Architect fees

[evie2468]

We are planning some building work / reconfiguring of our house. We are knocking the wall down between the kitchen and dining room and extending a little to the back (2.5m) this will open onto the garden with glass doors. We will also extend to the side to create a new utility (no more than 2m), the house will be under 9m wide; a total of approx 23sqm extension. There will be a bit of knocking down to achieve a straight line at the back as the utility juts out from the kitchen and the kitchen goes out further than the bay window in the dining room. We are within permitted development, so no planning permission required. We are then creating a WC and separate store room to the back of the kitchen off the hall, so some walls are to be built. We pretty much know what we want to achieve. We have been quoted £2500 for initial plans and survey to include drawings of elevation / cross sections plus another £2500 for build reg drawings. I have declined extra services eg tendering process, schedule of works as this adds another £2,500. Do these prices sound reasonable?

That sounds expensive to me. Worth getting other quotes

Thank you. I think we will. How much have you paid for your architect? Was yours a similar project?

Depends where you are - that's similar to what I was quoted in London.

I think is £££ too. We paid £3.5k last summer for a full downstairs renovation and extension. SE London

Depends where you are. It’s about right in London but usually worth it as depending on area it can be much, much more expensive there having to gut or fix an extension that hasn’t met the rules. One of my friends was quoted £20k just to demolish on top of the 100k she spent.

It depends if this is for a chartered RIBA architect or an architect technician. If the former, then this sounds about right. You may only need a technician which are much cheaper. (They might well call themselves architects but are not full blown ones) but are often all you need for basic out the back extensions. They'll be ideal for providing all the drawings if you know what you want and can get you through planning etc.

It is a RIBA chartered architect. I think I was surprised by the 2500 for build regs after already paying 2500 for measurement and drawings for the tender process. I will sort out the tender myself and we don't nee planning permission.

That's more or less what we paid.

Thanks, was your just initial measurements and design and then build reg designs without the detailed schedule of works and tender process; this would add another 2500 to our costs.

We are South East, about 70 miles from London. 2yrs ago we bought a derelict property and added on a very small extension and took down some walls. Architects wanted 20% of the overall build cost! I couldn't see how this would be justified at all? IF I chose to have gold plated taps, or a pure marble bathroom- why should I pay more to the architect because of this?

Like you, we had a very good idea of the design/rooms we wanted. I 'think' it was a draftsman or technician who did the drawings and the architect signed it off. I cannot recall the fee- but it was a set amount and not a percentage. Its worth enquiring about that rather than an 'architect'.

I paid £5k for my drawings, planning permission and building regs drawings and the project was a ground floor extension and loft conversion. I'm in Wimbledon London. Worth getting some other quotes - the company I used was hometales.co.uk and they were brilliant, thoroughly recommend x