Who do we ask?

[NoseyHelen]

We have an offer on our house and nowhere to buy. We've thought back to 1 house we saw a while back and think we could make it right for us if we knocked out a wall, knocked down the conservatory and added an extension (almost sounds easy)!

Before putting in an offer we need to know what could be done to make it fit our requirements and crucially, for the purpose of how much we could offer, how much it would cost.

Who do we take around - an architect, a builder or someone else?

Any ideas?

Council building control I think.

I would ask a builder for costs but I would also check that an extension would be acceptable to planning dept. Are there similar on surrounding houses?

We took a local architect for a 2nd viewing on a house (didn't cost us anything - assumption was that if we bought it we would then use his services), and as he was local he was in the know about planning regs etc. He told us we wouldn't be allowed to do what we wanted to, so we didn't offer in the end. But he also gave us lots of useful info about what various things would cost on the different kinds of houses in the area.

I'm sure it would be within planning regs size wise because we are not looking to alter the footprint by much and it is not overlooked. Would an architect have an idea of costs or would we have to have an architect and builder take a look?