Postby Tiny T » Wed Oct 02, 2013 10:24 am
We completed a full refurbishment of our property this year and we were in the same situation of shall we use an architect or just a local design team and builder. We had a number of architects round who were coming up with no new ideas to what we already had and the new ideas were unpractical as they were ridiculously expensive and the architects then wanted 12%-15% of the build cost on top to do the planning application, structural drawings, spec sheet and project manage the build. Sometimes we felt they were just coming up with the most expensive ideas just so their percentages would be higher.
We were recommended a builder who had been used by a couple of friends and he said the build was going to cost somewhere between £130K-£150K but he would know better once we had structural drawings and a full spec for him to quote off. At this point we realised we wouldn’t be able to afford some £20K on an architect and complete the project with the funds we had.
The builder said he would project manage as he does with most of his jobs as long as we provided good structural drawings and detailed spec sheet. The builder also recommended a planner and a structural engineer he always works with and in total their fees came in at £3.5K. The party wall agreement was a little expensive it should had cost £500 but as both neighbours contested we had to pay for both of their surveyors as well, who seemed incredibly expensive compared to our surveyor so that fee eventually came in at just under £5K – however we would have spent that £5K even if we had the £20K architect!!
The local planner was very knowledgeable and got us a larger extension than we originally thought Wandsworth Council would allow and the surveyor provided a full spec for the builder to quote off. Although we knew we wanted to use this builder we got another 3 quotes from the spec provided just to check his price was in the right ball park. There was probably £5K-£10K difference between all the quotes with our original builder being the most expensive, however we had seen his previous work at friend’s houses and his finish was excellent and as my husband always says you get what you pay for!
The build went well with few problems, Craig was very approachable and knowledgeable and all his build teams were very friendly, the finish was great and came in right on budget as said, unlike friends I know whose build costs have gone well over the original quote from the builder. So from my experience I would save the money on the architect and spend the money on a good builder but make sure time is spent on the spec sheet down to the very last detail as it all adds up so the builder can quote accurately.
Hope this advice helps with your project and good luck!
