THE HOME ARCHITECT

The Home Architect was established to provide clients with quality design solutions for all home-related projects. We spend time working with and listening to our clients and provide a professional service, whilst obtaining planning and building consents required for their project.

As a fully registered and insured practice, clients can feel comfortable engaging with us and be certain we have high standards to uphold.

We specialise in home extensions, garage conversions, internal alterations, as well as new build housing design. We also have clients requesting layout options for larger scale sites.

Why not call us or contact us through our web page to discuss your project ideas. We will arrange a meeting and a viewing of site or property, and provide a quotation for the work involved.

The Home Architect is highly competitive and will always seek to provide good professional service and value for money.

Our Services
We specialise in the following services:

• New build houses
• Home extensions, single and double storey
• Internal alterations, downtakings andd structural work
• Loft conversions
• Garage conversions
• New-build garages
• Basement conversions
• Conservatories, sun rooms and conservatory roof replacement
• Listed buildings and conservation area work
• Tenement conversions
• CAD draughting services
• 3D visualisations
• U-value calculations
• Measured surveys
• Site supervision of your project

Typical Project Process

Feasibility of Project and First Meeting
The Home Architect will do the best to ensure you are well informed of the aspects you need to consider to make your decision to proceed. We will discuss your requirements over the phone or by email; however, we recommend a meeting on site, where we will visit you at your home, and assess your project. During this consultation, we will listen carefully to your requirements and offer experienced advice and ideas, as well as explain the entirety of what will be involved in your project. This visit also allows us to get an understanding of the existing home/building and identify possible problems or constraints which might affect proposals. This service and initial meeting is completely free, with no obligation to proceed.

Fee Quotation and Awareness of Other Costs
Following our first consultation, we can provide you with a written fee quotation detailing the service we will provide. It will clearly explain the total architectural fee and will detail the services included. It will also explain if any other fees are payable, including local authority fees, structural design fees or any other financial costs. This will allow you to budget for the project, as knowing the financial impact ahead of spending will put you in control.

Measured Survey
If you accept our quotation, the first action we take is to arrange to carry out a measured survey of your existing property. This will be at a time that suits you. During this visit we will take dimensions of your property and photograhs for reference. These will assist us in producing the 'as existing' set of drawings. You may have further questions to ask which we will be more than happy to answer. We will also confirm your proposals and let you know when to expect the first draught of your drawing proposals.

​Design and Production
As indicated above, we require to start drawing up existing plans, elevations and sections of your property form the information we recorded during the measured survey. The ‘as existing’ drawings are then developed into proposed drawings. We carefully draw everything up, taking into consideration your requirements and the information we know the planning department requires. Sometimes, we may seek initial advice from Planning, where we consider there to be contentious circumstances or where the proposals do not fully meet with planning guidelines. This advice often helps achieve a positive planning outcome.

Once planning permission has been granted, we develop the set of drawings further to produce building 'warrant drawings'. These are much more highly detailed and consist of plans, sections, elevations and details which will form part of the building 'warrant application' package. Included with this will be a specification. These drawings should also be suitable for a contractor to not only price from but build from. If we require to do so, we will communicate with the structural engineer and work beside them to allow production of their structural design drawings package.

Construction
Most of our clients manage the contractors/builders, constructing the project themselves; however, should you feel you would rather have someone with experience do this for you, we can offer extended services for you. We can coordinate the design team and the construction work to ensure compliance with the approved drawing package, and also ensure a high standard of workmanship is carried out. This can ensure value-for-money and will remove some of the stress involved in the process. Fees for this can be discussed and agreed at any stage in the process.