the_r_sole

I understand the concept of the elevations - I just don't think it's quite there yet! proportion and detail is the key to getting the elevations right, the photo posted has a different proportion on the front, missed the chimney detail and the porch pictured is something more substantial. The one pictured looks more rectangular in plan, whereas yours appears more square, that changes the proportion of roof to wall etc away from the traditional towards a house builder attempt at efficient floor plans with a bit of a look...But I think it's the additions that are the main offenders, the scale and proportions of those don't read well, especially with the flat roof junctions, is there any reason they aren't pitched? would give you a much more robust set of details...

have you got planning permission for them? Usually you would specify them on there? Velux are usually well priced on the conservation types but it's a bit of a farce imo! put a centre bar and a different flashing kit in and charge a premium for them!

hatched box on the plan the right size (fits handily over a bath)

I still really struggle with the elevations, there doesn't seem to be any rationale behind it? I get that they/you want to make it look like something that has grown over time but it looks a bit like a 70's wimpy box with a 70's garage on one side and i'm not even sure what the other side is doing... The annex looks strange on the rear, but the rest is at least looking a bit more tied together. There's zero kerb appeal or hints of what's happening at the rear of the house, does it sit on a street? what's the approach into the house like? The lobby between the garage and the house is doing nothing, that's just floor area and complication to the build, you could easily walk through the garage and wipe something like 10m2 off the floor area, and why have a different height of roof over the garage and over the annex? it's just adding complication to the roofline? You've got at least 4 different roof pitches and finishes in there too, i think it needs paired back a bit, simplification isn't the enemy of aesthetic but you need to have a common thread through all the building elements... (I also don't think you need, or necessarily want, to have the full kitchen open to the hall/void, is there any advantage of being able to see into the kitchen from the hall? I would be tempted to have some wall there so the kitchen isn't the first thing you see coming into the house) I really don't mean or want to sound harsh as it's a pretty interesting plan and house, I just think you could tweak it to be much nicer to live with..)

That's a huge landing! Doors to apartments will need fire doors, doors to stores/bathrooms etc not... If you're not going down the normal route, employ a specialist fire guy otherwise you'll be months trying to get something through building standards... But your architect should be marking on the drawings where protected enclosures, fire doors etc are

Haha, Maybe they've realised that they're terrible at invoicing and need to start making money ?

Strange that they would change their payment terms, we would usually charge a fee upfront, maybe 50% of a stage with the rest once the work is done - the only times we ask for full payment upfront is if it's someone we've worked with before and they were very slow payers - anyone that needed promoted to pay after our normal terms gets asked that!

genius ? can't believe I missed the obvious solution - give yourself a pat on the head!

Have they done any other work for you and how did they charge for that if so?

does your local authority charge for pre-application advice? for window replacement I wouldn't bother at all with pre-application advice, just find some nice replacement windows and make sure you're happy with the costs and then apply for planning permission with all of the information. Pre-application advice will likely say any replacement windows need to be like for like and in the same materials etc but they won't be able to give you any further comment without full details of the windows.

xtratherm do a tongue and groove board (other suppliers might do too, I just know the xtratherm one!)

if you're having a door in there you'll need a horizontal anyway, I guess it's just a case of keeping it as small as possible? If it was me I'd go direct to manufacturers at this point and see what they can achieve in that opening, it looks pretty large!

I liked it until I saw the elevations... those rounded corners in the plan will get cut out pretty quickly! What are you picturing happening in the reading room? If you've got a big open plan kitchen/dining/living room, it seems strange to have the reading room open to a double height space with open to the circulation, would you not want a "snug" there instead? There's a huge amount of circulation on the ground floor, the hall is huge but hardly any natural light

if both the constructions have the PIR on the inside of the kit is that not the thing which would have the biggest impact on the decrement delay? If you are worried about sound transmission you could look at resilient bars internally - I'm guessing that the different in the insulation won't be a big factor in sound transmission in your build up as you have a direct connection between the outside face and inside face through the render board/timber kit/internals so the insulation won't be doing much... I'm no expert in this stuff btw, there's some on here who are much more knowledgeable in the details

I'd say the uvalue they are quoting is on the low side so you need to ask them for a spec... A lot of this comes down to what you want the wall to achieve, 0.14 is decent for walls and the PIR insulation is diminishing returns on the investment...

My thinking is more a collection of sheds! So you'd have a kitchen diner and shower room in one, then a master en suite bedroom in another. Then after that you can add your sitting room and additional bedrooms... there would be some kind of roof to shelter the in-between bits... the one pictured above is more house like than I'd picture, I'll see if I can dig out some old sketches but think my sketchbooks are in the loft! It's one of those that I'd have to build it myself to prove the concept before I could convince a client to do something as out there! And congratulations!

Yeah, interesting - I guess that I'm so used to designing with the activity spaces required in mind that I don't really consider them a hindrance to layouts. I'd want my foundations designed and certified by a structural engineer no matter what, and tbh I'd swallow the building control fee too and then I've got a mortgagable, saleable property...

@SuperJohnG would be interested to hear your experience, particularly who to avoid, could you dm me?

What regs would you want to avoid to save money?

what construction method are you using for the house?

The rate of our buildings falling down doubled, from 0 to 0 ?

Our insurance premium has double this year for less cover and with caveats, and it seems very common that most architects premiums have increased around the same amount - I'm pretty sure the risks haven't doubled, especially in scotland! really shows how badly the underwriters understand what risk they are insuring...

I've designed it a few times for myself but never built it! I've lived in a few places with big covered areas and i don't know why we don't do it more in scotland as it can be ok temperature wise if you can avoid the wind and rain...

I wouldn't build a house as we know it... I'd build a collection of individual bits with a big covered area joining them so it can be added to if required and areas not in use don't need to be heated etc when not in use - eventually you could join them up with heated circulation, or close in the sheltered area but I reckon you could get something amazing for 100k!

That's adding a big cost onto a build there, worth pricing out the new build up and seeing how long the "payback" is? What broker are you using? And have you spoken to any other brokers?