Cost of House Plans

Hi,
I'm applying for PP for a 1500sq Ft Dormer House, Picked a house design from the Plan a Home book - I'm getting a draftsman to draw the plans up with a few alterations the cost is €1200 for the work - Plans, Elevations, Site Map ect., this dosent include the PP submission cost.
My Q. is €1200 above/below average for this type of work, I've no expierence of dealing with this type of work, I feel the charge is fair but I'd appreciate other's expierence.

Thanks

DACMAN

Dacman

Looks like a good price. I employed an arch to design mine and it has cost about €7.5k so far and we've just gone for alterations to the planning so it will cost a small bit more but I hope to be all planned up for about €10-€11k. With all these things if you employ an draftsman it should be cheaper than an engineer which should in turn be cheaper than an arch. I had a difficult site so I felt an arch would come up with the most suitable design!

My two pence worth

Our architect was 3000 euro. Got him down to 2000. this included the drainage test, drawing of plans & changes. And he submitted it to the county council. We paid the submission fee.

Thanks

I was in similar situation, got a proper architect to do up our plans, everything from drawings up until the time we received planning permission, 3500 euro all in. Granted this was a bit of a nixer for the person in question, I don't think we'd be able to get anything for near that price off another architect. Engineers are great if you know exactly what you want to build, but if you're not sure or are worried about suitablity of plans for a particular site for planning permission or otherwise, you can't beat a proper architect. Saying that, if I had to pay 6% of building cost for a set of plans, I might start to reconsider!

Went with a Draughtsman. Cost me 1100 and he submitted plans to council. Price has probably gone up. I think 1200 is fairly reasonable. You can apply to the council yourself. or pay him/her a little extra.

We picked our plans for a 2340 sq ft dormer and garage from a book, we rang the author and faxed down alterations and he revised the plans accordingly for a cost of €450. Admittingly this only coverd all the drawings,, both for PP and construction.We did a deal with a local arch. tech to submit our PP and when he was successful we engaged him to carry out key inspections during the build. I think his fee for PP was €700 and the key inspections, 6 in all cost €1250, wherby he will issue a cert of compliance when we have finished. Be careful when you agee to a fee that you know precisely what it covers, and indeed when you deal with tradesmen. The expression "all in " was an eye opener for us when we asked " exactly what does all in cover ?"

Considering what you are going to spend to build a house I would strongly recommend you give these generic planbooks a miss and engage an architect to design a house to your needs and with the characteristics of the site in mind.

Sorry Extopia,
I would have to disagree with you on that one, speaking from experience. We chose a plan from a book and we are more than pleased with the outcome. We have received many many compliments regarding the house from people within the area. These plans are drawn by Architects and there is nothing wrong with them. I am sure there are many people who commissioned an Architect to draw up plans and were not happy with the outcome. We studied many plans and designs over a long period, taking all matters into account, lay of the site, orientation of site, what we were looking for from an interior point of view and also from an exterior point of view and finally what Planners would be happy with. It can be done and we got PP first time in 8 weeks.

extopia said:

Considering what you are going to spend to build a house I would strongly recommend you give these generic planbooks a miss and engage an architect to design a house to your needs and with the characteristics of the site in mind.

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Have to agree with this one. If you drive around the countryside it is very easy to pick out the designs that were taken from these type of books - the books are good for getting ideas but don't take into account you specific site (in terms of sunlight etc) and also your personal requirements.

If spending a few hundred grand to build a house I don't think that a few grand at the design stage is too much to ask & it can make all the difference.

A guy not too far from our site employed an architect to design a house, the immediate neigbour got copies of the plans. It was like something out of Footballers Wives- turrets , round rooms etc, needless to say it was turned down by Wexford Co Co on the grounds that it was totally unsuitable to the area.