Architects costs

Famous Building Services saying "All an Architect does is design a shell, its the Building Services Engineer that makes that shell comfortable."

Of course you can tell from the above that I am a Building Services Engineer, but at the end of the day I am fully aware that we are all part of a team and that no one is indespensible and in my experience Architects are just like everybody else, you get your good ones and you get your bad ones.

Next if RPWoodman is still paying attention to this thread I am a Building Services Engineer so if you need any advice/designs doing for the heating, ventilation, a/c, hot and cold water, lighting or power let me know.

Building your own house is an excellent idea but is hard work. You need to research it all very thoroughly before committing to this route.

Personally I would use an Architectural Technician for any building design, they are basically Architects that have decided not to do their last exam and whilst Architects may have all the "grand" ideas it is the Technicians that make them work and generally do all the nitty gritty stuff!

Also I think it is worth you looking into prefabricated houses, which are a lot better than they sound, once the foundations are complete they can literally put them up in a week. Most of the time the design package is included in the house price.

Another thing to consider with today’s obsession with cutting carbon emissions and energy usage would be to build a passivhaus, which is simply a house which is very efficient and will provide energy savings of about 90% over a standard dwelling. If I was constructing a new build this is certainly what I would do (Technically I would build a partially buried dwelling with an insulation umbrella as owing to the constant temperature of the ground you wouldnt need heating or cooling but thats another story).

Local planning authorities are now also putting clauses on planning permission asking for a minimum of 10% renewable on new builds. Your best way of meeting this would be to use Solar Hot Water as it has the best payback period, Heat Pumps are also effective, although for cost you would have to go for Air Source rather than Ground Source.

Here are a couple of websites to get you going:
http://www.passivhaus.org.uk
http://www.thehouseplanner.co.uk
http://www.kd-haus.co.uk
http://www.hanse-haus.co.uk

Another thing no-ones mentioned, have a watch of grand designs Not for ideas as such but for an indication of the kind of issues that can and do arise when building a single dwelling.

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by Gabriel2k

Another thing to consider with today’s obsession with cutting carbon emissions and energy usage would be to build a passivhaus, which is simply a house which is very efficient and will provide energy savings of about 90% over a standard dwelling. If I was constructing a new build this is certainly what I would do (Technically I would build a partially buried dwelling with an insulation umbrella as owing to the constant temperature of the ground you wouldnt need heating or cooling but thats another story).

Building to PassivHaus (German standard) is very demanding and of course more expensive. The pay back being that they need no heating, taking all heat from passive heat sources such as TV, computers, human beings and pets. To reach this standard you need very tight quality control from your builder, with great attention to detail at the closures and junctions.

Personally, I don't want a house with no heating, so wont be trying to reach this standard.

[Sir Trev]

Originally Posted by leedsmatt7

Another thing no-ones mentioned, have a watch of grand designs Not for ideas as such but for an indication of the kind of issues that can and do arise when building a single dwelling.

Watched a very interesting programme like this about a Huf Haus build. All prefabricated in Germany and brought over on trucks for assembly on site. Not my cup of tea in terms of design but fascinating all the same. http://www.huf-haus.com/gb/intro.html

Interesting comments about cars and vans guys! And it's a shame you're not more local to me (and my neighbour) speacialone - both he and I picked the sort of builder who vanishes for weeks with no communication, cannot keep to a schedule or order materials at the right time to save their lives.

The huf haus with the old (fairly odd) couple?

Yeah I loved that build quite funny how the german stuff was all spot on, on time and impecable. Yet anything british was an unorganised disaster.

Originally Posted by ArtyLady

I take offence at your first sentence my grandfather, father and uncle were architects, and my sister is an Architectural Technician. If you don't understand their charges then you need to look into what it takes to qualify, run a business, pay staff etc.

I said I was making a generalisation with the last sentence!

It's not that I don't understand the charges, it's more to do with you commission with a near water tight contract for X amount of money and they spend considerably more and then try to claw it back despite the brief not changing in the slightest, and with no notification from them midway through that the fee needs to increase. Then if you don't pay, you then have an unhappy architect, and an unhappy contributor to a project isn't good for anyone involved! It's happened more than once on projects I've been involved with just within the past few years. I know you can say that this happens throughout the industry, but on these occasions there was no obvious cause for the additional work other than the architects wanted the schemes to look better - which is strange considering once the engineers have had their go it ends up looking completely different!

I've actually got a lot more respect and admiration for Architectural Technologists as they actually have an idea of what can and cannot be built.

For what it's worth, Planners are generally good at leading/co-ordinating projects. (No I am not a planner!)

Originally Posted by Sir Trev

Watched a very interesting programme like this about a Huf Haus build. All prefabricated in Germany and brought over on trucks for assembly on site. Not my cup of tea in terms of design but fascinating all the same. http://www.huf-haus.com/gb/intro.html

Interesting comments about cars and vans guys! And it's a shame you're not more local to me (and my neighbour) speacialone - both he and I picked the sort of builder who vanishes for weeks with no communication, cannot keep to a schedule or order materials at the right time to save their lives.

Thats the time of thing that really boils my carrotts, im not the best at comms, but if i cant come that day i always tell the customer.
I always take time to tell them how the projects going, any problems that arise etc.

Originally Posted by the_lone_wolf

Oh, and rpwoodman, if you''re still around in this thread now it's descended into chaos, give me a shout if you need a topographical survey carried out, I'm sure I can do you a decent price

I am still around, I just didn't get a chance to log on today, so now catching up with the excitement I've missed.
I may well take you (TLW) and probably others up if my ideas come to fruition - thanks for the kind offer. I've learned a lot, and actually, it's not scared me, just made me more aware.

Originally Posted by Gabriel2k

Next if RPWoodman is still paying attention to this thread...

Yup, still paying attention
Just been busy today, so not had a chance to reply to anything in the day.

Thanks for the great info - lots to read there. My wife takes the p*ss out of me for my research, so I'll certainly do that. Sometimes, doing the research gets the idea out of my system, but all it's doing right now is exciting me!

Rupert.

Originally Posted by leedsmatt7

Another thing no-ones mentioned, have a watch of grand designs Not for ideas as such but for an indication of the kind of issues that can and do arise when building a single dwelling.

I do watch Grand Designs - it's incredible what people can do, what they do do, and sometimes you wonder why no one pointed out to them that their ideas well, need some "refinement"...
There are some beautiful creations (a castle in west Yorkshire (Peel Castle I think) was particularly good once finished - now a guest house that is entirely booked for the next year or so), and there was a dreadful one where someone built a gothic castle like something from the Adams family, but Kevin Mcloud pointed out that the fireplace was going to take over half the living room!
Things like ground exchange (?) heating look a good option, tho expensive when someone forgets it's there.