Architect - what to expect?

[WinkyWinkola]

We want to extend our house - loft and kitchen.

We would like to know if it's reasonable to spend £850 on an architect to come and spend the day with us, planning and delivering a 1:50 sketch of what we want to achieve.

Personally, I think it's a lot of £ to lay out without being certain of total costs etc.

Please, could anyone experienced in this area tell me what I should expect in terms of service from an architect?

My hubby is a building surveyor who does architects plans. He says it would be worth it but £850 is a bit high (£800 for him is 2 days work - not one). It might be cheaper if you got someone like him who does extensions. Ring around and see. You're not in Cumbria perchance?

No, in Hertfordshire. I thought £850 was a lot.....

Well your prices I suppose will be different than up here, but I think it would be worthwhile ringing a couple of building surveyors or searching on yell.com under architectural services (people who work in that line of business but aren't actual architects). You could always ring a reputable estate agent to recommend a building surveyor who does this line of work. Just to get a comparative quote.

I'm an architect and have done the 1:50 sketch business for about £500, but that was a few years ago and I'm based in London. Would not really feel I could charge more than £500 for a days work (that works out at about £50/hour for a full day, which would be my private work minimum hourly rate, which would rise to £75/hour if I thought anyone would pay it!)
No idea if that's helpful?

I'd want proper plans for £500, I reckon. And a concrete idea of what things would cost to get from A - Z from planning to completion.

Oooh, Orangina perhaps we could talk? I'm serious!

£850 for a full day with you inc sketches?
TBH thats about what I'd expect for London (mind you I'm sure our architect adds a ponce charge as he wears a cravat.)

A ponce charge! LOL.

But I'm not really sure why they'd need to spend a whole day here.

Would it take so long to measure up, chat for an hour or two about what we'd like, what is feasible and then on they go, away to draw up suggested plans?

I think that is reasonable - architects do spend 7 years training and you're not going to get the same input from a surveyor (and I speak as someone who knows and works with a lot of surveyors). If you were to spend all day with a private doctor - who has roughy equivalent years of training - you would expect to pay more than that.

Most architects will have a very imaginative approach and be able to find solutions for you. I would be slightly about expecting an architect to cost the job for you with any degree of accuracy though...

PS: I don't know how he can do a 1:50 sketch - either it's to scale or it isn't.

Hokay, so for £850, what can I expect? Decent plans? An idea of total costs?

For £850 I would want a fairly detailed concept - I wouldn't expect plans to be drawn up for that cost but I would expect to have had someone give me several alternative solutions to whatever I was intending to do to my home by suggesting various ways in which it could be configured and/or extended. Floorplans of how these changes could be accommodated - to illustrate these solutions but not detailed enough for say planning or building regs - would also be necessary.

Architects will try to give an idea of costs, it's just that many are notoriously bad at it. I would be paying for someone's vision if I were unable to work out what could be done myself. If you already have a good idea what you want, then go straight to a surveyor/draughtsman and get the plans done according to that (a surveyor will also be, imo, better at giving you costings).

The way I normally operate is that I will meet the potential client on site, talk to them about their property, what they want to do with it, what their expectations are in terms of planning, timing, programme, budget, finishes, etc, and at the end of it all, I usually offer to do a proposal for them, which will outline the extent of the project, the scope of services they might expect from me, the other consultants they might/will have to have on board, an possible budget based on other work I have carried out that might have been similar in scope, an indication of what my fees might be for the total job, plus a breakdown of the job and fees into RIBA phases, plus an outline programme. That would all be gratis from me, and I would expect to spend no more than an hour or so on the site visit, and the same again for the letter.
But for your £850, I would expect a bit of a brainstorming session in terms of design, what your design/planning options might be, an idea of total budget (add 10% as a minimum for contingencies etc), a summary set of sketches (assuming you have some kind of indicative floor plan to start off with), and an indication of consultant fees and budget.

Would just add though, that a decent architect SHOULD have rather more design flair and vision than the average surveyor (though am aware that they don't always!). So that is worth something...