Leaderboard

the value an architect provides is the design. that's it. Everything else is ancillary which anyone can do.

At last! Soon @Pocster, soon.

Hi all, first post after coming across this forum looking for advice. Seemed a good idea to join up and try get answers to those questions that I can neither get a black and white answer for! Or so it seems! planning in and approved for rear and side extension of our 1930s semi. Been in two years now and we’ve spent that time working away on the rooms that won’t be part of the extension. anyway questions to follow in the relevant category’s Dan

I'm part way/miles away from finishing my side and rear extension on my 1930s place, good luck to ya!

Thank you, I really appreciate your feedback.

Absolutely agree. Of course there is merit in the design principle, but in my mind the technical design is a completely different and more onerous task.

I'm a bit surprised when people talk about 'building regs design' as though is just another paperwork hurdle. To my mind, that's where the real meat of the design is and where the quality is added - post the architect's overall look-and-feel for planning, which is of course important.

@garrymartin I'm still using mine for Stage 4. For sure they aren't cheap, but I'd be a hypocrite if I refused to pay for expert advice considering that's how I make my living (also in technology). I know enough about building houses to know I don't know enough...

I’ve a friend who does nothing but loft conversions He says around 40k basic So you can probably add another 15k to for the SE

Only from my limited experience of all the quotes I received from architects and my research into how architects charge, what for, and how to get the best from your engagement with them (i.e. how to be a good client). All my quotes were a stated charge per RIBA stage - none of them came back as percentage fees.

Not all architects. I feel at this juncture I should point out I am not an architect and I have no friends or colleagues who are architects, but they do seem to be getting a bit of a bashing 🤣 Having worked my whole life in IT Consultancy and IT Managed Services though, I see parallels though. Make sure that "value engineering" is a thread running throughout the work of any architect you engage, that your design brief is clear, and that there is clear agreement about your budget, your requirements, and areas where you are prepared to be flexible. For example, one of our golden rules is that we're happy to pay a little more for something up front where whole-life running costs and future maintenance are significantly reduced. If your architect designs something that doesn't objectively meet your stated and agreed requirements and is not achievable within your budget, then don't pay them. They've failed to deliver what you contracted them to.

This. Do not ever pay a % fee. And get a builder to look over the plans before going to planning. We asked our 'passive house' architect for a simple design to passive house standard. We got big full height windows, parapet walls and voids, all costly to build and very bad for PHPP. Architects just can't help it. It's not their money so they will design in all sorts of unecessary crap.

>>> Don't make the mistake of thinking about salaried hourly rates I wasn't ... I spent most of my life working as a consultant, I just don't know the typical range for that particular business. Word says 2,742 minutes editing the 16 page final comments doc, i.e. 45.7 hours - which sounds about right to me. The inspector thinks there are essentially two issues and one of them involved unreasonable behaviour by the LPA: "Based on the information before me, I find that in the case of Appeal A, unreasonable behaviour resulting in unnecessary or wasted expense, as described by the PPG, has been demonstrated due to the introduction of an additional issue beyond the likely reasons for refusal, specifically concerning the scale and design of the proposal and its effect on the setting of the nearby listed building. Therefore, a partial award of costs is justified, limited to those costs incurred by the applicant in relation to this specific matter." So, that suggests 45.7 hours * 50% * £150 ~= £3.5K? p.s. I didn't include time for my original statement of case as the two new issues we're only introduced by the LPA in it's own statement of case (it totally ignored mine) and were therefore only addressed in my final comments doc.

Pic now attached showing length of cable and lever of roofing batten.

Exactly so. At the second attempt the windlass brought it to 10mm. Any tighter and the flex was about to break again...twisting failure. From there I used a heavy threaded hex head screw, with a predrilled hole in the 2" stud to clear the threads. One at about 600mm down , pulled it in tight there. Repeated at top. There was lots of pinging of osb screws so that needs looking at. Simply in looking for the photo I saw the windlass potential, so it goes down as another success for BH.

If you drill the 2” side with a ciearence hole you might find a 6” screw will pull that tight, you might need a washer under the head tho

As you can see from my previous messages, our fees will be more than that. It's difficult to do direct comparisons because we don't know the details of your scheme, but it sounds to me like you understand the value you are looking for and what an architect will provide. Like us, you don't have a clear picture of the design. We have information about how we want to live, and the rooms we want along with their interaction with each other, but we are leaving it to our architects to do the hard work of interpreting those requirements and coming up with a design that makes the most of the plot and is sensitive to the surrounding area (we have three listed properties nearby). Our quote also creating some options in the early stages, and also includes all the PH design and modelling. It isn't just the drawings, it's a Design and Access Statement for planning too as well as a bunch of other stuff. @Dave Jones We're going to have to agree to disagree on your view of architects and the value they can bring I'm afraid. Personally, I'd say it's a reasonable quote. I don't have BR drawings experience yet, but that does feel a little on the high side though.

Generalisations are sometimes dangerous. Ours didn't Here's the detail

Tanking, tanking and more tanking. Geberit wall drain in my case. It just "works":

My money on the water stains below is NOT anything to do with the traps, but poor sealing around the shower tray and edge of the bath. My No 1 tip, is do your new bathroom properly as a wet room, with a wet room shower former and tanking system, and suitable top access trap. That will be an end to trying to seal a normal shower tray to a normal wall.

Isn’t it easier to build it correctly in the first place. seems like a quick fix for a problem that shouldn’t exist

This area is very complicated, my impression is that the LA ought to have issued a notice of cancellation as soon as it was obvious the AI was unable to continue with it's work. That triggers a defined period for the client to seek another AI to take over or else the project reverts to the LA. I suspect however that all parties tend to take a sensible and pragmatic approach in these extreme circumstances and I guess if the project has hardly started it makes sense to in effect start again. I agree the regulations used are those in force at the time of the initial notice. If the OP wants to avoid a particular requirement in the latest regs that significantly affects their design then they need to engineer a transfer pdq from the original intial notice. If they aren't bothered then simply start again with the latest regs.

50k

Unvented - high water flow rates equal to cold water. So you have decent showers, not long to wait for water to hit the tap, way quicker than a combi. It's also hygienic water, exact same quality as cold tap water. Way more hot water for the same cylinder size when compared to a thermal store. Vented - rats or other animals drowning in the loft tank, making unvented cylinder not fit to consume. Low quality shower experience unless you add more pumps. Bigger thermal losses as you have a vertical pipe coming out the top connected to the loft tank.

I used the blue ones and looked like a Smurf afterwards.

These bad boys got the beam cleaned in an afternoon. Used the purple type and it lasted pretty much the entire job, so I've got 4 spare... It was brutal though, looked like I'd been working down a coal mine afterwards.

Bfo ratchet strap(s).

30k

Nope, it’s when the application is submitted/validated. The only exception to that is during a time of transitioning between new regulations coming in which happened in 2022.

Surely which regs you use is related to when you start, not when you engage BC?

Or big screw plus big assed jemmy https://www.screwfix.com/p/roughneck-gorilla-wrecking-bar-48-/29330 May just be easier to replace that bit of 4x2. I think I’ve found on average that about 5% of lengths get out of shape quite quickly otherwise they stay straight-ish.

It's worth noting that nothing we use today is actual AI. it's a probability engine, with a database of history. It's generating the most likely version of your request based upon other people's online submissions It cannot predict changes to regional building plans, not individual variances.. It just gives you what is most likely if you took an average of all the previous submissions. If its dataset was of successful applications only, then it would be reassuring. But I'm not sure if you could reliably get that. And it will never allow for individual events like local planners and their bizarre hypocritical actions.

We were forced to do detail 3 by sliding door company, for flush internal to external floor detailing. It has left a noticable cold bridge of a few inches as the tile butt's up against the door on cold mornings, but with 8m of 2.4m glazing they wouldn't honour warranty unless sat on concrete. Wife tells me to stod standing with my toes up against the glass complaining it's cold under foot. 😁

Yes that sums it up but also the ground swells up.. some grund can swell / shring a lot.. several inches / cm! Things like trees and the desication of the ground are essential to know about. Nick makes a good point here. If your motivation is to achieve something close to passive then a raft is a good simple way of doing it. Yes the raft may cost a little more than a strip found but it can be much easier to build in some circumstances.. it's simple if you take care and lay the insulation and rebar correctly. All these things come with a lot of complexity. Say you are in a Radon area then a raft makes the Radon Barrier easier to detail out / buildability for example. Trees for example in clay soils can make things much more complex. But just say you have good ground and just want a raft as Nick favours and because YOU CAN and WANT IT.. no harm in that.. it's your house and your design decision. If you have good ground then this can be easy to achieve without chucking loads of rebar at the slab and making it massivly thick. You need some kind of floor anyway! It usually needs a bit of edge thickening in some form or another as folk want to put in big glass doors these days which cause point loads at the slab edge. One biggy that BC / NHBC ask about is cover for frost and height to DPC. Generally height to DPC from ground level for sensitive wall cladding is 150mm which is about 50mm less than the thickness of an ideal raft slab on good ground. Now add 300 mm of EPS to that takes you down to 350mm below finished ground level. Add say 150mm of type one and now all our materials (which are not suceptible to frost) extend to the min of 450mm required for frost cover. Box ticked. For all.. Raft slabs.. and a bit of info that may help. There are argueably three at least kinds of generic rafts. Within each type there are permutations. There are others but let's run with this for now. The main types are: 1/ A rigid raft. This tends to be a bit of a beast. We may use this in a domestic context where we have past mining that can cause the ground to move / crack horizontally at the surface. This used to be associated with long wall mining where you get a rolling wave of horizontal movement in the ground. We don't often design this way now in a domestic setting.. as they shut all the mines long ago. 2/ A semi flexible raft. Here we thicken the edge a bit but if you have heavy walls the EPS say at the edge compresses too much which causes the edge of the raft to rotate. To stop the rotation we reinforce the slab so it carries some of the vertical loads and stops the rotation of the edge. 3/ An edge thickened slab. Here the thickening at the slab edge deals with the frost cover and the differing line and point loads around the slab edge. The slab it's self is just designed so it does not crack thus has a light reinforcing mesh. Now within all these generic types there are permutations and the design is often driven by how good and consistent the soil is under the whole thing. If we have ground that has local soft spots then the edge of the slab and internally often needs to be thicker so it can span over the soft spots and thus needs more reinforcement. In summary it's a pretty complex undertaking in term of the structural / soil things you need to know about . but the solution is often simple once you draw it out. The main thing is to spend a bit of time and money understanding and investigating your ground as this reduces your risk and helps you design the right way. With a fair wind a raft slab does not always cost a lot more when you take everything in context.

As @dpmiller says. When squeezed the right amount, the washer will compress and expand into the screw thread. You should see a slight bulging outwards, much as you show. except that yours is wider to one side only. The likeliest problem is overtightening / not in straight. With the screw system I used, you would normally not replace that screw with another the same, on the basis that the thread it had cut in the panel or purlin might be damaged. Instead we used a 'repair' screw, which had a wider shank and coarser thread. It did not need to be self drilling as the hole is there. This also allows for the case of a mis-drilling. Do not be tempted to use a big washer instead. the vital element is the inner contact from rubber washer to screw. BTW the coloured cap is only for aesthetics and to protect a carbon screw from rusting. When looking for a failed screw, I would often find that the cladder had bodged the job and the screw was not gripping properly, and that he had then put some mastic (tube or tape) in the hole as another bodge, before the screw.. They knew very well that this was wrong and didn't get another contract.

https://www.eden4plumbing.co.uk/ They seem to have done most if not all of the boreholes in the area. Can't remember her name, but there is a woman who works in the office who has an encyclopaedic knowledge - she remembered ours form 15yrs ago....

Mcalpine traps here as well. all solvent welded.

Each time I buy a resin shower tray 5 on this build They come supplied with a trap I always replace these with a Mcalpine trap Hand tightened But the best out there Around £20

Agree with @Conor. 20mm Gravel. If budget is a main factor treated timber edging to contain and if necessary put the grids where you’d likely walk. Get a loose delivery of gravel direct from a quarry. gravel would work well aesthetically there and practical for drainage, and in winter.

Gravel grids, 20mm stone, and edged with plain concrete pin kerbs.

Mine is similar to this one. Wide feet and outriggers. https://www.laddersandscaffoldtowers.co.uk/scaffold-towers/diy-scaffold-towers/home-master-diy-scaffold-tower

So firstly, I can't tell you whether the design is particularly complex yet as I don't have one... 😉 It is an award-winning Architectural Practice, with more than one office, but it's not based in London. It was the most costly of all our quotes from our shortlist, but they were also streets ahead of their nearest competition in how comfortable we felt to be in their hands. All of us make decisions about where we want to spend our budget, and how much we're prepared to spend on each item. Personally, this project will be my third home ever, and my first self-build - I don't move around a lot! Many others on this site are on their second, third, and more builds and have lived in many different houses. I don't have that wealth of experience, so I've chosen to engage someone in a specialist field to help me. I work in a senior position in the IT industry, and that's what my clients do every day of the week. Sure they can do some things themselves, but they trust that our teams have experience they don't and will perhaps approach something in a way they had not considered, improving their experience, reducing their risk, and providing an excellent return on their investment. This is what I am looking for from my Architect and why I was very careful about their choice. Cost is very relative; when you look at the work they will be doing, and the seniority and experience of the people I'll be working with, then I'm very comfortable that it is good value. For those interested in the process, I have a design brief that lists all the things we'd like to achieve and the way we'd like to live, a small number of photos that show the design aesthetics we are drawn to, a list of known constraints (for example, there's a 3" PVC water main with a 6m easement that goes through the plot) and a bubble diagram that has all our desired rooms and their relationships to each other drawn on it. Our architects will take that and use their skill and experience to bring it to life for us in the specific context of the plot, its orientation, the surrounding buildings and features, the options for access, and a hundred and one other variables that all have a potential impact, many of which I would just not have had the skill or experience to consider. Of course, assuming our appeal is ultimately successful... 🤣

Our BC Inspector mentioned the requirement for a SAP test on his last visit. As we have built a 28sq m extension with 7.5m of doors and windows plus three 2m x 1m skylights then I suppose he has a point HOWEVER We have demolished our entire solid-brick 1914 first floor and replaced it with a 150mm-insulated timber frame, so we have massively increased the thermal efficiency of the house by dint of this work. Surely we don't have to do a SAP test to demonstrate this as it is blindingly obvious? (n.b. I know that the answer to ALL "surely" questions is always "no") Our work should also increase our EPC, but that wouldn't be difficult as it is currently 4, yep 4, not a typo, and that was with 200mm of loft insulation Regards Tet

That is an understatement. It is piss poor and needs to be replaced with a Google site search.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 it’s an outside bog in a shed 🤷‍♂️

Bent chippies prefer tame houses.

£Thousands. Ish.

You couldn’t make it up Ten minutes ago