Cheap plans

ellykirk

Is there a way to save money on having plans drawn up for planning permission/building regs?
I'm happy to pay the council fees, but the extra £1500 on top for plans we can't afford.
I've thought about doing them myself but for full height elevations I don't have the measuring instruments.

Kiran

You can buy a leica disto (laser measuring device) for £100 odd so still leaves you a fair chunk of money left over. £1500 is a huge amount, what else are they offering for that price?

ellykirk

I haven't had an actual quote, that was an idea I got from some online firms.
How would you use a laser measure to do heights? Hasn't it got to hit something? And there's only sky up there!

latecomer

if you dont have quotes how do you know you can afford the building work? if £1500 breaks the bank are you planning on having a contingincy fund for the building work? if not then I'd stop now and have a serious think about it.

dander

I drew mine myself for planning/conservation approval. I figured out the vertical heights by taking pictures of the house and using that to figure out heights using the measurements I could measure - ie window/door heights horizontal measurements. There was a certain amount I could do by hanging out of windows with a long tape.

Obviously these measurements won't be 100% accurate - but the main part that couldn't be measured and had to be done via geometry and photo-scaling was the roof - which wasn't relevant to my single storey extension anyway. It was accurate enough for my needs.

Building regs is the main point where things really need to be accurate, but I did my extension on a building notice rather than full-plans so there was no need to produce those plans.

iamcornholio

Drawings for planning only should be in the region of £400. For building regs, about another £300.

There will be extra fees if you need specialist structural design for beams, specialist foundations etc, fees if building over a public sewer, and if the Party Wall Act comes into play then fees could rocket.

Bear in mind that a crap (ie cheap) design will more than likely lead to increased building costs due to lack of information so the builder needs to guess more

Another consideration is that if you can't afford £1500 for plans, then how do you expect to be able to afford it if the building inspector wants deeper foundations, drains moved or altered or extra work in the roof? You need to be realistic on exactly how much it will cost to build an extension, not just wing it

BTW to measure your house for planning purposes, all you need is a 5m tape which costs about £2.99

dander

iamcornholio wrote: »

Bear in mind that a crap (ie cheap) design will more than likely lead to increased building costs due to lack of information so the builder needs to guess more

I would say I disagree with this. I think plans are a definite area where you can cut costs on an extension. Sure if you need structural calculations doing, you're in to specialist territory where you can't risk making a mistake - but for basic plans for a simple structure there's no point in paying fees to highly-qualified people if the job doesn't involve that specialist knowledge.

Doozergirl

dander wrote: »

I would say I disagree with this. I think plans are a definite area where you can cut costs on an extension. Sure if you need structural calculations doing, you're in to specialist territory where you can't risk making a mistake - but for basic plans for a simple structure there's no point in paying fees to highly-qualified people if the job doesn't involve that specialist knowledge.

I'm not so sure. There's definitely been times where we've had to fork out for steel beams, or more steel beams where I know the architect has just drawn a picture. Having drawings done for building regs as well might have helped that, we've always done everything on building notice, everything seems to change as you uncover previously undiscovered issues.

We know people who have the most fantastic approved plans for a mega extension and no builder that will touch it; it's so complicated it's pointless. I don't think those drawings were cheap though!

Doozergirl

dander wrote: »

I drew mine myself for planning/conservation approval. I figured out the vertical heights by taking pictures of the house and using that to figure out heights using the measurements I could measure - ie window/door heights horizontal measurements. There was a certain amount I could do by hanging out of windows with a long tape.

That is exactly what our architect did on our last project. It wasn't safe to go upstairs, in fact we had to remove all of the internal timber and clear the jungle around the outside of the house before she could even start. So there were no ceilings or floors to speak of.

She used the measurements of door frames and windows, sent my H up ladders for the upstairs windows, took photographs and counted the brick courses to get heights etc!

Kiran

ellykirk wrote: »

I haven't had an actual quote, that was an idea I got from some online firms.
How would you use a laser measure to do heights? Hasn't it got to hit something? And there's only sky up there!

Im not sure what it is that you are trying to measure if there's "only sky up there"? If its roof heights etc you can bounce off the soffits etc. A bit more detail required? To gain accurate measurements you can also use an engineers total station which is able to take reflectorless measurements but you really need somoene who knows how to use one.

ellykirk

Hang on, who said we were having an extension built?
All we are doing is putting a new roof on an existing single storey ext and have to have planning permission due to a technicality/misinterpretation of the rules (IMHO )
The building work itself isn't technical/difficult at all and the builder is aware and OK with what we want done.
I was hoping to do the building regs as a building notice application rather than full plans as it's such a straightforward thing. Have to ask the council if that's OK though, no clue on the paperwork they've sent.
If estimating from the bricks/windows etc is acceptable, I'd be more than happy to have a go myself.
They also need plans showing boundaries etc. We have one in the HIP from when we bought the house. Is that likely to be acceptable?
Kiran, if you bounce off the soffits, how does the measure know what angle you've pointed it at? If you were measuring the height of a ceiling, you'd put it on the floor and point at the ceiling. The sky comment was in regards to trying to measure the height of the roof using the same method.