Architect costs

[Nickfromwales]

11 hours ago, ETC said:

Who in their right mind designs structural support over a drain?🙈……the extension isn’t really worth doing!

Now I’ve seen this, the architect is appearing to be another self-perpetuating over inflator, as this is just soooooo simple and straightforward.

 

Local, reputable builder will do this with one eye closed.
 

M&E??? “Where would you like the 3x switches and 3x sockets, sir?”  🤦‍♂️. 
 

Get a set of construction drawings, A3 for your reference, and laminated A2 for site / contractors use, and sit with the builder to go through every stitch of the detail (when vetting builders) and see what they spot, comment on, and how engaged they are.
 

Then, when you’ve decided on ‘the one’ you need to go and see their previous work, in person, and possibly align so its the right time of day to speak to them face to face to see if it all went well etc. 

[Mr Punter]

12 hours ago, ETC said:

Who in their right mind designs structural support over a drain?🙈……the extension isn’t really worth doing!

+1

The extension only gains about 4m2 and you have to mess with joining ceilings and floors, plus insulation continuity.  Nightmare of a job.

[saveasteading]

Presumably all bills are paid so you have invested deeply. I can see that this very small extra floor could greatly improve the upstairs room.

 

The SE sounds OK. Don't burn bridges but ask for all the work so far and you will " come back to them".

Did the architect select them? So may be close, which isn't bad in itself.

 

Ask for all thearchitects's work too, incl any correspondence. Same excuse.. it's on hold but I'll have what I've paid for.  I fear it will be surprisingly little.

Especially ask for all enquiries and responses re building over the drainage..... I do think that should have been concluded before planning. Talk to the architect ASAP.

 

Then find that builder. The cheapest is unlikely to be best value but you never know. £20k + vat, off the top of my head, to include bco , and that should include all except an SE visit.

 

But do nothing until the drain issue is permitted.

[torre]

This is going to be very expensive to build to turn a smallish bedroom into a bigger one and add a porch - if you ignore how much you've already spent, are you 100% this is the best way to improve your house and meet your needs?

 

Sunk cost is painful but not a good reason to keep spending more money. I appreciate I'm not in your shoes but I struggle to see this being worth the cost and disruption

[Spinny]

2 hours ago, Nickfromwales said:

Get a set of construction drawings, A3 for your reference, and laminated A2 for site / contractors use, and sit with the builder to go through every stitch of the detail (when vetting builders) and see what they spot, comment on, and how engaged they are.
 

Then, when you’ve decided on ‘the one’ you need to go and see their previous work, in person, and possibly align so its the right time of day to speak to them face to face to see if it all went well etc. 

Spot on as usual.

 

There has to be someone on a build that is good with detail and can discuss detail. I mean 'detail' can actually just mean having actually looked at the drawings at all !

 

When seeing previous work and customers definitely go prepared with list of specific questions and willing to dig down a bit. A quick look around and general chit chat with Mrs Smith isn't going to shed much light. Can they give you an example of an issue that came up and how it got resolved ? Did they have effective review meetings ? Was the actual builder on site - every day - once a week - once a month ? Did people turn up ? Did anything get redone or corrected ? Costs ? Schedule ? If the customer doesn't know then chances are they can't really give any insight into the builders competence. Perhaps the foundations are made of cream cheese - Mrs Smith wouldn't know.

[Spinny]

8 minutes ago, torre said:

are you 100% this is the best way to improve your house and meet your needs?

One approach is to look at what the cost/sqm is going to be. Compare with the cost/sqm of similar property on RightMove. Think about long term needs/plan. Yes moving costs and stress are high, and there can be reasons to 'build at a paper loss' if other factors come in. But you should know what your economic justification is.

[ProDave]

Can this not be done under a building notice ?  Is that still allowed?  30 years ago we built a much larger side extension under a building notice with a very good builder and it was a cost effective way to nearly double the size of the house.

[Nestor]

4 hours ago, torre said:

but I struggle to see this being worth the cost and disruption

I agree with @torre

For such a modest change to the property I could not justify the cost and feel the professional services fee is already disproportionate to the scale of the project.

If you still plan to move forward at least build a proper enclosed lobby, new front door, etc instead of just a porch.