Help needed with plans drawn?

jamtart6

I need to have plans drawn for a very small porch.

Last time we had plans drawn for our extension, the council and architect didn't get on very well and we had a nightmare trying to get various stages of inspection passed. I kind of agreed with the council as he was really poor, didn't explain about building regs application etc.

This time it is more straightforward as we don't need any inspections for the porch but equally I don't want another set of rubbish plans.

Obviously I don't want to pay a fortune either.

The question is what am I looking for? Is it an architect? A technical artist?

What should I be asking them when I'm getting a quote?

What sort of price range should it be for a porch less than 4m2 ?

Thanks in advance. I don't want the same problems as last time.

spadoosh

Can't you buy a 'premade' porch which will have instructions (plans) in?!

What type of porch are you after?! Brick/pvc/glass?!

Gloomendoom

I had this problem and ended up drawing them myself.

If your council planning department publishes planning applications online, you could have a look through other people's applications and see who prepared their plans. It's a good way of assessing the quality of the work beforehand too.

jamtart6

Ooh good idea Goomendoom

We want a brick porch spadoosh

We need planning application and plans even though it is small due to being in a Permitted Development Restricted zone.

bazster

You could indeed do it yourself. If you need planning permission the council will be happy with self-drawn plans if they are clear enough. A decent builder will sort out the technical side of it comes to building the thing.

When I had a two-storey extension built I got hold of a decent draughtsman merely by asking around friends and relatives who had done building work. He was neither an architect nor particularly creative - basically he just took my sketches, drew them up accurately and submitted to the council - but he saved me a lot a hassle. He charge £400-odd initially, and then a couple of hundred more after the halfwit council refused it (not the draughtsman's fault) and it had to be tweaked and re-submitted. I would think a porch should cost a fraction of that, especially if you are not in the South East.

n.b. the draughtsman and the builder between them sorted out an engineer to do the designs for building regs approval, and the builder arranged all the inspections.

jamtart6

Thanks Bazster we won't need inspections or any building regs due to the size of the thing so that is one weight off the shoulders.

On self-drawn plans, I'm guessing they'd have to be done on a computer rather than hand drawn to scale? In terms of plans would the builder be able to advise what materials are needed so we can annotate the plans appropriately?

Edit: we are up North and porch is seriously tiny so I would hope not to pay more than £200 if I got someone to do it.

Sambucus_Nigra

Try a building surveyor. We also drew up our own plans but then again, my first job was drawing up plans so I did have experience.

McKneff

We have just had plans drawn up and the set scale for a porch drawn up by architects and him doing all the application and the donkey work is £498 including VAT.

As long as your plans are drawn to scale, I cant see an problem with you getting planning permission

MX5huggy

jamtart6 wrote: »

Thanks Bazster we won't need inspections or any building regs due to the size of the thing so that is one weight off the shoulders.

On self-drawn plans, I'm guessing they'd have to be done on a computer rather than hand drawn to scale? In terms of plans would the builder be able to advise what materials are needed so we can annotate the plans appropriately?

Edit: we are up North and porch is seriously tiny so I would hope not to pay more than £200 if I got someone to do it.

No reason they have to be done on a computer by hand is fine if you want.

bazster

Hand-drawn plans will be fine if they are neat and clear.

If you already have a builder lined up have you asked him to do it? They pretty often have a tame draughtsman to do planning applications for their customers.

Gloomendoom

Take a gander at these porch plans. They were approved too.

http://78.25.201.88/swiftlg/MediaTemp/41230-71366.pdf