rossyl
Active Member
Hi,
So I am considering purchasing a place in much need of renovation. Given the nature of my job and my partner's we will not be able to run the renovation ourselves, we simply cannot be on the end of a phone when needed or at the house at a specified time to discuss things due to our jobs.
In short, the renovation will involve a one storey small extension (nothing spectacular), a loft extension, knocking down of 1 or 2 load bearing walls, new bathrooms, new kitchen, re-wire, new heating and rads and plumbing.
We will need plans/structural drawings for the loft extension, and knocking down of load bearing walls.
We'd like one person to run and manage it from start to finish, to have a set quote, to keep to a time schedule and generally to be professional. We realise that things may shift, but we don't want the end result costing twice as much and the duration being twice as long. We want someone committed and professional, who will give the job the time it requires.
We also realise that this will cost more than if we hired all the trades in ourselves and managed the renovation, but as said we just can't do that.
So who would we be best dealing handing this over to?
Architect?
He draws the plans, and gets the structural drawings from an engineer. He hopefully is well experienced in house building, managing the build and the trades, getting quotes from various contractors, knowing quality contractors. Hopefully he'll deliver what we planned with him at the outset. I imagine he'll charge 5-10% of the build cost?
Builder/Main Contractor
We get a builder/structural engineer to draw up the plans/drawings and we give them to various builders to price up. The builder can talk to the architect/engineer as required (no doubt we'll need to pay for this). The builder is in charge, he has employees of various trades or knows various subcontractors he has used previously. He can give us a start and end date.
The above no doubt misses many things and certain other options, and the advantages/disadvantages with going with each - but I guess that is what i am asking for here from people with experience. It tends to be pretty hard to get honest answers on this question. I guess for every 1 competent experienced architect/builder there are 10 who are not.
I'm not completely green to renovations, my experiences have been bad/good.
- Good being a builder who has done various small refurb works for me (new bathroom, new kitchen, decorating) to budget and reasonably within time and to a good standard - but that was a small project i was able to manage myself.
- Bad being my parents large extension. They got plans from an architect and handed them to a builder to build. The builder did 20% of the job and ran off with the funds that he supposedly had spent on roofing materials that never arrived. With the next builder it was a constant fight over fees as he constantly changed his "fixed" price. The trouble is that kicking someone off a half-built project is very difficult - few builders want to complete someone else's work, and it will of course cause great delay.
Anyway, would appreciate any and all advice.
Cheers
R
So I am considering purchasing a place in much need of renovation. Given the nature of my job and my partner's we will not be able to run the renovation ourselves, we simply cannot be on the end of a phone when needed or at the house at a specified time to discuss things due to our jobs.
In short, the renovation will involve a one storey small extension (nothing spectacular), a loft extension, knocking down of 1 or 2 load bearing walls, new bathrooms, new kitchen, re-wire, new heating and rads and plumbing.
We will need plans/structural drawings for the loft extension, and knocking down of load bearing walls.
We'd like one person to run and manage it from start to finish, to have a set quote, to keep to a time schedule and generally to be professional. We realise that things may shift, but we don't want the end result costing twice as much and the duration being twice as long. We want someone committed and professional, who will give the job the time it requires.
We also realise that this will cost more than if we hired all the trades in ourselves and managed the renovation, but as said we just can't do that.
So who would we be best dealing handing this over to?
Architect?
He draws the plans, and gets the structural drawings from an engineer. He hopefully is well experienced in house building, managing the build and the trades, getting quotes from various contractors, knowing quality contractors. Hopefully he'll deliver what we planned with him at the outset. I imagine he'll charge 5-10% of the build cost?
Builder/Main Contractor
We get a builder/structural engineer to draw up the plans/drawings and we give them to various builders to price up. The builder can talk to the architect/engineer as required (no doubt we'll need to pay for this). The builder is in charge, he has employees of various trades or knows various subcontractors he has used previously. He can give us a start and end date.
The above no doubt misses many things and certain other options, and the advantages/disadvantages with going with each - but I guess that is what i am asking for here from people with experience. It tends to be pretty hard to get honest answers on this question. I guess for every 1 competent experienced architect/builder there are 10 who are not.
I'm not completely green to renovations, my experiences have been bad/good.
- Good being a builder who has done various small refurb works for me (new bathroom, new kitchen, decorating) to budget and reasonably within time and to a good standard - but that was a small project i was able to manage myself.
- Bad being my parents large extension. They got plans from an architect and handed them to a builder to build. The builder did 20% of the job and ran off with the funds that he supposedly had spent on roofing materials that never arrived. With the next builder it was a constant fight over fees as he constantly changed his "fixed" price. The trouble is that kicking someone off a half-built project is very difficult - few builders want to complete someone else's work, and it will of course cause great delay.
Anyway, would appreciate any and all advice.
Cheers
R