Find an Architect you can trust in Hook.

It’s important to take plenty of time choosing your architect. They can have a significant effect on how successful your project is, so you’ll find it’s worth it in the long run.

Ideally, you’ll want the architect you choose to have plenty of experience in commercial property design and project management. If the building you’re creating or extending is for a particularly unique purpose, you may want to try to find a professional who has worked on a similar property before.

It’s also a good idea to use customer reviews to help you choose a commercial architect. If a company you’re considering doesn’t have any online reviews, ask them to supply you with testimonials or show you examples of their work.

Don’t forget that it’s vital to get on with your architect. You’ll need to communicate effectively to make sure that your project turns out the way you want it to, and you may be working together for a while. So, it’s a good idea to meet and speak with any commercial architects you’re considering before you go ahead and hire one.

Architects specialise in designing new properties, extensions and interior layouts. Land and property owners typically hire an architect to help them create structures that compliment their environment, make best practical use of space, are structurally sound and meet budget requirements.

Architects typically offer design and project management services. This means that they’re involved in a project from start to finish, creating a concept, submitting planning and other applications, and managing construction. However, you can also hire an architect just to create your design and plans.

If you’d like to hire a residential architect, but have limited funds, there are several things you can try to reduce their quote.

Firstly, you don’t necessarily need to hire them for project management – you could just ask them to do the design. This will mean you’ll have to do some extra donkey work, but you could choose between finding a cheaper professional to do your project management or simply doing it yourself.

There might also be other architectural services that you can cut down on. Some professionals offer extras like landscape, interior and detailed joinery design. If you can do without any of these, this will help to reduce the overall cost.

You could also think about scaling down your project. Lots of residential architects work out their fees as a percentage of the total construction cost of your project. Lower the cost of this, and your fees might go down too.

Commercial architects specialise in designing buildings for business or public use, rather than residential, like offices, shops and schools.

Commercial architects will typically have expert knowledge of the unique needs that different types of commercial building have. This includes safety and design requirements for bigger buildings that typically contain high numbers of people.

There are lots of different styles and colours of guttering to suit any property. Half round is the standard style, but guttering is also available in ogee (half square), deep flow (U shaped), and square styles or box guttering (three straight sided).

Residential architects can help make sure that your building or extension is designed beautifully. They may also be able to develop plans which create extra space, or add more functionality. In addition, having plans may speed up the building process and reduces the chance of errors.

The best type of guttering material will vary depending on the requirements of the property. For example, on listed buildings cast iron or aluminium guttering may be required to maintain the character of the property. Generally, UPVC is the accepted standard for almost all modern properties.

Generally the process for having plans produced will only take a month or two. Major works or new builds can take upto ten months to produce. This will depend on the requirements of your project and the number of technical drawings you need produced. An architect will always advise you based on the project how long these will realistically take.