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Building regs / construction drawings for MBC timber frame


deancatherine09

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I have just got a quote through from an architect who has worked with MBC beforehand on passive builds.

 

£4k + VAT to amend the planning permission already granted

£7.5k + VAT for building regs / construction drawings

 

House will end up being about 220 - 240m2. What exactly would they be doing for their £7.5k for the building regs? I would have thought much of the construction specs would come from the timber frame supplier (who would design the foundations + the frame)?

 

I've got room in the budget to accommodate the professional fees quoted but equally if they are charging for something I can fairly easily do myself in conjunction with a timber frame manufacturer then I'd rather go down that route and spend the saved cash elsewhere. For the planning, I could probably get a technician to draw up some ideas for us but I think the quoted fee is pretty fair and I would like to draw on their experience on passive house design.

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£1800 inc VAT for my building regs drawings but they are the basic minimum to get building control approval, very little construction detail. This leaves a lot to work out with the builder, and potentially go wrong ... depends how much you want to fix in the drawings

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  • 1 month later...

i got quoted by an architectural technician for £2500 + VAT for build regs drawings (he did the planning on ~160m2 house), which i though was pretty fair.

 

Given how protracted my planning permission has been i have ended up drafting my own, which he is checking on an hourly rate basis.

Edited by Moonshine
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  • 4 weeks later...
On 22/12/2020 at 17:55, Mr Punter said:

It is not a ridiculous fee, but if you would like  to save on this you could get some quotes from an architectural technician.  Can MBC give you any leads?

Actually i found that it was, I was quoted nearly £3000 for planning permsion and managed it for a lot less.  Like all things shop around.

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Really? I just handed over the detailed MBC drawings and calcs to my private BCO and they told me what else they needed to see, which was not much and easily obtained.

 

Given MBC give you a finished shell (with all internal walls & floors) that you can pre-order doors and windows for off the plan, installing them once the frame is up (mine went in a week after) why on earth do you need detailed construction drawings?

 

My architect tried the same, wanted £10k for planning conditions discharge and BCO and we shook hands and said goodbye. I took it on from there and it was very straightforward given the package nature of MBC. Would have been different had I chosen to use a traditional build method. 

 

If planning is just an alteration and you know what needs to be altered then go to a technician to get drawings to the necessary approved scales etc and go for it.

 

I did a few NMAs (changed window sizes, added solar) using powerpoint and some judicious cut & paste from the original drawings and got away with it :)

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 08/03/2021 at 09:51, Bitpipe said:

Really? I just handed over the detailed MBC drawings and calcs to my private BCO and they told me what else they needed to see, which was not much and easily obtained.

 

Given MBC give you a finished shell (with all internal walls & floors) that you can pre-order doors and windows for off the plan, installing them once the frame is up (mine went in a week after) why on earth do you need detailed construction drawings?

 

My architect tried the same, wanted £10k for planning conditions discharge and BCO and we shook hands and said goodbye. I took it on from there and it was very straightforward given the package nature of MBC. Would have been different had I chosen to use a traditional build method. 

 

If planning is just an alteration and you know what needs to be altered then go to a technician to get drawings to the necessary approved scales etc and go for it.

 

I did a few NMAs (changed window sizes, added solar) using powerpoint and some judicious cut & paste from the original drawings and got away with it :)

 

 

 

Thanks Bitpipe. I remember your super helpful comments on my intro thread and hoped you might find this one. 

 

You have confirmed my thinking. I will go it alone with the help of my dad who is helpfully a QS  :)  Did you go with a BCO linked with a warranty co or an independent private one? It makes me wonder why MBC don't have an option to sort the BC for you, if what they do is 90% of the work. I know Fleming Homes will sort your BC for you if you want them to (for an additional fee).

 

Out of interest, what were the other documents the BCO wanted to see?

 

I am going to go ahead with the planning as the original design has been done by someone who clearly hasn't a clue on passive house principles so I want an architect who knows what they are doing to re-do it. I want to get this right and I don't trust myself to do it justice.

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24 minutes ago, deancatherine09 said:

 

Thanks Bitpipe. I remember your super helpful comments on my intro thread and hoped you might find this one. 

 

You have confirmed my thinking. I will go it alone with the help of my dad who is helpfully a QS  :)  Did you go with a BCO linked with a warranty co or an independent private one? It makes me wonder why MBC don't have an option to sort the BC for you, if what they do is 90% of the work. I know Fleming Homes will sort your BC for you if you want them to (for an additional fee).

 

No, I used a private BCO recommended by the architect who covered our area. Can't recall if he had a warranty product I didn't want or didn't offer one at all but the warranty I did use in the end did not need inspections, just the final sign off certificate.

 

BC covers much more than the frame erection so not surprised that MBC don't want to get involved - in my case our project officially started in March 2015 to get ahead of the new regs coming out and we did some approved drainage work. MBC did not come on site until November. House was finally signed off in 2018 due to delays with landscaping. 

 

24 minutes ago, deancatherine09 said:

Out of interest, what were the other documents the BCO wanted to see?

 

Full drawings and calcs - MBC provided a great package that satisfied them. We provided similar from our SE for the basement design. The rest was bits and bobs of detail to do with water calculation, mvhr plan etc. Probably the biggest DIY item was the preliminary SAP calc which I did on Stroma using guidance from this forum (there are threads with sample models etc). Was enough to get started and I eventually used a proper consultant later in the build to do the formal as built EPC.

 

24 minutes ago, deancatherine09 said:

I am going to go ahead with the planning as the original design has been done by someone who clearly hasn't a clue on passive house principles so I want an architect who knows what they are doing to re-do it. I want to get this right and I don't trust myself to do it justice.

 

Good luck finding an architect who is well versed in it. By luck, our design lent itself well to PH wrt orientation, shading and even glazing but there was no consideration wrt fabric.

 

However, most designs can be built to PH standard. PHPP modelling helps understand how the design will perform - most usefully space heating requirement and risk of overheating, which is a key consideration of passive. 

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Thanks Bitpipe. 

 

We've done a prelim SAP using Stroma already but will need to tweak it for new house design. Encouragingly our architect has done several MBC passive house projects so we are glad we have found him!!

 

Doesn't sound like the 'other' BC docs are that onerous so that's really encouraging. Thanks :) 

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