Don't ask your Architect for build cost advice!
Many building projects go over budget when self builders take build cost advice from architects and designers alone
Why do some self builders ask their architect or designer how much their build will cost and then use this build cost advice as a ‘cast in stone’ budget? Architects are not building estimators or quantity surveyors. You wouldn’t ask your bricklayer for advice on Solar Pv, or your carpenter about drainage connections.
Many projects never move beyond the initial phase because the design would bring the project in over budget. Some self builders and renovators go back to their architect to revise or completely downscale the scheme to suit affordability based on the architect’s “finger in the air” estimate of cost, and some take it no further.
Budgets often seem to get stretched and we see it all the time on TV programmes. How many times have we seen participants max out credit cards, take out additional loans and still see the job stopped part-way through because they ran out of money? I wonder how many of these people took the architect’s budget as verbatim.
We find self builders are given poor advice by some architects about build costs and a few even give outdated square metre rates just to be awarded a fee to draft a scheme. My advice is not to take pricing advice from architects.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of architects and designers provide exemplary services. The goal is to find one that specialises in your type of project, and then sticks to the brief by designing a new home or extension which can be built within your budget — a budget you should specify right at the beginning of the process, not the other war round.
Ensure your architect earns their fee. Long before you see the first draft, a good architect will design a basic scheme to your brief and then check the cost by using an estimating service. Architects should, if required, revise the scheme as part of the design process. Architects can easily absorb estimating fees and even provide the self builder with a detailed estimate as evidence of affordability.
Having worked with numerous architects and clients, I was recently asked what advice I could offer self builders? It’s simple really: stick to what you can afford. If a design is unaffordable, you have defeated the object of self building. Provide your architect with a strict brief to design a scheme that meets your budget. Never stretch the purse strings; steadfastly stick to a number and you will be surprised what you can achieve.
Most unaffordable projects start at the design stage. Architects play a key role here — and meeting the design brief for a home that fits the client’s budget is an art. Self builders should demand that the designer provides quantified evidence of affordability as part of the
