buy plans online - role of architect

just wondering if anyone out there has bought plans from a company like Kingspan Century (all seem over 2000 euro) - if so, what role does an architect then play in the whole process? I have been spending some time looking at floor plans for houses and have a good idea what I want at this stage... is it better to find a plan that matches my requirements or go straight to an architect with my ideas and get him to develop them.

Is buying plans online a bad idea, as there may be issues with a site that only an architect might spot?

We have just bought plans online from irish-house-plans.ie and have to say found them superb to deal with. far better plans than kingspan or any other company for that matter. Shaun - the architect - is very easy to deal with and really knows his stuff. happy to do alterations and whatever changes you like to his own originals. all plans under 800euros and even with canges you wont pay much over a grand. i did my research first and everyone who has bought were well pleased with him - and builders too - so much detail.

Wouldn't you need an engineer anyway to sign off the various stages of the build. Can't they be contacted before you decide on a plan and asked for advice?

I would have to agree with care free. We bought plans from shaun on irish house plans.ie and I am very impressed with him and his attention to detail. He scaled down one of his designs for us from 3600 to 2681sqft. He also made several changes for us and discussed some safety issues regarding young children with us.

Surely the role of the engineer and the architect are seperate? From my limited understanding, the architect is invovled in designing the house, whereas the engineer is more like an onsite checker to see that everything is going ok. The engineer may not have to be present each and every day but should be available to come and check the builders work at various stages.....

With regard to buying plans online, if it costs about a grand from the guy on the site you mentioned, how much does a 'locally sourced' architect cost? Are we talking two or three grand then?

cheers for the advice so far

A local engineer will do the plans, percolation test and submit plans to the council for €2000. Co. Galway area. You need to know what you want though as an engineer will not give as much feedback as an architect.

if a local engineer is going to do the plans but not give as much advice as an architect, are you then saying that you actually need both? So going with the advice from other posters on here, get the 'architect designed plans' from online, pass them to a local engineer and let him look after the rest........... or is that overkill? wasting money.....?

if you source an engineer locally he will know exactly what you can build as he will be in touch with your planners every week/month. bring him some prints from the website and see what he thinks. bring a map of the site, sketch what is around it and he will tell you how your house should be designed to fit in. remember that you have pretty much got to build what the planners will allow. you have much more chance of success this way. I have heard stories of architect fees ranging from 4k to 20k and you still might not get full permission. engineer is best way to go should cost 1500 to 3000euro to planning.

1) Buy plans on-line if you want your house to look like every other one dotted around the countryside and if you intend to adapt to the house rather than taking the opportunity to design a house around the way you and your family live.

2) Hire an engineer to do both jobs if you also believe that a dentist or vet can do the job of a GP, or your local politician the job of a solicitor.

mg01 - you try and get a self-designed dream home with contemporary styling past planners and see the response you will get. we tried and failed, they practically told us to build what they wanted to see or forget about it.
of course an architect is best at his job. our online plans were architect designed and then we changed them to suit our lifestyle and needs. it can be done without getting fleeced for 10k!

i bought my plans online, got an architect to advise on application, draw up block plans and submit application. he was pretty useless and i got refused permission. i appealed to bord pleanala on my own, got permission, fired architect and will now go with an engineer for the build.

As mentioned above I bought my plans online. The engineer was charging me €1500 to draw up plans however I managed to get more or less what I was looking for from the internet at €900. The engineer is however submitting the planning application at a cost of €1000 for us and he will supervise the build at a charge of €200 per visit (estimated that 6 visits are required). We did look at an architect however I felt that for us the cost was way too much.

MG01 said:

1) Buy plans on-line if you want your house to look like every other one dotted around the countryside and if you intend to adapt to the house rather than taking the opportunity to design a house around the way you and your family live.

2) Hire an engineer to do both jobs if you also believe that a dentist or vet can do the job of a GP, or your local politician the job of a solicitor.

Click to expand...

I would highly disagree with MGO1 on this one. The paticular design we went for has not been built before in Ireland and has been changed so much to our own specifications that I can gaurantee that it is very much a one off home.

All plans submitted to planning authorities are freely available on the public record and can be copied, replicated, modified or adapted pretty much at will . Dunno then why someone would spend money buying off-the-shelf plans online.

ubiquitous said:

All plans submitted to planning authorities are freely available on the public record and can be copied, replicated, modified or adapted pretty much at will . Dunno then why someone would spend money buying off-the-shelf plans online.

Click to expand...

Where do you go to find such plans? Are the planning authorities so helpful they will just hand out plans like that?

good point Ubiquitous, sounds like a very cheap way to get house planning done, but wouldnt it also mean that you are going to come up with pretty much the same house as someone else.... and you would probably know the person cos you decided to check out their plans after seeing their house!!!

can you imagine the horror or walking into someone elses house and realising it was an exact copy of yours, haha!!

damolee said:

can you imagine the horror or walking into someone elses house and realising it was an exact copy of yours, haha!!

Click to expand...

Aren't estate houses built that way? They don't all look the same on the inside as different people have different taste.

"All plans submitted to planning authorities are freely available on the public record and can be copied, replicated, modified or adapted pretty much at will . Dunno then why someone would spend money buying off-the-shelf plans online."

Can I make the point in reply to ubiquitous above that there is the issue of copyright of intellectual property to contend with so you cannot just go in to the planning office, copy plans and away you go.

The copyright of a design fundamentally lies with the architect/designer, although is vested in the commissioner for that particular project eg one off home. There is case law on this.

We commissioned an RIAI architect for our one off home in 1998, even if i say so myself, it is a stunning contemporary design, absolute no problems with planning.

We're now looking for planning for an extension to the above, went back to same architect. Fees are E15K (multiple drafts done till we were happy) and he will completely oversee and sign off the build.

We're not wealthy or have money to throw around but I do believe you get what you pay for and we value the design input the architect brings to the project and I think we'll have a home that is unique, sympathetic and makes a contribution to our built heritage (assuming it's still here in 100 years!)

Laois area- Architect costs €1 per sqft- does everything from percolation to planning permission advice on what way to face house , utilise daylight etc. Engineer will cost about €1,200 for 4/5 visits to sign off for mortgage

...As for copying planning drawings, a key point - copyright - it's illegal.

for anyone on the fence I would suggest getting hold of the AAI awards books or having a look at the RIAI website - they should give you an idea of some of the skills a qualified architect may bring to a table to work with a client to design their house or building.

I've just started looking at this issue myself. Only made a few phonecalls so far but looks like €1.00 - €1.20 per sq ft for the architect. So a 2,000 sq st house would probably cost a bit over €3k to get to planning permission stage (inc percolation test etc). An engineer would cost another €3k so aroud the €6,250 for the whole job.

A few queries so far though - is there a difference between an architect and a "technician". I was quoted about €1,500 for a 2,000 sq ft house from a "technician" recently. He did work for me before on an extension and I felt he was quite good.

Another query - am I right in saying that it is the architect that designs the house, site layout, walls, percolation area, heating system etc and the engineer then takes over once the house is being built? Is there any advantage in getting the same architect and engineer to do the whole job?