Another day another question building regs drawings and who does them!

[cyndiheimsarac]

Hello all, 

 

Another probably silly question from me today!

 

I am in the middle of obtaining quotes for our BR drawings to be done, thinking they will serve the obvious purpose of building regulation approval but also they can be used for our tender. The problem is I have a father in law who built his own rather lovely house, and he is of the opinion that we should not bother spending the money on this as our builder will do it for us. In his opinion I should 'just focus on which fixtures and fittings I want and find a builder', I think this is easy for him to say as he had a full project management company for his build whereas I will be doing that side of things for our own much more modest house. 

 

We dont have a builder yet, and I really want to do things properly. In your opinions is it worth spending the money on good BR drawings? the quote also includes: 

 

To produce and submit a comprehensive detailed set of drawings with associated construction specification to building control.

To liaise where necessary with a structural engineer to establish the structural aspects and calculations for the proposed build. A structural spec and associated calculations will be required to form part of the building control package.

 To administrate with other third party personnel where necessary (eg. water and electricity) throughout the building control application. 

To administrate the application and undertake all correspondence with the building control officer.

 

For all of this we have been quoted £2750 which is inclusive of VAT, and I want to know is this worth it? Also wondering if anyone is ok to share what they have paid for the same sort of package?

 

No doubt there will be many more of these dilemmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[joe90]

Not all builds requires an S.E. input, I did my own drawings (gcse tech drawing at school 50 years ago ?). I did get a tame architect to transfer them to CAD (I don’t do “tech”) and we only had to get one item signed off by an S.E. because a roof mod was required (in my opinion and my builders this was totally OTT). IMO architects CAN be a little like artists in that they design “their” wants. I suppose I was lucky in that we had a clear vision of what we wanted, if you do not, an architect could offer you “suggestions”, just make sure you end up with what YOU want, not them!

[nod]

We did most of the building work  ourselves 

But to get started we approached a local Architect for drawing and building regs 

and engaged a SE 

Pretty much the same as you are intending to do 

At a similar price 

Whilst I think professional fees can get out of hand I think what you have been quoted represents good value 

and will making it much easier for you to get coatings 

If you engaged a builder to do this 

He would do exactly what you are doing with a charge on top for his or her time 

 

 Good luck with your build 

  
GARY 

[cyndiheimsarac]

Thank you both!

 

We are going to wait to see what the other people we have approached come back with, and then compare and choose the one we think we do the most for us. Neither of us are confident enough to attempt them ourselves, and as this is so new to us we are willing to pay for something that helps us and our project along.

 

Gary....Thank you for the reassurance on the price, my research told me between £2,000-£3,000 but its really helpful to know what another person actually paid. 

 

Cyndi 

[epsilonGreedy]

31 minutes ago, cyndiheimsarac said:

For all of this we have been quoted £2750 which is inclusive of VAT, and I want to know is this worth it? Also wondering if anyone is ok to share what they have paid for the same sort of package?

 

 

I paid half that for a basic drawings only service, my house is 130 sqm. I am also building in a cheap provincial area.

 

Given all the extra admin and liaison included in your quote that figure seems reasonable to me. 

[vivienz]

It seems reasonable value to me.  If you are planning on managing the build yourself, it is also worthwhile having ownership of the plans yourself.  Should you fall out with your builder or any of your trades, you want to retain ownership of the plans so that your project doesn't get too badly interrupted and you can find others to continue with it.  Also, it gives you a way of checking that what should be done is getting done.

 

Money well spent, in my opinion.

[MikeGrahamT21]

I suspect if someone else is building it for you, and you want something specific, or its a complex build, these plans are probably your guarantee that things will get done right, or leverage if they don't.

 

Don't spend this much just for BC, as long as they see the bits of text they want, they'll get passed. I've always done my own plans for BC, but I build the stuff myself too, so i've only my own brain to rely on. I also do the meetings with the BC inspector myself too, I've known him for a long time, you find that as you get to know them, they trust your ability more, and know you will have done stuff right because of the quality of your work in the past.

 

You may want to consider a local draughtsman, as soon as the word 'architect' gets put in, you may as well add £2000 to the bill, architects in my opinion are only required when there is something non-standard, out of the ordinary or overly complex, if you are planning something straight forward that fits into the surroundings, if you don't want to do the plans yourself, the draughtsman will be more than adequate, and will be sub £1000 for the plans through to a successful application.

Edited January 24, 2020 by MikeGrahamT21

[Temp]

You need drawings for Full Building Control Approval route but not for the Building Notice route (or at least not so many). 

 

Which route you should take probably depends on how experienced you are and the complexity of the design. An experienced builder can risk going down the Building Notice route. First time self builders managing it all themselves probably safer to go full building control approval.

[cyndiheimsarac]

Just an update, Mid Devon confirmed in writing today that they have not adopted CIL.....Finally I can tick it off the list! 

[Moonshine]

On 24/01/2020 at 13:23, Temp said:

You need drawings for Full Building Control Approval route but not for the Building Notice route (or at least not so many). 

 

Which route you should take probably depends on how experienced you are and the complexity of the design. An experienced builder can risk going down the Building Notice route. First time self builders managing it all themselves probably safer to go full building control approval.

 

according to my local authority full plans for a new build is £156 cheap than a building notice, i presume that with full plans building control do less site visits, but a key points.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Moonshine

[Carrerahill]

On 24/01/2020 at 09:42, cyndiheimsarac said:

Hello all, 

 

Another probably silly question from me today!

 

I am in the middle of obtaining quotes for our BR drawings to be done, thinking they will serve the obvious purpose of building regulation approval but also they can be used for our tender. The problem is I have a father in law who built his own rather lovely house, and he is of the opinion that we should not bother spending the money on this as our builder will do it for us. In his opinion I should 'just focus on which fixtures and fittings I want and find a builder', I think this is easy for him to say as he had a full project management company for his build whereas I will be doing that side of things for our own much more modest house. 

 

We dont have a builder yet, and I really want to do things properly. In your opinions is it worth spending the money on good BR drawings? the quote also includes: 

 

To produce and submit a comprehensive detailed set of drawings with associated construction specification to building control.

To liaise where necessary with a structural engineer to establish the structural aspects and calculations for the proposed build. A structural spec and associated calculations will be required to form part of the building control package.

 To administrate with other third party personnel where necessary (eg. water and electricity) throughout the building control application. 

To administrate the application and undertake all correspondence with the building control officer.

 

For all of this we have been quoted £2750 which is inclusive of VAT, and I want to know is this worth it? Also wondering if anyone is ok to share what they have paid for the same sort of package?

 

No doubt there will be many more of these dilemmas

 

The thing with BC drawings is that largely you can get away with a plan of the house and loads of text laid out with details here and there, that is what we submitted. Any structural stuff obviously needs detailed but nothing drastic, in our case it was a letter in the form of, yes that wall is suitable - it wasn't even referenced as such in the BC drawing.

 

It also depends how big your house is, anticipated build cost and anticipated final value, if it's a 80K build then that is nearly 3.5% of total cost, if it's a 300k then shrug it off as a cost. Also, never trust a builder to do your drawings. They will always think with their back pocket and you will end up with a self-build Cala home! 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by Carrerahill

[Moonshine]

47 minutes ago, Carrerahill said:

The thing with BC drawings is that largely you can get away with a plan of the house and loads of text laid out with details here and there, that is what we submitted.

 

I have been drafting up my own detailed drawings in a CAD package as its a bit of a interesting build, so i wanted to know how it will all fit together. I am hoping that with some tweaking these can be used for BC drawings.