Designed By James

What we do:
Designed.By.James specialise in producing design drawings for small home extensions. Typically a clients budget will be fixed for the building work and the client will want help to maximise their budget and achieve the best layout for their house. Families today often decide to add a kitchen extension to create a kitchen/family/dining room with bifold doors opening onto the garden. Other typical projects include replacing conservatories with a small extension to provide a space that can be used more comfortably all year around. Whether it’s a side extension to a semi detached house, a home office in the garden, or a rear extension to a bungalow, D.B.J are here to help.

What we charge:
Designed.By.James wont overcomplicate the process, but will guide you through the planning and building regulations stages. For a typical single storey rear extension, we will charge a fixed fee of £500 for the survey and sketch drawings, and then £500 for planning application drawings and then £500 for building regulation drawings. D.B.J will invoice you at the start of each stage, and you are committing on a stage by stage basis. If you are able to use permitted development rights rather than needing planning approval, then we insist that a Lawful Development Certificate (LDC) is applied for from the council. Clients normally want to make a quick start on the building work, so we advise that the building regulation application and the planning application are submitted to the council at the same time. This may not be advisable with all projects if planning approval isn’t likely, so we will discuss this option with you once you are happy with the sketch drawings.

How long does it take:
I am normally able to survey the property within a few days. I will need about 2 hours to survey the property so that i can produce the existing floor plans and elevations. These will be used as the starting point for the proposed drawings and also submitted with council applications. The sketch drawings are emailed to you after another week. I would normally issue a few different options so that you can decide which design you prefer. I don’t charge extra for drawing changes or redesigns (within reason), the nature of the process leads to alterations and discussion. Allow a couple of weeks for design tweaks and a meeting if necessary. Once the client is happy with the proposal, I would then need a week to produce the planning application drawings and the building regulation drawings. The council will need about 10 weeks to issue decision notices which gives you time to choose a builder. You can start work on site when you have planning approval and building regulations approval.

What other costs are there:
The council will charge the client directly for the LDC applications, planning applications and the building regulations applications. They will also charge you for inspection fees when the extension is being built. All of these fees are outlined on the council website. You may need a structural engineer to provide structural design calculations for steel beams and roof timber sizes etc. These would be required to gain building regulations approval. D.B.J are not structural engineers, but can recommend a local structural engineer or you can search for a local company yourself.

Examples of our work:
The website is currently being upgraded, in the meantime I will email examples of similar projects if requested.

What to do next:
To arrange a survey, please email me at [email protected] or phone me on 07495 322 544. I will need the full property address, your email and phone number, and a description of what extension you require. Please also let me know your availability.