Loft Conversion Costs in 2010

[DevilDamo]

Seriously what am I to make of a £1500 + VAT quote when someone else has a plan done for £500? Maybe the latter plans were shoddy and lacked detail, or maybe an experienced expert with a CAD template can do a thorough job in just a day or so and charges accordingly. Or is it that architects generally charge as a percentage of the overall project costs, and locally that market cost is inflated.

Obviously an architect or architects practice would charge more than an architectural technician/one man band. The majority of practices base their fee's upon the RIBA scale, which is calculated as a percentage of the estimated cost of work. Their fee's, designs, time would also take into account public liability insurance, etc... whereas it's not "as" essential for a smaller outfit (e.g. one man band) to take out the necessary insurances so from a clients point of view, it's whether or not you want to take that risk. My company quoted for a small'ish job, which came to approx. £1500 and I could do it for a third of that.

I get that a decent architect can add value by optimising elements and producing a correct and detailed spec. Happy to pay for that, and sorry if I offended anyone.

Why would an architect only be able to produce such information? With any works going through full plans (building regulations), the LA require a detailed specification anyway and any competent technician can produce such information.

However looking at loft plans on the local planning portal most of them are not very detailed at all, some even say "position of beam to be determined by builder on site", or "load bearing wall to be checked". That is what made me think £1500 really, even I could do better than that.

Firstly, the plans you're looking at on the planning portal are "planning" and not building regulations/working drawings. In some instances, the agents use the same plans for both planning and building regulations and so you may come across these but it's very rare to have building regulation type drawings on the PP. As for your comments on those drawings... they refer to information that a structural engineer would look at/confirm so there's nothing wrong in adding that information. It covers the architects/technicians back. Some architects/technicans will specify lintels but I'm pretty sure 99% of the time, they will add a note for lintels, etc... to be checked and confirmed by a SE.

 

[FrogParty]

Thanks for clarifying a few things DevilDamo. I had not clocked the difference between an architect and an architectural technician, nor that the building regulations/working drawings plans with SE requirements marked on it would be different from those submitted to planning for a certificate of lawfulness. All makes more sense now.

But I am still left with my quest for a more reasonable quote than £40k. Had another contractor around earlier today, he seemed to know what he was talking about and showed me the kind of plans produced by his in house archtechtural technician. I really can't wait to see his price for the conversion.

 

[DevilDamo]

I had not clocked the difference between an architect and an architectural technician

The only major difference is the salary.

 

[FrogParty]

I had not clocked the difference between an architect and an architectural technician

The only major difference is the salary.

Ah, know all about that one.

Looking on the planning portal it turns out that the architect practice I contacted (and thought expensive) is the firm that the £40k contractor uses for plans. Well that all fits! Of all the architects I pick the same one, how about that for a knack.

Anyone care to share costs paid or charged for lost conversions this year? Anyone had a partial/DIY conversion?

 

[DevilDamo]

Your local BCO may be able to provide you with a £ per sq.m price if that would be of any use. This thread has been going on for farrr too long. What are you wanting to know... if the cost of producing the working drawings or the actual cost of the works is excessive?

 

[FrogParty]

Well I have had a few more quotes in for a loft conversion as detailed in the OP. In case it helps anyone else thinking about a loft (in my area) the quotes are as follows: £43k, £40k, £38k, £36k twice, and £33k. All from well established loft specialist firms offering similar solutions, and if nothing else it shows it is worth shopping around. But it would seem that the £20k loft is thing of the past.

I am still interested in getting plans drawn and asking a general builder/roofer to quote instead (with the option do do more of the donkey work myself), but having difficulty finding an architectural technician with plenty of loft experience. Unfortuiabtely even at £33k it is not a project I can afford immediately, so plenty of time ro read up on DIY lofting!

 

[chewymix]

well as an example from today...

Loft in Victorian EOT in SW London with bedroom and bathroom over existing bathroom, so 2 rooms was/is 39k inc VAT for 'everything' apart from suite and tiles but cost included fitting suit and the tiling. That includes decorating and making good any changes to internal doors and fitting linked smoke detectors for BR. Also included is moving water tanks / supplying new coffin tank etc etc and all skips, scaffolding with a roof as its going to be a cold/wet one, and generally making a good job of it.

We had other quotes and these were around the 32k mark but not inc VAT and apparently the difference of building the bathroom in another room compared with keeping it in the existing loft space was only about 2k.

Plans/Structural calcs were £900 plus VAT and that includes liasing with BC etc and private BC was about £500 all in.