Home design services
It’s always great practice to produce a plan and some designs for any project journey that you may carry out on your property. The level of detail required will be dependent on the type of project you are undertaking. This will allow you to outline what the new area will look like, pay careful attention to space planning and it also gives the builder sufficient information to price from.
In its more detailed format the drawings and plans will guide the installation team on critical details regarding specifications and measurements. Many works undertaken within the home will now need to adhere to local government requirements such as planning, permitted development and building regulations and our team can ensure that these elements are correctly considered through the design process.
House extensions design process
We’ve detailed a 5 Step process to help you understand what’s involved and during the design phase we’ll be on-hand to answer your questions and help transform your ideas into reality.
Step 1: Contact us
If you know you’ll be needing design services, or you’re looking for some building works on your site, and you’ve yet to confirm a design, your first point of call is to contact us and brief us on your project.
We’ll then arrange a free initial consultation to review your existing property and the space in question. At this point, we’ll issue a formal fee quotation, detailing how much the completed design service will cost you, broken down into stages.
Step 2: Site survey
If we are successful in being appointed, we will raise our first invoice for the survey stage and arrange to visit within 10 working days,at a time suitable and convenient with yourselves. We will require full access to the property to allow us to undertake a full measured survey of your existing arrangements. This stage will give you detailed plans and elevation drawings of your existing property which will be utilised in step 3 to help formalise design ideas.
Step 3: Feasibility proposal
The feasibility proposal allows us to produce concept design ideas that take into consideration your specified requirements and any regulations in place that need to adhered to. Unless otherwise specified in our quotation you will be provided with 2 design options to choose from and there will be the opportunity to revise the chosen design up to a maximum of two times for free within your initial quotation.
All of our proposed designs aim to adhere to an agreed scheme ready for submission to the local authority, for either a Householder Planning Application or Certificate of Lawfulness.
Local authorities typically take 2 weeks to validate an application, followed by a further 8 weeks before their decision is issued. In the case that an application is refused, you'll be advised on a further quotation to redesign the proposal in-line with the planning department's recommendations.
Step 4: Statutory applications
Following an agreed feasibility design, we’ll prepare the application for either a Householder Planning Application or Certificate of Lawfulness, depending on the available permitted development rights of the property and the works proposed. We shall also prepare the following where necessary:
Stage 2 invoice will now be issued that details all relevant application fees and any additional documents that are required by the local authority. You will need to settle this invoice before your application can proceed as no works can commence without prior approval from the governmental applications. All relevant applications are submitted within 10-days of the design sign off and application fees being settled.
Step 5: Construction information
Once planning approval has been granted, it is at this stage we will require further confirmation that you are happy for the construction drawing production to commence. These construction drawings will include the Building Regulation information required. At this point we will look to appoint the services of trusted 3rd party professionals such as structural engineers for the production of documentation for steel work requirements and other items such as foundation reports/designs.
Following the completion of construction drawings, they’ll be submitted to Local Authority Building Control either as a Full Plans or Building Notice, depending on the project timeline and commencement date. When everything has been confirmed, all relevant information will be passed on to an estimator to prepare a quantified schedule of work and the final contract price for your consideration.
Step 6: Build
We as a company will take care of your project from concept through to build completion but will also welcome the opportunity provide quotations for any works that you may have existing design plans for. Learn more about our home building, renovation and commercial building services.
Commercial building design
The commercial building design process closely follows the one detailed above. However, due to the size of commercial projects, additional elements must be considered. We have long-standing working relationships with a number of specialist external consultants that we can utilise to create a project team that covers the following specialisms:
Not all projects will require a team of this size, and we can adapt to your requirements. We can also provide you with 3D visualisations and walkthroughs of your commercial building project.
What spaces do we design?
Using our in house expertise and small team of trusted associates we can project manage design and build services for both residential and commercial works for a variety of building types and spaces such as the following:
We can also prepare additional detailed design drawings which include but are not limited to interior designs, garden landscaping, mechanical and electrical layouts, the fees for which will be agreed before commencement.
Looking for building design services?
We would love to hear about your design ideas, get in touch to find out more.
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