you are getting at is the extra mile of what we do is. There is more than just, “Hey, I have a plan idea. Let’s get someone stand some 2x6s up. Let’s put a roof and siding on it.” And suddenly a little while later we call it a house. There are a lot of stuff that we do to help to make sure that the design makes sense, it’s energy efficiency. We can go through get a set of plans that are clear and understandable to the contractors but we will also go through the building department and also make sure that the inspections are easier for our customers. And that’s the part. We are kind of filling in the blanks because most customers know the house that they want. They know what they want the kitchen to look like. They know what kind of siding. They know if they need a one-car, two-car, three-car or five-car or whatever garage.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: They know if they want a basement or crawl space but how does it come together? That is what we are able to do and help provide that service and knowledge to a customer along with a product being the panelized home package and the full set of plans that they will need. We are very available. We are knowledgeable. We enjoy working with our customers. I think that’s a key element. But the portion that I don’t think customers realize when they first call in or anyone that’s planning a house is there’s a lot more details involved than like some of these shows do. You’ll see some shows, they will say, “Oh, do this.” And mysteriously in 30 minutes, a house is built.

Interviewer: Sure.

Steve Tuma: Well obviously, there’s a lot more details. It’s like any business, any situation, there’s a lot more details that are much deeper, and that’s where we are able to come in and help a customer along because they may not realize it. One of my customers had a great thing, he said, “Steve, I don’t know what I don’t know.”

Interviewer: Yeah, that’s good.

Steve Tuma: Yeah, and that’s the key. So if you don’t know that your house should energy-efficient, what would make you think about it? If you don’t know that your window needs to be big enough egress in case of an emergency, you wouldn’t think about it. Well, we are there to help people through it, help them with lying out of the home. So our customers will have an idea of what they want in a home but how does it get done? We are kind of there to fill in the portions to move it along and get it taken care of for initial design, engineering, energy-efficiencies, green codes, just building processes, building department issues, delivery of the panelized home package. So we’ve been doing it since 1993. We have a lot of knowledge to help and support our customers that want to go through and build a house.

Interviewer: It’s a lot of fun. We all know the old saying about assumption and when you assume something.

Steve Tuma: Right.

Interviewer: But I am assuming most Landmark customers know what they want basically when they come to you. But how – if somebody comes to you with a design on a napkin, how does that turn into a reality in the planning and building a home? There must be a lot of details that a customer that’s designing has an idea in their head. They don’t even realize they will need help with a lot of things.

Steve Tuma: That’s exactly it because when you say – sometimes customers come with different perspectives on what they want. Some will come through and say, “Hey, I want this 2000 square foot home on a basement with a 2-car garage built on this lot in this city, in this state. That’s fine. Other people come through and say, “Steve, I don’t even know where to start but I’ve got x amount of money and I need to live in this community.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So sometimes we have to work with them from that angle. Other times, people will come through and say, “I have this beautiful plan for this 10,000 square foot house,” but their budget doesn’t always line up to that. So we look at, “Hey, OK. So you want this big house. What is it that you see in it that you like?” And sometimes it’s something simple. They are like, “I just need four bedrooms or I need a home office or I like the recreation room or hey, there’s a huge kitchen for entertaining.” So sometimes we are able to work with them to kind of find out what’s important because it’s interesting of how you could have five people look at the same house design and everyone sees something different. Someone might look at and go, “Well, that’s easy to build.” Someone might say, “Wow! I love the tall ceilings.” Someone else might say, “Hey, it’s got five bedrooms.” Someone else might say, “Hey, I love the basement. I can put my wood shop down there.” So you can’t always assume that when someone sends you a plan that each of us value the same thing as our customer does. So we try to find out what it is that’s the essence of what they are looking for, because everyone lives differently. Some people are into cooking a lot so they are going to spend more time getting more of a gourmet kitchen. Other people, they are not as concerned with cooking but they want to have a bigger garage or a family room or whatever it may be for family get-togethers. So through these discussions, we are able to kind of get an idea of what a customer wants and then with our knowledge, we are able to work to put it together. So you bring up the napkin. We have literally had people mail us napkins. We have had people sketch things on pieces of paper, I don’t know if they are napkins, but – and then they texted to us or they email it to us.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So, these ideas that people can send can literally be just funky little sketch that takes their idea and then we work to bring it to life. Other people spend a lot of time trying to detail everything out, “I want my 3×5 window here and it’s got to be 8 inches from my 3-foot wide door that’s 10 inches from my kitchen cabinet.”

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So we can work on those details also. But the key point to it is how do you take that concept, the dream, the vision that a person has of what their house should be and turn that into a real house through the planning, the engineering, all the processes that are necessary for building permits in any muni – or in any building permits jurisdiction. But also, make a set of plans so that are understandable by the customers so that they know what’s built. We are trying to make sure that the house is designed to avoid change orders which typically hurt the budge. They are a hassle. They delay things. So we want to put the time upfront in the design even if it starts in a napkin. And we’ve also work with people that aren’t able to communicate as well. One person was deaf. We are able to work through some translation systems to get their ideas and put it on paper.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So, we are very open to working with people to make sure that the concept because different people have different types of ability to visualize properly and see what it is. Well, we can take those concepts and put them on paper so it’s clear as to what’s to be built.

Interviewer: That’s a great answer. I mean I think going into something, people have a lot in their head that they don’t realize has to get out of their head to communicate it to everyone else. It’s a pretty collaborative thing building a house.

Steve Tuma: Well, it is. And what’s interesting about this is when people talk about building the house, they talk about the cool stuff, the kitchen, the man cave, the family room. No one sitting there, “Steve, when was the last time we were at a cocktail party and someone talked about the compressive strength of their cement?”

Interviewer: It came up just last night.

Steve Tuma: OK. Well, OK. We will see what type of friend you have. But you know what I’m getting at, it’s kind of like – but that’s an important part. That’s what holds your house up.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So those are the things that we can fill in so people can take care of what’s important of them. But we can make sure that their important ideas become a real house that’s built properly.

Interviewer: The magic is in the details. We’ve spoken a lot about the actual design of the home whether it’s on a napkin or not but let’s talk about the actual plan, site plan details, other things such as civil engineering and locating a driveway, septic systems, utility connections, working around drainage areas, those type of details. Let’s talk about that a little bit.

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s becoming more and more important. Some areas, they are actually getting very deep into the site planning because as properties flood or as goofy little issues arise where someone builds a 5-bedroom home and then they have a 1-car garage with a driveway that isn’t easy to access. There are a lot of things we want to look at to make sure that the fits on the land properly. A lot of people think in the way of, “Hey, I got a lot. It’s 100 feet wide by 100 feet deep. My house is 40×20. It should fit.” Well, theoretically, it could, depending on setbacks. But what if for some reason the middle of that lot had a drainage ditch going through it? You can’t just go fill it in.

Interviewer: Right. Right.

Steve Tuma: So you got to make sure it works. You got to make any civil engineering issues – where does your driveway go? We had a customer in New York. They were building this house and they were saying, “Oh, it’s great. I’m just going to do this and this.” I said, “What’s this thing on the site plan on my Google Earth? What is that?” He goes, “Oh, I forgot to tell you, it’s a river.”

[Laughter]

Interviewer: Just a little detail.

Steve Tuma: I got a great deal on this piece of land. It’s a river. It’s kind of land-like. I can’t get to it. Well, suddenly, we have to engineer a bridge.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Not a big deal. But it’s nice to know that before you had started building and before you apply for permits that this is going to be part of it. You got to make sure your driveway is right. How can people access it? Can it be built? Different situations like that. So depending on the lot size, where it’s at, the contours of the land, different things like this can limit or enhance your use of the land. So if you are on the side of the hills, sometimes your septic system gets a little more restrictive as to where it can be placed which may limit where your driveway is, where your house is, and other components of the property. Utility connections, making sure that it’s there. How does it go? Do you have gas there? Do you have – is it propane? Is this all electric? Are you going to work with solar situations? Different things like that. And then drainage. It seems that you can turn the news on at any time and there’s some freak of nature, natural event happening that should never happen but it seems like you turn the news on and it’s happening.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So you got to make sure that your house is – if it’s in a flood plain or some issue, you know about it. Now, most jurisdictions will label that. They will have you do different work. But there are details that we need to go and design and engineer into a home for different flood conditions. So there’s a difference of a flood if it’s a river compared to if it’s a hurricane. So there are all these different details that have to be put together, typographical details to make sure that the house fits on a land.

Interviewer: Or you have to design a bridge. [Laughs]

Steve Tuma: Yeah. Yeah, that was one that was like, “Whoa!” That’s a curve ball.

Interviewer: That still got me going. Really? OK.

Steve Tuma: Well, this guy was literally on his own little island. Just this little island. If you were sitting there, you would be like, “Oh, nice dream.” Until you realized it kind of locked them in.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So – but then that brings up – we worked on big islands off of Washington State. We’ve had a variety of projects where there is a – literally, there are different islands. There are different concerns on working on the islands, designing on the island, building restrictions, some of them have certain design elements that make sense. And then also some of the people that choose to live there, they’ve got certain lifestyle, active bikes, kayaks, diving, swimming, whatever it may be, that people have different situations that they like to work with. So, we are seeing more and more getting involved with civil engineering in their projects to make sure that they don’t flood, to make sure that the house sits on the land. Basically, civil engineering in simple terms is taking your land and designing it so that the house will fit there within the zoning building codes. Make sure you can access it with the driveway. Make sure your septic will fit. Make sure power – make sure everything kind of goes together. So it’s …

Interviewer: It seems to me like more and more, you guys are designing lifestyles as much as you are houses. In the days of our parents and grandparents, you just put a house up. Now, it’s like you’re working around like you said, kayaks and man caves.

Steve Tuma: It’s a lot of that. But also, people are living in different places. Some of them are infill lots in the city, some of them are rural lots, some of them are oceanfront or lakefront or some of them are just in the plains. They just want to be out there. But more and more people are seeing that, “Hey, we need to take care of this as well as our building departments.” So the key to this is we go beyond saying, “Hey, Mr. Customer, Mrs. Customer. Here is your house. Figure it out.” We say, “Hey, let’s make sure the house works on the land and for the building department,” the make sense component of this as well. Make sure that it’s planned out so that we are doing all of this on paper and people understand what’s happening instead of just saying, “Hey, here’s the house. Go figure it out.” And then you’ve got someone trying to balance all these. So we have the full knowledge of working with civil engineers, septic designers, geotechnical people, geologists, whatever people may be involved. Now, I’m getting a little deep into some of these. Not all building departments require it. Not all sites require it. But if someone needed that level of knowledge, we are fully capable of doing it. And we enjoy doing it. It’s actually really cool to go get a challenging situation and figure out, “Wow! Look at what’s happening here.”

Interviewer: From what I’ve heard, I mean it can’t be that tough. I mean doesn’t structural engineering just happened by pushing a button on a computer? Aren’t computers doing most of your design work now?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, I wish that were true. That’s that magic button. Bam!

Interviewer: Well, isn’t there a house app that just kind of builds it for you?

Steve Tuma: Yeah, I wish there was something like that, but no. Amazingly, there the belief that computers do all this work. And yes, computers do an incredible amount of work. We rely on them for work. But you still need the human element. You can’t take a plan and push the button and it automatically knows about your land and the structural engineering concerns. You still have to have the human element. And that’s what we work with to go through to make sure that the house fits on the land, works with the civil engineering, works with the structural concerns, works with the energy concerns, and then the other concerns that may be on the site. And that is a key element. This is a pretty cool that you brought this up because that gets to the one-stop shop where you can call up and say, “Hey,  Steve, I need to put this house over here and this is how we want to get it put together.” We can work to get all those details filled in so that it’s complete, so the customer knows what’s going on, understands what’s going on, but also so it’s clear to the building department and the builder. So I wish there was that magic button. We haven’t been able to find a computer no matter how much it costs that has that magic button. It takes people to sit there and understand and work and tie it together, and we are those professionals. We’ve been doing it for a while. We have the support system. We have the knowledge. We’ve done it pretty much in every single building condition. We’ve done below sea level, above sea level, flood zones, oceanfront, lakefront, plains, city lots, big cities, little cities, unincorporated areas, big rural land. We’ve been able to do it. So we’ve got a very broad but also deep understanding of how to help a customer get their house put together.

Interviewer: Right. Well, I’m going to throw a hypothetical at you just to give people an idea of how deep you guys get into and how much Landmark really is able to help people with their projects. So let’s say, I have some plans from a plan service and the planning service tells me I can go ahead and use them to submit to a building department. And then I tried that but the building department would not take the plans. What’s the next step? What do I do?

Steve Tuma: Well, the next step is send us the plan, because I’ve seen that situation and a lot of those plans and we are even seeing more comments on building department requirements that if they are mail-order-plans, bring them to a pro to get them done. It’s not that those plans are necessarily terrible. It’s that they are not complete. And the application of what they drew isn’t likely to work where you are.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So, most of those plan services, I would say, almost all of them have disclaimers saying that, “This house was designed for here but you should take it to a local architect, structural engineer, knowledgeable building official, building department to fill in all the details.” And that’s the point where people don’t think that. They are like, “Well, I got them online. They were 500 bucks. I saved some money.” Well, I don’t know that you did but it’s at least a starting point. That actually just happened to me today. It probably happens to me twice a week where people get the plans and they are frustrated because they thought that the plans are there. What people don’t realize is not all plans are the same. So plans are not just walls, showing were a wall is, where the garage is, where the kitchen is. It’s what the details within there. How is that house going to stand up? Does it apply – does it meet or exceed codes? Are there energy efficiency standards? So the plan services are in the business of having a plan that you purchase and continue on with your dream. We are in the business of taking the idea of what you want to build and making sure that it can happen. And that’s the difference. So for example, like we’ve talked about a variety of times, if you took a one home, just some home, and said, “I want to go build it on Key West.” But then said, “No, I’m moving. I’m going to go move into the middle of New York City.” Then he said, “No, you know what? I want to go live in Leadville, Colorado.” Then he said, “I’m going to move myself to Lake Tahoe.” Each of those building locations even though it’s the same house will have a completely different set of structural concerns, finishing concerns, building department requirements. And that’s where we come in. We are the specialists that take that idea of what you want to build and help make it a reality.

By the way, we have had customers that into the project that transferred or moved so we’ve had to take a house that was initially designed for say, St. Louis and have it built in Dallas. So we are able to do that, if for some reason a person comes into it. And that’s the key thing. Sometimes those canned plans, they are a good starting point. But unless you have a very unsophisticated building department, it’s not likely that they are going to be accepted. Even so, sometimes they don’t have the details or structural concerns for your builder to understand. So we realized it’s not just getting the building department to approve and inspect and approve again, it’s making sure that the builder knows what’s going on and you as the consumer should also know what you are getting. So if there’s a set of plans that isn’t clear, they need to be clarified. And that’s what people don’t always realize that there might a situation there where something is not clear. Is there a cathedral ceiling here? Is it a flat ceiling? Is there tray ceiling? What’s going on? And sometimes people say, “Well, the builder will figure it out.” I’m like, “I’m sure that that builder will figure it out. But you as a person paying for the home, shouldn’t you know? And maybe shouldn’t you get what you want?” If someone says, “Hey, it’s easy for them to put a flat ceiling but you wanted a cathedral ceiling, shouldn’t that be detailed upfront?” And that’s where we could come in. So if someone does have standard plans or plans they drew themselves or plans their local designer used, we can take those and further detail them, do structural design, do all these different details so that they can then go through and build a very cool house.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So that happens a lot. People are of the opinion that any plan will work. I say not all plans are the same. It just isn’t that way. They don’t necessarily have the details. Many of them have big disclaimers about codes and different loadings and different things. So you really need to know how to work with these to make sure it gets put together. And it’s not that hard. It’s not that expensive for us to take that idea and move it forward.

Interviewer: Something I want to ask you in the last episode but I think I can squeeze it in here. The guaranteed cost, why is guaranteed cost important to a customer and why is it important to the budget?

Steve Tuma: It’s very important because people – just like we are talking about these plans, if the plans aren’t accurate and they go somewhere and they say, “Oh, it’s going to cost x amount of money to build this house,” and the plans aren’t accurate, how do you know what you are getting? So a guaranteed cost when we give a quote and we say, “Hey, this house package, the plans engineering of this cost …” that’s the price. We don’t come back and raise the price. So it helps in your budget. It helps in your scheduling. It helps in just dealing with the headaches of building. You can control the cost of one of the biggest components of your home. So, a lot of people come to us and say, “Well, why should I work with Landmark? This guy down the road that I met at the Fish Fry told me that it should cost x amount.” And we will be like, “Well, wait. What does x amount mean?” I don’t know. “Did he put it in writing? Is there a guarantee to what he is saying?” No. “OK, that’s very open-ended. You don’t want to build a house without knowing what it cost.” So that’s a situation we are able to go through and say, “Hey, for what you need, the plans, engineering, energy codes, green codes, whatever it is, the panelized home package delivered is a solid and known cost upfront.” That’s the key element. There are just too many variables where if someone doesn’t understand their budget, it will come back and bite them.

Interviewer: Yeah, it makes sense.

Steve Tuma: We want to avoid that. And we believe in do your homework upfront so you know what you are doing so it’s a lot easier for you to build your home.

Interviewer: Yeah. Well, when you just said, “I want – we want to avoid that,” and that seems to be one of the hallmarks of Landmark is the ability to help people from – keep people from making bonehead mistakes that they would probably make if they didn’t have – I mean I originally thought that Landmark just provided panelized homes. But it’s so much more comprehensive than that. Landmark helps with plans and that they are a great support system and a guide sort of the – guide people through that whole maze and just the knowledge resource. It’s amazing. You guys must really be happy that you are providing customers with that whole new level of confidence.

Steve Tuma: It’s actually the most rewarding part of it, helping people get houses is rewarding. It changes their life. But just this week, I had three people send me extremely complimentary text saying, “Steve, you got back with us. You know what you are talking about.” And the coolest thing, they said, “Steve, you explained it so now we understand.” That is the key element. Have you ever been in a situation where you’re asking for help or you are trying to figure something out and you say, “Hey, what about this, this, and this?” And the response is, “Yes.”

[Laughter]

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: It’s like OK, so what did you just tell me? Or did you just add to the confusion and aggravation where we spend a time to go through and …

Interviewer: So you’re not yes man over there.

Steve Tuma: This is interesting. This is in a place, in a community where the lots, it was up by San Francisco. And the specific question they were asking saying, “Steve, do I need a surveyor to tell me where to put the house on the lot?” And previously, people had told them, “Yeah, you should get one.” Other people say, “No, you don’t need one. You can measure it yourself.”

Well, let’s just say if you’re in a really confined lot and your house is exactly on a building line. So let’s just say the rear lot line is 10 feet from the lot line, that’s the closest you could build your house. Now, a lot of people would think that, “Hey, I got a tape measure. I can measure 10 feet.” You measure 10 feet. You dig your hole. You put your foundation. You build your house.

And then the building inspector comes out and says, “What’s up with this? You’re at 9 feet 6 inches. Your house is too close.”

So we went through and explain to them why you don’t want to do that. Yeah, you might save a little money but the potential problem and the high likeness that you will be wrong, the outcome of that just isn’t positive. So you want to get a surveyor in very tight areas to locate your house on a lot line. So the situation here wasn’t necessarily to be a discussion of surveying. It’s to be a discussion of how we help that person understand the situation so that then they can make the right decision and move forward. In this case, it was extremely helpful. And as they went through and found it, they found out that there was a neighbor’s fence was on their property. So …

Interviewer: That’s interesting. It would be a nice thing to know that your neighbor’s fence is on your property.

Steve Tuma: It just proved the point.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: Because if that person who put the fence in took a survey, they would have put the fence on their land.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So those are the types of things that come out of them. But what I wanted to show there was more of the support that we are able to go through. So if someone sitting here saying, “Steve, should I go with the mini-split system or a regular furnace?” Or, “Hey, how does this installation help me?” Or, “Hey, why do I want to have my house face south when I’m installing solar?” Different things like that.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: I think people will really appreciate because I’ve been in this situation myself where you just don’t get help. I was looking at purchasing a car and asked the person what the weight capacity was and the person looked at me and said, “A lot.”

Interviewer: [Laughs]

Steve Tuma: I was like, “Can you tell me how much a lot is?” To an elephant, a thousand pounds is nothing. To an ant, a thousand pounds is a lot.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: So what is this? And that’s not what we do. We would go through and explain the situation and get the person the answer. That’s the key element. That’s what Landmark is about is helping the people and situations they may not realize, they may not understand, or situations that arise and suddenly it’s like, uh-uh. We work through. But the best thing to do is work with us to get the plans done right to avoid as many of those issues as possible.

Interviewer: Well, this has been a really fun and informative episode. I always learn stuff when I’m talking to you. But sometimes I like getting into smaller details and more precise details than generalizations. And yeah, that’s what this episode seemed to be about. So …

Steve Tuma: Well, that’s the key element. Anyone can say, “Oh yeah, we can help you build a house.” We are wanting our customers to understand what’s going on so they know how they are spending the money. They know how they can control their project. They know that they can get the house that they want to build.

Interviewer: Right.

Steve Tuma: That’s key.

Interviewer: OK. Well, that about wraps it up for us today. But before we go, Steve, as we do with every episode of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show, let’s tell the listeners how they can get a hold of you guys over at Landmark Home and Land Company and your great team and what’s the best way to reach you.

Steve Landmark: Our website is always available at LHLC.com. We are Landmark Home and Land Company, LHLC.com. The website is always there. There are plans. There are videos. There are different topics that are reviewed. You can contact us through there. You can call our, 800-830-9788. Mike will work with you, get everything taken care of. I’m also available if you need anything. You can email me at [email protected]. And I’m Steve Tuma. And we will do whatever we can to help whether you are buying today, tomorrow, and 10 years. We want to get you positioned so that you understand what’s happening and how we can help you. We’ve got videos on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter. We are around but ultimately, the key is you can contact us. We will take the time to talk to you, understand your project, help you understand how we can help you so that you build the best house you can and also enjoy the process.

Interviewer: Well, there you go. Well, for Steve Tuma and myself, thank you again for listening in to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. And be safe out there, people. Happy building and we will see you next time.

Steve Landmark: Have a great day. Thank you.