What To Look For When Finding an Architect

The first stage of any build is finding an architect so I thought I would put together a few ideas on what to look for when finding an architect and featuring a very informative and easy to use company Find My Architect. Quite a few of the builders we contacted wouldn’t give us a rough price or even a written quote until you had drawings written up by the architect. This was quite frustrating, as we needed to know how much the extension was going to cost before we embarked on this idea of a build. If the builder’s quotes came back much more than we thought, then how could we proceed. The builders we did end up using did come out and quote for us before the drawings and gave us a rough quote, which was perfect for us. Although once the drawings came back with all the detailing , the builder’s quote did come back much higher! So be aware of this, and this is the very reason why builders worry about quoting before.

Finding An Architect

First off you need to find an architect, you can always go on recommendations from friends, family or neighbours. But this isn’t always easy to do as everyone’s tastes budgets and experiences are very different, and what suits one family might not suit the other.

Find My Architect is a very helpful website where you can filter through their collections of architects to find one that is suitable for your own project. Whether you’re looking for a home, flat, office renovation or extension they will show you, suitable architects, that specialise in this area for you. Then you’re able to view their profiles to see their styles, payment methods accepted and any offers they may offer, like a free 1st consultation.  All their architects are fully qualified architects who are registered with the Architects Registration Board and Find My Architect is an official partner with the ARB. 

Does Their Style Suit Yours? 

There are some super amazing architects out there who have designed the most amazing houses that would just blow your mind away, and they can come up with amazing designs that you never would imagine would work, but they do! Take some time to look at their portfolio of work, do you love the ideas they come up with? Or is it a bit too much for you? Are their ideas practical for your family home or just big-budget blow the bank ones?! 

You may be very interested in making your home as eco-friendly and efficient as possible, so try and find an architect who specialises in this, or has created eco-friendly homes. If they share your passion you will make a brilliant team together. 

Meet Them In Person 

If possible try and meet them in person, or at least over video calls so you can gauge if you get on with the person. Depending on the size of the property renovation you may be spending quite a few hours and months talking to this person. You want to feel relaxed and listened to. They’re creating your home for you that you will be living long after the build has finished. 

Share Your Vision 

You need to share your vision with them and see how they feel about it. It’s your home and you want to feel comfortable in it, so starting with what you love and want from your home is important. This the starting point for your new project and including what you love and are passionate about is important. Does the architect take this into account, or are they wanting to ignore all your designs and ideas? 

Fees 

You need to find out all the fees they will charge you for working with them, and check what will be included in this at the very beginning. You don’t want any unexpected fees coming up to budget for or then find out you need to pay for many more additions etc. Find My Architect profiles allow you to view information on the architect’s offers and payment terms, with easy access to contact them to ask for more information. Check to see if these designs will include final fitting designs, like plug socket locations and lighting etc. Will they help with submitting to the local council for planning permission as well? 

Planning Permissions 

A very large thing to consider when building or extending is planning permission. You need to make sure from the very start you are ticking all the council’s boxes! A good architect will know the rules instantly on what is allowed and if you will need planning or not. We really wanted to go double storey on our extension but all of them said you won’t get that approved due to the position of the neighbour’s window (even though she was happy with it) so we didn’t go in for it as it would have delayed the build process if it got rejected and then we have to put in another set of plans. So think ahead, unless you’re not worried about timescales and happy to see if the council accept or not. 

Budget 

You need to set out from the start what your budget is for the build and offer this to the architect. They will need to design something that comes in on your budget, or you might have a bit more so they can push the budget on some lovely features. Back to when our architect drew up the drawings after our builder’s quote, he had put in high budget insulation, the extension floor was an expensive way of doing it and he hadn’t even asked us this question if we wanted these things. So when the builders came back with a higher quote it was because the architect had put much more expensive materials on a standard build! So chat about the materials going in the build, you may want better materials in one place but not another. It’s your build! 

If you have some budget left over, they could even work a big-budget special feature to give you a little extra wow on your build! 

Timescales 

• What are their timescales?
• How quickly can they meet you?
• How quickly can they get the drawings done for you? 

Take a look at Find My Architect to start you on your journey of finding an architect

I hope this has helped you have some ideas for what to look for when finding an architect for your new building project. Have fun as this is the start!!