Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Aug 20, 2009 8:32 pm Hi. We've just purchased a brick clad 2-bed beauty in Newport Melbourne in desperate need of love. The plan is re-stump move-in and fix and extend from there. Best intentions haven't equated to a good design plan yet and we're now considering seeking professional help. Anyone out there with any suggestions on a cost effective way of engaging architect or draftie who can help us through the creative desert? Recommendations would be most appreciated. Cheers Re: Design help needed! 2Aug 22, 2009 7:41 am Hi Guys, drafting and design pricing in Vic, as elswhere is unregulated so prices vary dramaticly. For your purposes, engage a draftperson not an architect. Firstly you need a design concept. As a registered builder, our firm does all its own drafting. This is only legal if we are actualy doing the works, we cant on sell our plans. Try a cheap CAD program. You need to establish 1. Floorplan, 2. Height and levels, 3. Finishes, this will get you started.All modern programs allow you to scale, this is critical. Try a trial download free available from many of the CAD companies. Stay away from professional programs. Take your concept to a draftperson and remember the following rules: 1. Establish an up front price, "about" is not good enough. 2. Avoid mid plan changes as these will be charged 3. Avoid conceptual and detail cabinet design, you dont need these to get your plans approved. 4. Establish that you after working drawings that will be endorsed, insist on a high level of technical info, soil class, drainage requirements, footing system ect. Builders and tradies hate colourfull conceptual drawings. 5. Where required get a certificate of structural compliance from a registered engineer. 6. Make sure your draftperson is registered - DP. Hope this helps. Re: Design help needed! 3Aug 22, 2009 9:10 am Thanks for that, going to see what I can find online to download now. I think you're right, we've got to spend a bit of time working out what it is we want first and get someone on board. Advice much appreciated. Re: Design help needed! 4Aug 31, 2009 3:43 pm Leigh and Kate, We spent THREE years getting our plans done (sacked the first designer for not being contactable to speed things along). The second "designer" was about as creative an ant hill designer so in the end we spent $8000+ to have someone CAD what was essentially our own plan. The designer charged $100 p.hr whilst his CAD drawer was only $50 Make sure whomever you select has a flair for design (ask for references) if you want them to come up with a design as you probably already have abstract ideas on you head and it rarely looks like what the designer might come up with. Look at lots and lots of website/mags to gather ideas as your changes will happen every step of the design AND build process - you can go crazy with improvements if you 're not careful. The best thing we did was write a page by page list of each room and then list what we wanted in each room. That gave the designer an idea of what our mind's eye was visualising and then we could easily check off the items once the plans were being drafted. Hope that helps Trophy Re: Design help needed! 5Aug 31, 2009 9:31 pm Leigh and Kate We're going through a similar process ourselves (having bought a house which needs a hunka hunka burning love )... we've been tossing up lots of options but the best advice (which we think we'll be following) is to get basic work like restumping done, move in and live in it for six months before thinking about major renovations or extensions. That way you get to know the house and how you live in it, which rooms you use, the orientation, what things annoy you etc. But on the draftsperson versus architect front, my understanding is that if you know what you want, you're probably okay to go with a draftsperson to draw up the plans. But if you need some ideas on what to do, then it might be worth going with an architect, or at least ask an architect for a design brief ($1500-$2000). Cheers Indigo Re: Design help needed! 6Sep 02, 2009 5:05 pm pete002 6. Make sure your draftperson is registered - DP. Registered with who??? Pat. Re: Design help needed! 7Sep 04, 2009 7:44 pm In Victoria all Draftspersons must be registered with the Building Practitioners Board, unless they are a Registered Builder who supplies plans for the work they carry out only. Without registration your plans wont be endorsed by your certifier (we call them "Building Surveyors", not to be confused with land surveyors) or council if you choose to go that way for your inspections and Occupancy Certificate.The only exception are engineered commercial buildings, but even then the engineer must be registered with the practitioners board. I dont know about WA Regs as this reply was posted for a Victorian based question. Go to http://www.buildingcommission.com. for all VIC Regs and current Acts. Cheers Re: Design help needed! 8Sep 14, 2009 9:37 am pete002 In Victoria all Draftspersons must be registered with the Building Practitioners Board, unless they are a Registered Builder who supplies plans for the work they carry out only. Without registration your plans wont be endorsed by your certifier (we call them "Building Surveyors", not to be confused with land surveyors) or council if you choose to go that way for your inspections and Occupancy Certificate.The only exception are engineered commercial buildings, but even then the engineer must be registered with the practitioners board. I dont know about WA Regs as this reply was posted for a Victorian based question. Go to http://www.buildingcommission.com. for all VIC Regs and current Acts. Cheers Thanks Mate, I never knew. Glad Im in WA then, the wild wild west, where any monkey can design and build anything they want. Pat. Re: Design help needed! 9Sep 14, 2009 9:07 pm I think you will find things are changing in WA as well. I know domestic warranty insurance is place in WA and some trade registration requires insurance and a national police clearance certificate. you might want to keep up with these changes or you could end up with some monkey on your tail. cheers. Re: Design help needed! 10Sep 14, 2009 10:14 pm Slightly OT & a quick hijack for the uninitiated and now back on track Leigh & kate have you done anything? Where you are coming from is where you are going to... G'day I'm trying to put in some privacy screening on my rental rooftop on a tight budget. I've already invested about $500 in the supplies for this. The issue is… 0 32243 Thank you so much for the effort. We will use it to talk with builder. We also had idea of building duplex instead and seeking suggest ions. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=106744 11 13842 Once you know the basics, the rest is easy. Read my post in the thread linked below. viewtopic.php?p=1919271#p1919271 2 19517 |