Architect meeting help

mishkanorman

We are meeting with our architect this evening to have a first look at the plans for our extension, is there anything we need to ask specifically ? anything to check that we have or has been done properly ?

Thank you !

brightontraveller

Really depends what there doing ? single room extension, house, conversion etc

mishkanorman

It's for a single storey extension which will be our living room / kitchen and a separate down stairs bathroom and hallway.

DRP

planning permission, LDC or building regs plans?


make sure everything in the 'existing' plans looks right
make sure the plans agree with your previous discussions, and that you like the look of them!
The trickiest bits (imo) are details of what happens at junctions with neighbours, existing house, floor/outside levels etc...

brightontraveller

Make sure what they design meets your requirements in terms of size, access, number of windows, doors , height of room, floor its functionality etc and that something can be built to those specs that will fall within guidelines/requirements within your area, look around what others have already built, added etc

Check if architect has already designed in your area and what if any problems they have incurred….
Also aesthetically do you want it to look like is always been there part of the old building (following existing roof designs build materials, bricks. roofing materials , window, door designs etc or more of a statement distinguishable from the old,

Some architect are great at interpreting clients wishes, needs etc that will fall within costs and local authority guidelines, Others design what they like the look of and live in cuckoo land with regards of budgets etc….

Furts

Three mistakes that I see are with the homeowner.

The architect is required to obtain Building Regulations approval. Overlooked is a detailed specification. This has not been drawn up because it has not been requested and it has been allowed for in the architects quote.

Then when building starts it becomes apparent that detailed drawings have not been requested. Hence all sorts of issues arise including the remarks made by DRP - which are all valid.

When quotes are obtained from builders they are not comparable because each builder has interpreted, or excluded items, in the the absence of detailed information from the architect.

System

Are they a registered architect and will they be seeing the job right through until completion, I.e. will they be inspecting site etc?
Will they be producing tender documents and what other consultants do they invisage for your project?
Have you set a total project cost inc vat consultants etc or just a construction cost?

mishkanorman

Thanks everyone, We had a look at the plans last night and we need to alter a few things that were design choices we hadnt made clear we wanted. There was also an issue with the size of the hall entrance being a bit small so he needs to make alterations for that.
Initially he is doing the plans and we will submit them for planning permission then once they've been approved (positive thinking) he will do the building regs.

andrewf75

From recent experience one thing I would do is check if there are any drains that might affect the buiding works. We assumed our architect would pick up on them (and he did open the manhole covers and do a bit of guesswork) but he didn't pick up on one that we later found out from the neighbours which ended up needing a buildover agreement delaying our build.

So advice is ask nieghbours both sides if they know of anything before the architect draws up his plans

mishkanorman

We've remortgaged for the build and luckily the mortgage company sent all documents they held which included drains layout, he has marked where he will connect up to the line too.

1trainer1

mishkanorman wrote: »

We've remortgaged for the build and luckily the mortgage company sent all documents they held which included drains layout, he has marked where he will connect up to the line too.

We did a single story extension to our house and extended the kitchen into an Kitchen / Diner, added a downstairs bathroom and also a utility room.

take your time and make sure you are happy with what you want before you start, then try and not change your mind during the build as that can start to add up.

We started adding skylights and changed our downstairs bathroom into a wetroom among other things