Do we need our architect to do a “tender pack”?

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We recently hired an architect to design the new layout of our house (renovation, rather than new build or extension). I met with a number of architects and chose the one that understands my vision best and considers things like furniture placement and making sure the exterior looks as good as the interior. He ended up being the most expensive one and we’ve paid £6.5k for plans, which I’m happy with.

For the next stage before approaching builders for quotes, he can also draw up the tender pack. This includes the very detailed requirements and drawings and spec, including all of the materials we use. He will also then meet with the builders and negotiate the best price. The quote for this additional work is around £10k.

I wondered if anyone else has experience of using theOr architect to finalise the tender pack and negotiate with the builders to get the best price?

I think it seems valuable expertise, as we don’t know what we’re doing! Also, it hopefully avoids a lot of potential miscommunication or mistakes, as it provides a lot of detail for both parties.

DH thought we’d just hand the plans to some builders and get quotes that way. My friend has just done this for her extension. The quality of the finish is quite poor and I don’t think she got good value for her £125k build!

Our estimated cost for the work is £250k, so I think the additional £10k to the architect to help us navigate next steps seems like a sensible move.

Any thoughts please? Thank you

My architect has done all the very detailed requirements in with the plans though he has not included costings for materials. He's given me builders that he would recommend for the sort of job I'm doing and is doing all the regulations stuff. This was all agreed in the price up front. I'd personally not go for the tender pack, 10k seems like a lot for the amount of work they'd actually be doing. A good builder would included all the costings in with the quotation, you would just need to be sure about what you want. Sounds like kick back territory to me - I saw a lot of it in London on renovations.

I'm in the same quandary...but my build is much smaller/cheaper than yours.
I can see that it would save a lot of time looking for a sourcing materials, but that's (for me) a lot of unpaid time off work I could take to look for things myself.

This is possibly the most useful thing our architect did for us. I would say yes it’s worth it without a doubt.

If you give all builders the same very detailed tender pack it means

1. they all quote for the same so you can compare apples with apples
2. you know up front the overall cost (or at least most of it), fewer nasty surprises down the line because bits got left out. So you can budget
3. you have a quote for, and the builder knows to use, the quality stuff you want not the basic stuff the builder may otherwise use
4. your architect will spec things you won’t even have thought of like underfloor ventilation and clipping plumbing pipes to joists and taping all plasterboard seams... the best builders will do these things as standard but a lot won’t

Having said that £10k seems quite a lot. I can’t remember what we paid but don’t think it was that much and it was a full renovation plus roof and ground extensions (and in London).

we had our architect do the tender pack and it was entirely counter productive. Hardly any builders responded, and those that did quoted a fortune. We ditched it and tried just telling a couple if builders what we actually wanted and got much more sensible quotes. Found a great builder and we were really pleased with his work. I wouldn't bother again personally

Surely the materials needed are on the drawings that he provided for building regulation approval? I would have expected that done eith the drawings for 6k