it would be wonderful to have the good fortune to contract the best available expert to create the best possible solution for every project but a private individual usually doesn't have that many opportunities to test an architect and/or designer, apart from word of mouth recommendations... without being very involved in the design process the home owner risks a very expensive surprise

Becoming an architect takes 7 years, with a minimum of 2-3 years working practice experience, mentored by more senior architects. Therefore a fully qualified architect would usually have at least a decade of design experience (along with plenty of practical on site experience), to provide solutions to your brief. This is not a 'waste of time' but an investment in knowledge, skill and experience that will ultimately benefit our clients.

To call yourself an 'Architect' you must be appropriately insured and participate in continuing education. Architects are registered by a government body (the Architects Registration Board) whose key role is to protect consumers by ensuring services provided to the public are carried out in a professional and competent manner, disciplining architects who have acted unprofessionally or incompetently.

While there are some fantastic building designers out there, they do not come with the extensive education, training and registration process that is required to become an Architect.

Is a building designer something different to an architect? I'm wondering if this would be our happy medium financially?

I'm starting to think that the kindest way with our budget but also sanity (and time) would be to find a builder who will take it To lock up with plastering and then we take over (because we have contacts for electrical, kitchen, carpet)

Also as we know what we want our floor plan to be and I trust myself with my creative flair to sort out the inside interior design wise, I'm wondering if we can do without an architect. I would absolutely love one and I'm sure they ARE worth the money spent but at the end of the day we ARE on a budget

I'm just wondering if we go down the path of a draftsman, what we will be missing out on

sure it's not going To look like the best architect in Aust held the reigns for us but yeah.. Hmm confused. The only reason I'm confused is because I just don't know The industry in depth enough

And as a matter of interest,

if you had a budget of 600-650k, how many squares would you want your house to be? Medium finish quality

Anyone can call themselves a 'building designer' - if you go down this route be sure to check out their reputation, experience and portfolio thoroughly to make sure they can deliver to your expectations.

A good local architect (as opposed to a 'Grand Designs' architect to the rich and famous) wouldn't necessarily be any more expensive than a good building designer.

Either way, check them out, get a quote before you commit and be comfortable whoever you choose will give you the level of assistance and guidance through the design/approval/build process that you need.

Also look at this really helpful Houzz article: https://www.houzz.com.au/magazine/6-reasons-why-you-should-haul-in-professionals-for-your-next-project-stsetivw-vs~28663633 

Two's Company Renovations is quite correct re. Draftsman vs Building Designers vs Architects. If you're building a high rise in Sydney's CBD you'd go straight to an architect as that's their skill set and qualification. You wouldn't go to a draftsman as they just do plans and the good one's also design, they don't do the rest of the processes in that situation that an architect is qualified to do. Would you use a well known star architect to do your basic 4m x 4m treated deck job? Course not, you'd use a draftsman or building designer. For the majority of residential dwelling jobs use either a good draftsman or building designer. For difficult and overly complex 100% bespoke jobs designed down to the last screw and nail use an architect so that they can control and oversee the project for you rather than relying on yourself and builder alone.

On a 50-60 square home on a completely flat block

would <$15k for the following be a good price?

Soil test

surveyor Windows survey

structural drawings

Energy thermal report

The price includes drawing for a 'high' finish home

also is this quote missing anything?

Standard plan set should include the following:

Cover page with site area calculations, zonings, general site details

Site Plan

Waste Management Plan

Floor plans

Floor Structure Plan - Slab Layout/Pier/Footing Layout, etc.

Elevations

Section Plans

Roof Plan with a draft stormwater plan (goes to Hydraulic Engineer, Plumber, etc.)

Window and External Door Schedule

Shadow Plans - If needed

Landscape Plan

Driveway Plan - if needed.

Electrical Layout (draft only as is used as a starting point for owner to discuss with electrician/builder)

General Specifications

Basix Certificate (NSW only) (Energy Efficiency Reports outside of NSW)

Bushfire Assessment - If needed

Notification Plans

I include the council documents as well such as Statement of Environmental Effects, all DA/CC/CDC forms completed.

Obviously the work is designed and drawn to the relevant building codes, Aust. Standards, local council LEP and DCP, state planning reg's, etc.

We haven't even considered the concept plans and the developed design stage, 3D photomontages, etc. here...... these plans and documents are for council DA/CC/CDC.

The structural & hydraulic engineer will organise soil testing so they can do the plans for those. These are usually outside of the cost estimate as they can vary significantly from site to site.

A Site Survey (Contour Survey) by a professional surveyor is an extra as well.

Cabinet and Joinery Plans - I rarely include detailed versions as these are usually done by the Kitchen and Joinery companies.

The $15,000 mark could somewhere near the mark, depends on the detail required, complexity of site, council, design, engineering, standard building processes used or more of a bespoke custom building process.... How many hours are needed to prepare the above? Say $100+ per hour as a minimum for a draftsman perhaps?

Full detailing and specification of a super high end fit out will take many hours of discussions and meetings as well as then designing and drawing it all up.

This is where a house by an architect cost's so much; It's the level of detail and specification as well as the level of construction standards all overseen and managed by the architect.

Is this high standard of detailing needed on a dwelling using standard building process even with a high quality fit out?

Up to the owner really and depends on their situation of money and time.

re: soil test $600 ..we had an environmental overlay on our site as there was a petrol station at the corner a few shops down from us in the 1960s mind you..

they were going to charge us 50K to do soil test decontaminate the soil etc etc

we fought it as the building was existing ..and all we were doing was digging 3 holes for footings for our cantilevered deck..

do your research and know your rights

also councils can make mistakes too..they approved our plans for our deck to protrude 30cm over the laneway..the builder picked it up and we built it just to our border

Lesley Hawkins ..yes ..trick is to find one that's on the same wavelength as you..:)

owner builder is the way to go, architects and draughsmen, builders etc just fleece you.

i have recently finished a 5 bedroom 2 story home for $78 thousand with very little hassle, the councils want a bit of paperwork but nothing you cannot do yourself.

you can do all the basix and and site plans building youself, you only need a sparky and a plumber for a few days and a soil test and engineering plans all can be done for under $8 thousand. the savings are massive.

everytime a builder purchases building materials they add on a mark up, architects are just a complete waste of your hard earned ,you can sit down with a pencil and design a great home in a few hours, just incrporate all the things you like in other houses you owned or have visited into your ideas.

building your own home is easy despite what the housing industry tells you about building your own home .even if you have to hire tradespeople to do some work, they know a lot more about building than a lot of builders who in australia are not required to have a trade, and architects or in most cases engineers.so relax give it a go....

Can you give a breakdown of the cost's and the time the job took?

$78,000 sounds awfully cheap but certainly not impossible if you're able to do a lot of the work yourself.

Also some pictures of the completed house.

I love hearing and seeing people go it alone rather than just paying others. This is a very environmentally friendly way to have a house by not spending much. Sweat equity I guess they call it.

Firstly, you mentioned that you know electricians? If you get a builder to take you to lock up all the electrics need to go in after roof frame, then they return after roof cover to finish before ceilings go up.. The builder may not be happy for you to use your own after this as they need to "sign off" for insurance purposes. Just something to think about.. OH and another HUGE mistake we made.. despite getting all relevant council & government approvals we didn't know we had to get Water board approvals before building either... So check and double check .

We are in the middle of owner building a four bedroomed, two storey south of Perth. Slab went down at the end of April and we are currently at downstairs ceiling stage. Finally all the HUGELY expensive scaffolding has gone!! Our budget is $350 (which we are slightly over @ present)! :-) The plans were designed by us both for a good few months until we were certain that nothing was going to variate. Incorporating room sizes that fit our current furniture, the downstairs Office and theatre are also bedrooms for the two eldest with the hopes of them moving out first and us reusing them as purpose later. We also drafted the plans on the computer using Archicad. The drafting person wanted $4000 and to be honest the plans we would have given had hardly anything left to do. Brick count and window placements were the trickiest bits as this is our first time.

Now as for experience and insider knowledge.. My partner is a construction supervisor, so we have pulled out all the favours , discounts and best tradies that are available to us. We opted for a fast second slab using Floortech, which gave us a quicker build time as the concrete needs less time to go off due to thickness. I have been doing a weekly blog on Wordpress covering our highs and lows as we go, floating loads of photos about and ensuring all my family n friends can keep up with our progress.

Koala' Krayon, for $4000 to bring up plans to a basic DA/CC/CDC standard would be about right, (if not more) even with an initial plans to start from.

It may have included all the documents as well such as Statement of Environmental Effects, BASIX/Nathers/etc.. BASIX is what we use in NSW rather than NATHERS or such like.

It depends on the local council requirements too as they vary. My local wants significantly more detail and information than the one beside it.

I too could 'trace' a plan but that isn't anywhere near what's required for plans in my area. They wouldn't even get past the Customer Service desk!

Most business's need to charge around $80per hour to make even a basic wage again depending on your area.

$40K is getting up there for architect's fee's but again depends on what's included, how much was detailed such as kitchen and bathroom fit out down to plug selection. I've seen architectural plans upwards of 150 pages for a renovation/addition......

koule krayon,my guess is you are selecting new materials everywhere in your new build and doing verry little work yourself, I done 98% of the work myself .the only things I couldnt legally do myself I got others to do and then negoited a cash price where possible .i kept every reciept from my build and stand by my figures.when you are building and even when you are not you should be buying materials when you see them cheap

Plans are easy, do them yoursleve

i've done numerous plans for major constructions and minor renovations including all the necessary negotiating with councils, drawing plans preparing DA, BASIX, heritage, environmental impact, owner builder, set backs, easements etc etc but it' a full time job keeping up with all the latest regulations and developments in building materials and the million other details needed to be decided when building or renovating. I now stick to the easy bit: thinking about what's needed and wanted, making CAD sketches of ideas, reseaching fixtures and materials and maintaining an excellent relationship with the professionals to finish the details with my close co-operation and appreciation...i've also realised there's a cost saving in using some professionals as the traddies and suppliers respond better to the professionals because they want the repeat business that the average homeowner can't provide

Jennie we never had any ob insurance, dont think you need it as tradies should be insured

Owner Builder Insurance is to cover anyone coming on site (eg stickbeak friends and neighbours) as well as insurance for damage caused to the existing property that is not covered by your home insurance while you're building or renovating ...check with your insurance company i wouldn't do any work without it

excellent owner preparation advice from spmm...helps us begin to understand what the professionals need to know

Jennie collins, to be responsible for an accident you have to be found to be found negligent which lead to the accident happening.

Just make sure no one comes on site and everything is safe, then you dont need insurance I have built 6houses for myself and never had insurance or accident on the sites.

Another cost that is not needed or really justified in owner building.

as the Owner Builder Licence holder i understood that i was liable for anything that happened on site. My home owners insurance wouldn't cover the cost of any injury or public liability or damage caused by activities related to construction..Our owner builder insurance was to cover the cost of damage to new materials and labour to replace accidental damage as well as injury to myself, the unpaid mate who helped unload supplies and the tradie who's personal insurance had lapsed. The fee was negligible compared to the overall expenditure and i suggest everyone check with their insurance companies to make an informed decision to suit their personal circumstances

Spppmm...the costs of an unneeded insurance rise percentage wise with the lower costs of an owner build,i have found that council and basix compliance nonsense can be up to 12%of a home build, which is outragious..

If your considering an owner builder - check out some of the renovation education sites to assist you. With your very own online builder to bounce ideas off and guide you in the right direction when you need it. I think they are called Naked Renovations - renovation education professionals . Good value. They are on fb at NakedRenovations, worth checking out.

2016 post - very old .