We are planning to add a small room at the back of the house to replace a rather odd conservatory that we inherited. The idea is to create a single-storey room that is really a glorified conservatory, ie opens onto the garden. Our neighbours have done this and we plan to match their design (with their blessing) so it blends in (older house), although our part of the house sticks out further – ie, it will be on a different line.

We have had an architect quote to design and create plans and take up to a planning submission (if required) and we wanted to just get a feel if his costs are reasonable – they are in four figures.

I know you haven’t seen it etc etc but very roughly how much should we be looking at?

Where are you based?
email me
andys red mini at hotmail dot com.
and ill let you know what i would normally charge as a comparison and give you some guidance.

Andy

I’m not an architect, but my dad is.

I’m not surprised that the quote is ‘into 4 figures’, its probably about right, architects are not cheap.

Whether or not you need an architect for what should be a fairly simple job is the question you should be asking I reckon.

Getting an architect to do it is the safe option though, and you probably wouldnt save that much in the grand scheme of things if you got a builder to do the whole thing.

It’s a small project and you already have the design, do you need an architect? An architectural technician (or some similar title) should be able to do it. Planning permission is a pretty easy to do yourself for simple projects

Ok thanks guys. That’s helpful. The guy we are considering did the survey for us and struck as a very sensible guy who came up with some good points, but we really have no idea how much this sort of thing costs.

Andysredmini – I will drop you a line – thanks – we are in the Chilterns (High Wycombe end).

We’re about to do something similar; we’re using an architectural technician to do the drawings. Looks like it’s going to be about £500-£600 to get it done at the moment for something suitable for building regs/planning, we’re in the Tring end of the Chilterns so will be paying a similar Chilterns premium.

I’d say £1000+ is to be expected from an architect, we just paid £1750 for our rear extension + Dorma loft conversion to be drawn up (+ structural Engineers fees) however the architects did do the planning applications etc..

I can’t see how you can get properly comparable quotes from builders unless they are all quoting against the same detailed construction drawings.