home architect

stranger12

Hi All,

I am buying a house and have number of ideas as what to do.

calling builder directly seems risky to me as I have no clue on anything and have seen cow boy builder so they could use the wrong material or do wrong calculation the result of which can be devastating

I then looked at structural engineer and home architect .

if you have number of ideas and have no prior experience, where do you start ? hire an architect ?

can they do the calculation of would one then need structural engineer?

when one works is done, who can i hire which is trust worthy to certify their work ?


what is typical cost of architect ?

can they give you ideas and be creative on what you can do ?

arbrighton

First wait to actually buy the house

Then unless you want to do something other than a bog standard extension, don't bother with an architect- we did but we live in a house in a prominent position with period features and we wanted to be sympathetic to those. However, it was expensive and actually more hassle than it was worth in the long run. Architects will quote 5-8% of project value but it depends on whether you use them to get planning permission, building regs, tender to builders etc.

Any calculations will need structural engineers- architects are not qualified or indemnified professionally to do these.

What do you mean by 'when one works is done, who can i hire which is trust worthy to certify their work'???

stranger12

someone that can be independent giving me the confidence that the builder has done a good job and inspect their work .

would building regulators send their inspector around following a job completion or you need to hire someone ?