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How many architects should I get out to quote?
Hello. Back again with my architect woes. We’ve got a few architects coming round for walk throughs. It’s all very exciting. If you recall my last post, our “family friend” (architect) ghosted us so we’ve decided not to pursue that avenue.
Is there any advice on questions to ask? What to expect? Anything to look out for?
I have an idea who I’m leaning towards BUT I’m keeping an open mind. It’ll be 4 firms, is that too much?
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10 Replies
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Check they are an architect RIBA qualified not an architectural designer… that should be on their websites
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Make sure you ask about timescales. I’ve seen architects take instructions and it’s months till they can even produce suggestions.
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that’s a great question. I’ve made note of this.
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Make sure you use one who can see your vision. We wasted so much time having to ask ours to re-draw things as he has his own ideas which we didn’t like. Not sure I would use four different ones as communication would need to be A* and that won’t happen.
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thanks. We’ll be going with one firm out of the four different firms. I’m getting 4 in for the initial chat to see who we’d like to work with. 2 are off recommendations and 2 I’ve found myself. That way when we make our decision, we can do so having looked at a number of people. It’s taken us so long to get to this stage as hubs and I have different ideas. We’ve done the same for other jobs/trades getting 4-6 quotes in. Hope that makes sense.
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And what do they understand of the Party Wall Act and process ?
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this was flagged up on our survey and something we know has to be done. I didn’t realise their importance until recently. Thanks Sarah.
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If it’s an old house, do they have experience in old houses? Ours is listed. One architect was talking about repositioning staircases….which you can’t do. Also be aware that they sometimes add in fancy designs. We had another suggest a new staircase into the loft that would have cost a lot of £ when the one that is there was perfectly fine. We saw 2. I wished we seen more.
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I met a Planning consultant recently through networking and she made a great point that many people waste money on architects when they first need a Planning consultant. Depends on project if course is property in conservation area, listed etc. Will getting project through Planning be uncontroversial and straightforward. Ask them about the technical bits like heating and ventilation if you might need it. These are usually designed by an M & E designer not an architect some large heating companies like mine do it in house. Architect’s can be devil’s for undersized plant room areas that can really be an issue further down the line and cost you more money to remotely position big bits of heating kit! Another tip is to focus on embedded changes like plumbing and heating that give you the living environment but might be invisible have no aesthetic element…
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oh my! You’ve thrown a spanner in the works now . So much to think about.
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