iam in the process of trying to find an architect. From what i know i need planning drawings and also building reg drawings ? iam building a double storey extension , the figures iam being quoted are approx £900 for plans and £900 for building regs approx £1800 total, does this seem like a reasonable amount ?
Sounds reasonable to me. We paid £500 for a set of PP plans for two dormer extensions (which the architect drew wrong, and had to redraw, which he took forever to do, and didn't get quite right even then ). You then have to pay for someone to do building regs calculations too, but fortunately we were able to cut the architect out of the picture, our Builder liaised direct with Building Control. In future I would avoid architects wherever possible, but probably not feasible for the OP.
HC, what you have to realise is, the person who signs off the drawings and the person checking the building regs becomes legally liable for ANY problems that may occur, ie structural collapse. The fact that if land prices were much cheaper you could build a house on average for a quarter of current prices (depending on how well you finish the prop of course) dictates to me how far prices have to come down!!
What I would suggest is rather than having new plans drawn up, is if you can find plans for an existing house that you want a "copy" of, then buying the copy of the plans would be cheaper. You can also get a little discount for the building regs calcs, depending on your area. (It gets complicated, the calcs change depending on where you build your house due to differing soils, wind loading effects etc). But I suppose that kind of defeats the object of home-build and having a unique property (probably why you went to an Architect in the first place).
Originally posted by Pflusk: What I would suggest is rather than having new plans drawn up, is if you can find plans for an existing house that you want a "copy" of, then buying the copy of the plans would be cheaper. You can also get a little discount for the building regs calcs, depending on your area. (It gets complicated, the calcs change depending on where you build your house due to differing soils, wind loading effects etc). But I suppose that kind of defeats the object of home-build and having a unique property (probably why you went to an Architect in the first place).
Do you know this for a fact? Our architect had done an identical plan for a neighbour a few doors up which had been approved by the Planning office - that was why we chose him. But he insisted on redrawing the plans for us. Admittedly he was absolutely rubbish, but he did not mention 'buying' the plans.
Somebody working at your office, especially in the IT department, will have software you can borrow. Of course it will take you a good few hours if you're a beginner but it is well worth a bit of effort. Also you might get keen and be able to do it for other people - certainly if I knew anyone prepared to pay a few hundred quid, I'd do it for them.
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