Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 29, 2010 6:42 pm Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum and have been reading with interest. My hubby and I have bought a block and are now trying to work out what to put on it! At this stage we're not finding what we want through the building companies. Did anyone go down the architect path? What was the cost like? Was it easy to then find a builder? We're in Perth, Western Australia (building in Hammond Park) - would love some names if anyone has someone to recommend. We're looking at spending up to 250k so are worried that we might be 'small fries' to architects whose webpages suggest that you don't get a look-in for under a mill! Thanks! Katie Re: Anyone use an architect to design their home? 2Jul 29, 2010 7:22 pm Katie, with that budget it's probably worthwhile envisioning what you want and then approaching a builder who has draughtsman capabilities-or what we did was found a plan that was somewhat like what we wanted through a large building company and then changed it to what we really wanted....Best of luck with it all! Dee Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: Anyone use an architect to design their home? 3Jul 31, 2010 5:06 pm Hi Katie, Using an architect to design your home will most likely be way over your budget (can easily be between $10.000 to $20.000). There are however a few other options you might want to consider: 1) A cheaper option would be to use a draftsman. We started off using a draftsman for our custom build. He was charging $3.000 to design a floorplan to our specifications, get soil tests and contour plan of our block done, do all the architectural drawings and submit the plans to council. (We didn't end up going through all the way with him due to some problems we encountered, but that's a different story.) 2) You can go directly to some builders that offer custom building. They have draftsmen that will be able to draw up a plan for you. Most companies should do at least an initial floor plan according to your specifications for free. 3) You can design your floorplan yourself. If you can draw up something yourself that comes close to what you are thinking about, you can fine tune that with the help of this fantastic H1 community. There is a "custom design home plan thread" where you can get lots of help, ideas and suggestions for your plans: http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=33027 We got heaps of help for our plan, which was fantastic and really got us a floorplan we are very happy with. You can then take that plan to a builder and ask them to build that for you. Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=52680 SiteStart 19/11/11 Slab 10/12/11 Frame 17/02/12 Roof 3/05/12 LockUp 22/06/12 Handover 31/08/12 Your build is relatively simple, I believe your job can be easily done by a good building designer, you really do not need to pay for the architect. Remember, architect's… 3 10953 I've just had a look at the website. The company are just building broker's. There are plenty of similar companies that basically draw your plans (they own them so you… 8 10854 ideal house depends on the site and location as much as internal floor plan....what is the distance from the house to all four boundaries, where is north, describe your… 3 15142 |