Home extension Architect or builder for plans?

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Jez

Jez

Jez

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Hi :)

We are at present mulling over whether to sell and move from our house, or build a reasonably significant double storey extension. The reasoning being that moving will incur a massive stamp duty bill which i am utterly loathed to pay, this money would almost totally pay for the building work i am proposing i would imagine.

I am sure some of you must have had extensions built, how did you get the idea off the ground? Did you get a design agency to design and submit for planning, or did your builder do this?

While i have bought and sold houses, and has lots and lots of smaller building jobs completed, i have never undertaken a significant build like this. I am not quite sure whether to start calling builders and obtaining quotes with no plans, or whether i should get plans first.

The extension for context will add approx 1300ft^2 of accommodation, so it is a fairly significant job, certainly not a structure which i will attempt to DIY.

Any pointers if you have had extensions built would be good :)
 
I was talking to an Architect I was sat next to on a flight last week, he told me that currently the ballpark figure for builds was about £1000 per square metre. I know thats not of much use to you but I found it interesting :D lol.

Builders are supposedly charging considerable more these days as they have a lot more work to choose from. A few years back they were desperate for work and priced a lot more competitively.
 
Depending on the scale of the job and your own capabilities, you could submit the planning drawings yourself and then employ an architect for the detailed drawings.

Conversely just employ an architect they'll survey what they need to, come up with a design based on your ideas and go through the process on your behalf.
 
Googling around for local architects a number of them offer a free initial consultation, i guess this should be my first port of call.

I wouldnt feel happy to submit any plans which i had drawn myself i dont think, the extension will wrap around the house slightly and will involve dormer windows and complicated rooflines, i dont think i have the ability to draw this myself.
 
Im not 100% on this but depending on what you want to do a structural engineer/surveyor may be able to help. I know one who said they can do quite a bit of what architects can do (he wasnt being funny, just saying people didnt realise this) but if you wanted anything fancy or pretty then you'd need an architect. Not sure if this is true or not but may be worth checking out as they'll be cheaper I imagine.
 
Good idea, i will look at that. It wont be anything fancy as such, just large stone square extension with a pitched roof and probably some dormers to keep the total ridge height down a bit (the existing house is very tall so i wont match that, the extension would look huge).
 
We got a chartered surveyor/architect to draw up some plans to submit for planning permission, then more detailed plans to submit to building control once planning was granted.

The first stage in the process was for the architect to have someone draw up to date plans of the existing house, so we had accurate existing and proposed plans.
 
IIRC for ours we went to a local building contractor who drew up plans and submitted them, etc. as well as carrying out the work.
 
Definitely looks as though i know where to start then;

1) I think i will have a couple of builders round for a quick "yea m8 thatll be roughly xxx" just so that i know the ballpark that i will be getting in to. (Above a certain ceiling there is no point, stamp duty for a move will be around 30k).

2) I will take one of these small time local architects up on their "free initial consultation" and take it from there with them.

It definitely sounds as though plans are the way to go first. As per your post Rroff it may be that a builder might be able to hook me up with a designer too.
 
I'm going through this at the moment, though the extension is just a single storey rear one.

Definitely have a chat with a builder first, like you say they can give you a ballpark figure and if its the sort of work they have done before they will likely have details of some local architects that they can recommend.
 
Or you could pay for the extension anyway, have the house valued and then move with extra funding behind yourself? :p
 
You mean extend it, and then move anyway in the hope that we have added equity? :) I guess that will ultimately happen anyway.
 
Been going through it for the last 6 months. Wanted an extension to the side of the house which would move the garage 3m forward extend into the back of the current garage and build over it for a master bedroom with en suite. Paid approx £500 for the architect who came out and measured everything, came up with a few options, finalised the drawings and submitted for planning. Had loads of trouble with the planning office which the architect dealt with on our behalf. Ended up pulling the application as the highways had an issue with how we were turning our drive from straight on to the house to sideways. There is a requirement for at least 5.5m of driveway from your garage door to the road which got we could not get around.

This is where the architect earns his brass, he did all the running around and working with the planning office.

We then changed to having a single storey extension out the back of the house of approx 28m2, he has come back and is doing the whole thing for a cut down fee, but again, planning rears its ugly head where our estate has had permitted development removed during the original application, so have to go through planning again, which he is dealing with. Again it saves me loads of time and hassle, and possibly losing my temper a lot with the planning people!

He's recommended a civil engineering firm which we are using for all the rsj calculations, and is also dealing with all the submission of the building regs.

All in it will be about £700 for the architect and £250 for the engineering report.
 
Nice, that is very insightful. :)

Luckily we shouldnt have issues with the highways dept, we are not changing any access or moving any garaging nearer to the roadside. (we will infact knock one of our garages down completely to make space for this).

Planning though, yeah, it would be lovely if they would deal with them. I'd hope to get advice on what is likely to pass too, our area is a conservation area which i understand makes things a bit tighter.

Another issue we will have is that we will need to relocate a manhole cover for some drainage, the proposed new kitchen goes right over the top of an inspection chamber :(
 
Jez said:
Nice, that is very insightful. :)

Luckily we shouldnt have issues with the highways dept, we are not changing any access or moving any garaging nearer to the roadside. (we will infact knock one of our garages down completely to make space for this).

Planning though, yeah, it would be lovely if they would deal with them. I'd hope to get advice on what is likely to pass too, our area is a conservation area which i understand makes things a bit tighter.

Another issue we will have is that we will need to relocate a manhole cover for some drainage, the proposed new kitchen goes right over the top of an inspection chamber :(
Click to expand...

Not really too much of an issue really. Just relocated the manhole outwith your extension and have your existing sealed over with an appropriate cover. A little fiddle about with altering / extending the pipework isn't too much of an issue.
 
Hopefully not too much of an issue as you say, I have no idea how they will relocate it though as there are multiple pipes going into it :)
 
Hi Jez, I've just recently finished just what you're planning and I can offer a couple of words of advice.

I would be wary of getting an all in one solution for builders to do the planning application etc, vested interests could happen, it makes much more sense to get separate people to do their respective jobs.

That's the way I did it, as said above get an architect/planner to draw up your existing house and new proposed building work (cost around £500-£750).

Then get some builders in to quote from the proposed plans, that way you have a given plan to quote to, so you can compare like for like on tendered prices. If each builder is quoting from his own plans you'll get a very wide selection of quotes.

Another tip I found a place online that will quote for your building work without having a vested interest in inflating the price, check them out here:
http://www.estimators-online.com/pricelist#.VDQAp_ldVy0
they provide the quote for £75+VAT, but you get a detailed breakdown of labour costs and materials so when you get builders quotes in you know if you're being ripped off :)

here's the finished product, more than happy with it (Extension = Garage, dining room, sun lounge and 2 beds up stairs)


 
Very handy, i very much appreciate the reply :)

I have arranged for a local architect to come and have a meeting with me on friday at the house, hopefully he can provide us with guidance as to what is and isnt possible. We need to build over some drains and things so it will be great to get an expert to cast their eye over it all.

Assuming we get on OK i will get him to draw the plans up for us, which we can then obviously use to take to planning.

Out of interest how did you find the planning procedure? Did you have anything in place with the architect for drawing amendments should planning be rejected on certain grounds? :)
 
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