Extension tender..Reasonable?

southcoastrgi

ipri wrote: »

Hi...we have had an architect sort out an Ext. to kitchen....they said it would be difficult to give accurate price, plus 5% of build cost to architect and already paid £8k on architects fees

the_r_sole wrote: »

but you have no idea what has been involved up to this point - or what was agreed, as soon as the title "architect" is mentioned on here it's always the same reaction

and it actually isn't anything to do with the op's post - they were asking about their tender!

as they are at the tender stage, let me guess, meeting with client, doing the full plans, submitting them to planning & or BC, paying the council fees, contacting builders to provide quotes.

i think you need to read post #1 that i have edited for you above, of course it's got to do with the architect & their costs as well as the builders tenders.

an architect should have a very good idea of build costs as surely they have done projects like this before, they know the council fees & the likely build cost, now i agree that the OP has added a few extra's on the heating & various other bits & pieces but was given a rough cost of £38k for the build plus whatever else was going to be installed, so how can the cost have gone to nearly 3 times that price ? the architect is either incompentant or just hasn't got a clue.

what if the OP has a budget of £60k, the architect gave them a rough build cost of £38k so that would leave them with £22k to add the extra's like a new kitchen, underfloor heating etc etc, so they give him the go ahead to draw the plans, submit them & get planning permission, now the tenders come in at way over what they can afford with no way to get the extra funding, so they now have planning but don't have an extension & can't afford to get one done, the architect is :rotfl: all the way to the bank with their £8k, if it was me i would be bloody fuming & refuse to pay him on the grounds of gross incompentance.

System

southcoastrgi wrote: »

as they are at the tender stage, let me guess, meeting with client, doing the full plans, submitting them to planning & or BC, paying the council fees, contacting builders to provide quotes.

right, that is the normal process, agreed, but you have literally no idea the process here was this linear and you are happy to call the architect a rip off merchant - there is also no word that the op didn't agree to the fees up front, or that they feel the fees are unjustified...

they should have a good idea of the build costs yes, but maybe the client spec is very tight and is returning costs in the tender - recently worked on a project where the cost of the (client specced) windows added 45k onto the job from a standard finish - as I have said numerous times on here, we don't have the information to judge what is happening here, you are using it to bash the architect as regularly happens on this forum

cyclonebri1

fluffymuffy wrote: »

Why oh why not?

I'm an architect and I do loads of bog standard extensions. I always charge a fixed fee - typically £2500ish for planning permission and full plans approval for a two story extension. I don't do on-site inspections or supervision, but if I did I'd charge the same again.

At least my customers are getting a decent design for their money. And a decent design adds inherent value to a property.

Perhaps what the OP is paying reflects some complexity in the work? or maybe they live in central London?

Because there are ex local authority planners and ex, or even present, building control employees who have seen every single permutation of a simple extension that there is to see.

The fact that this is a money saving site and that the charge would be likely 1/2 of the cost you mentioned, is the "why oh why not"

I know all you pro guys have to support your own presence in the game, my reason for posting is to offer the deep pocketed option.

If it warrants an architect then employ one, if it is as simple as this post suggests then consider the options.

Without offence of course.:)


I agree totally about the London comments, the costs down there:eek::eek:me,

fluffymuffy

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Because there are ex local authority planners and ex, or even present, building control employees ...

You'd get a Planner to design your extension? - I've yet to meet one knows who knows enough about construction details to get an extension through building regulations.

You might have more luck with a Building Control officer - but they do earn a proper salary already and often work long hours. There's also that old chestnut of not being allowed to accept commissions in their own local authority.

And how would either of these arrange professional indemnity insurance? Why would anyone build from a set of plans with no come back should it all be wrong, and their money is lost? There's a 1 in 3 chance of architects being sued during their careers.That's how great the risk is. That's why PI insurance is compulsory for architects.

At our current rates we don't really make any money from extension work. We do it to keep up out there in the field, and up to date with building regulations and pricing, and also because a healthy client base leads to more work, often bigger jobs.

beaker141

fluffymuffy wrote: »

You'd get a Planner to design your extension? - I've yet to meet one knows who knows enough about construction details to get an extension through building regulations.

Most of the stuff is generic copy paste text with the onus then on the builder to decipher. Failing that they could really do their research and get the right specs from the web.

cyclonebri1

The point I'm trying to make that you seem to want to dismiss is that this, from the ltd info we have, is a very simple exercise, there are only so many variants of a simple extension.
I bet the OP knows exactly the layout they need.

It's overkill in my view, that's all.

Incidentally, the reason I mentioned planner in the earlier post was that when I was doing a loft extension some time back, the BC guy actually put me onto a structural engineer who would proved my calcs for the steel work.
He was working in the planning dept of the borough council.
I can only guess that others have more than 1 skill set.;);)