What price architects?

[red750]

Gatekeeper required.

 

 

Who moved the door?

 

 

What a pucker!

 

 

Add another extension.

 

 

Who misplaced the garden bed?

 

 

Russian safe house. No falling out of these windows.

 

 

Knock knock. Who's there?

 

 

Careful backing the car out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[onetrack]

I think there's been a substantial degree of original photo manipulation in all of the above! 🙄

[Jerry_Atrick]

But it's an interesting question. We have used architects twice - once for our home extension and once for this place for the refurb plan (this house is Grade 2 listed). And both times, they were a waste of money. The first time, the builders took a look at the plans and scoffed, suggested minor changes that made the world of difference. Thankfully, it wasn't too expensive and was just needed to get the plans approved at council.

 

The second one was hideously expensive but couldn't account for an itemised invoice. Before we spent too much on him, we let him go as he wasn't listening at all, and was just charging for stuff we couldn't see. As my partner is artistically talented with a good dose of know how from the practical point of view, she downloaded the approved plans of a similar refurb friends did to another Old Rectory. She put them all together and did the research for the heritage statement that has to accompany such plans to ensure the are in character of the building. It is how we learned that General Monty's unlce was the rector here and Monty stayed here quie a lot as a teenager. We also learned that the 2 br converted coach house was also used as a small school for Australian theology scholars at the turn of the 19th century.

 

Anyway, we decided to get the architect in to review the plans and statement for a few hundred pounds. And he was hyper critical and said the council wouldn't even entertain it... But it was no different in terms of notations, scale, etc as the approved plans downloaded. We learned that there was a retired architect in the village, so asked him to take a look. His response was, "there's not a planning officer in the country that would have the courage to deny those plans and statement."

 

We submitted and it was knocked back within the hour. The reason - we drew the boundary around our property as we should, but for some reason, the council think the 2br cottage is on a different title. I suggested we redraw the boundary around the cottage rather than argue with the council.. We did and it was approved after the consultation period ended. My partner saved us £10k

Edited Monday at 09:54 AM by Jerry_Atrick

[facthunter]

Councils are another subject altogether.  Architects charge for something "different" in appearance to differentiate it from its  surrounding buildings Todays LONDON looks so Weird and Untidy and mismatched to me. "Fugly".

 3 out of 4 of my children work in the building game and architects are not good at getting the supporting structure DETAIL right or even there. Generalising. but PRACTICAL they are NOT. Computations can be done by "normal" people. Nev

[onetrack]

I'd avoid architects at all times unless I wanted to burn up a lot of money. They're good at producing offbeat designs, but often, they're impractical or costly to build. Some can produce superb results.

I've found a young structural engineer, he's great, I tell him what I want, I draw a sketch, and he produces the designs and plans in a straightforward manner, and even does all the council paperwork, ready for submission.

Here on the Left Coast, there was a big change in the building permits setup in 2012. Previously, you submitted plans, and the council had to do all the legwork figuring out if it was legal and safe, and met all the requirements and laws.

Now, you submit plans, and either you, or your engineer, have to personally guarantee they meet all the regulations and safety standards, and all the councils have to do, is look over all the paperwork, and either pass it, or reject it.

[spacesailor]

I drew the " carport & garage on A3 paper  " with those connotations / scale bits " at the bottom .

The council did ask if I had used an " architect ' . so I lied .

" of course sir " .

spacesailor

 

[onetrack]

Did you tell them the bloke who drew up the plans was named Archie Teckt? 😄