Emotive . Quality . Design
Client testimonial: Mr NM
Our Standard Design Pack is perfect for residential clients who know exactly what they want and is a fast route to securing planning permission for your building project. Typical projects include side extensions such as garages, utility rooms and downstairs toilets, rear extensions for open plan kitchen living and garden rooms for use as an office, bar or home business. The value of these projects typically ranges from £20,000 to £45,000.
There are four key stages to achieving a design that is perfect for you:
Following HUMAN’s appointment, our first workshop is to discuss your brief. Your brief will usually include a list of desirable spaces, existing problems to resolve, a time frame in which you would like the work completed and a construction budget.
This discussion will form the basis of your design, from where rooms are located to the size of doors and windows and even external materials. As such, it is important that Ashley fully understands your requirements. In order to help communicate your ideas, Ashley will sketch out design options, discuss current construction costs and show you precedent images of previous work.
At the end of this meeting we will have agreed your design so that Ashley can prepare your drawings.
Ashley will return for your second workshop with a full set of architectural drawings. The drawings will include all necessary information to submit an application to the local authority for either planning approval or a lawful development certificate. We will talk through these drawings in detail and you will have the opportunity to make any final tweaks.
Whilst construction and building regulation drawings are not included in this fixed fee service, please feel free to ask Ashley any questions you may about these additional services at this workshop.
Following Workshop 2, Ashley will submit a planning application on your behalf. Planning application forms and drawings submission are completed online via the planning portal where you may track your application and keep up to date with progress.
When the local authority assign a planning officer to review your application it is common for them to want to ask questions. Ashley is on hand to answer any queries that the planners may have.
Here are a few of our top tips to ensure that your project is a success.
Share images with us showing how you want your home to look when the work is complete. This could be images from Pinterest, magazines or photographs of friends’ houses. This will quickly help to communicate what you like and what you don’t like.
Analyse how efficiently your existing home is working prior to extending. Are there areas of your home that you don’t go in because they are poorly connected or are under utilised because they are cold, dark or overheated? Improving your existing property or building a new extension on the footprint of the existing is a great way to keep costs down.
Keep your eyes peeled and look at what your neighbours have done. This will give you an idea of what the local authority will allow you to build in your area. For example, if all side extensions are set back from the main elevation of the house, this is likely to be a local rule set by your council which you will need to follow.
Whilst waiting for your planning application, invite at least 3 builders to price your drawings. It may also be useful to ask that they visit your property to ensure that they have fully understood the scope of the project prior to pricing. This will provide you with 3 cost estimates and will ensure that you get good value for money.
When appointing a builder, aways ask for a construction contract. This should document what building work they are going to do, what price you have agreed to pay, when you are going to pay for the work and any dispute resolution should things go wrong.