House extension architect

Regretfully the term ‘architect’ has become synonymous or generic for anyone preparing house plans for extensions or new build development. This is incorrect as the term architect is protected by Royal Charter and cannot be used by anyone. However, assuming the term ‘house extension architect’ can, for most peoples perspective mean any ‘house extension designer’ then it is important that you select the correct person with the right amount of experience and skills to prepare the necessary plans and supporting documentation.

Regretfully, many ‘home extension architects’ are simply ‘plan drawers’ with crude and rudimentary drafting skills either on CAD or on the traditional drawing board that just about gets by at the Council level for your Planning and Building Regulations applications. However, much of their documentation is totally unsuitable for securing fixed price tender prices from the house extension builders - they are simply not suitable to act as the contract documents for the building contract due to insufficient detailing or scheduling of the total and encompassing works required.

A good house extension architect or designer will have all the required skills and determination to provide the home owner with a concise set of documents throughout the various design stages. All professionally qualified house extension architects, technicians or designers will belong to a recognised building design professional institutions such as RIBA, CIAT or RICS.

Most House extension architects, technologists or designers will also carry professional indemnity insurance (PI) mainly to safeguard their own positions against errors or omissions as most are small practices or sole traders outside of the limited company liability status.

Selecting your house extension architect, technician or designer can be a bit of a lottery but if you interview at least 3 and your check that they are full time building designers, belong to a recognised professional institution that has a code of practice, they have current PI insurance and have at least 10 years relevant experience then you are at least covering the basic checks. The next phase of checking out your house extension architect would be to view their work on paper and on site and obtain references from some of their clients from the last 2 years.