Find an Architect you can trust in Southampton.

Architects design new buildings, and alterations and extensions to existing buildings. They work with their clients to create plans for structures that meet their practical, structural, aesthetic and financial needs.

In some cases, an architect may only create the design and plans for a project. However, they’ll often stay involved in a project after this has been done to ensure its successful completion, providing project management too.

Like building an extension, you’re not legally required to hire an architect to build a house. However, given the amount of money you’ll be investing in your project, it’s vital to get it right. Clear, accurate plans are essential for any builder or other tradesperson to get the right materials in the right place. Building projects that go wrong because of inaccurate plans can at best look odd, and at worst be structurally unsound.

We’d recommend hiring either an architect or a skilled design and build company to create the plans for your new house. If you hire an architect to do your designs, you can choose whether to involve them further in your project, or use another professional or your own skills to take care of any applications and project management.

It’s recommended to use a professional guttering company to repair or replace guttering, as well as to carry out cleaning. These companies have the required insurance and will comply with health and safety standards, particularly when working at height.

Not necessarily. Commercial architects may charge either a fixed fee, an hourly rate, or a percentage of the building contract. They could also save you substantial amounts of money as their plans and drawings may stop issues arising later in the construction.

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).

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.

Yes. Residential architects are invaluable and will be able to manage the application process as well as offer you advice on the best way to design your building to satisfy the local authority. They can also help with ideas as well as advising on what is possible and what is not possible.