Reader question - Should I hire an architect?

Today I recieved an email from a reader with the following question:

I was wondering if it is a necessary evil & even more critical to hire an architect before you hire a Contractor to build a couple of major additions on your house (estimated at $100K), and just as importantly, is it the architect who takes your wish list to redo the whole interior with high end, cedar, tresses, stone etc.; or does the contracting company have the structural engineers and designers working for them to do this. When you hired your architect, how much did she charge? Did she have the exact knowledge of the structural supports, readjusting H&V, electrical or is that the Builder? Before you did any of that did you have to make a trip to the municipality to ask what the land regulations were? What did you learn from your process, if you had to do it over.

These are all really good questions and exactly the questions I had when we embarked on our little house renovation/building adventure almost a year ago now.

First, let's deal with whether or not it's critical to hire an architect before hiring a contractor. The short answer is no, it is not absolutely necessary, but chances are you will almost certainly need to have an architect at some point in the process given the size of your renovaton.

In my earlier post Architect, Designer or Design-Build? Lot's of choices for renovating a home I talk about the differences in the qualifications and services provided by architects, designers and design-build companies. Basically, all of the advice that I received boiled down to the fact that if you are doing something really complicated, or if you want to preserve a certain look, then hire an architect first. In any case, if you are adding square footage to your house or your are doing major structural changes, then you will most likely need an architect to sign off on the drawings before you can even submit them to the municipality for a permit.

That said, it does not mean that you must hire an architect before hiring a builder. If you know a builder with a stellar reputation who you have upmost confidence in, and you know exactly what you want, then you could take the cheaper route of hiring an architectural technologist to produce the drawings and then hire an architect just to review and approve the drawings for the permit application. A slightly more expensive route is to hire an architect just to do a design and construction drawings and then take these to several builders to get a quote. The most expensive option is to hire an architect to do the design, produce the construction drawings, run the tendering process and oversee the administration of the builder contract. This last option could cost 15% or more of the overall construction cost in architect fees, but it's a great way to go if you don't feel like going toe-to-toe with a builder because they haven't done their work correctly.

The bottom line is that before you start anything you need to have some sort of drawings or specifications that you can give to a builder to get a quote. The more detailed these specifications are, the more accurate the quote will be. If all you have is a vague, very general description of what you want, then I think you run the risk of a builder either giving you a very high quote in order to cover off many different possibilities, or worse, a very low quote for the most basic of work that will quickly ramp up as you start to specify details. If you really trust the builder, then you could have them design and build it, in which case I think you should pay them produce the design first before you sign a contract with them to build it. In any event, someone is going to have to design the final product and produce the construction drawings, and nobody is going to do that for free. No matter what you do, follow Mike Holmes advice and check lots of references before you hire a builder.

Second, let's deal with whether it's the architect who takes your wish list to redo the whole interior with high end, cedar, tresses, stone etc. or whether it is the contracting company that has the structural engineers and designers working for them to do this.

Architects are certainly capable of doing interior design, as are designers. If you look at the work of Linda Chapman or Chris Simmonds, they do a lot of their own stunning interior design. Again, the benefit of producing a very detailed design first with an architect is that you will then have a specific set of drawings to take to builders to get a quote, which means the quotes you receive will likely be more accurate and more competative. You could also get an architect to design the basic structure of the addition and then have a designer design the interior finishes, but not all architects like to work that way. Finally, a lot of builders do have a good design sense and can put together a pretty nice interior. The only down side is that it is too late to find out that their design sense does not mesh with yours once you have signed the contract with them.

In my research, I certainly heard lots of stories about how architects will design a fabulous house that cannot possibly be built for the budget you provided. Mostly, I heard these stories from design-build companies, so the veracity of the statement is somewhat dubious in my mind. I think that most architects actually have a pretty good idea of how much it costs to build a house and if you give them a budget, they will design a product that fits within that budget. Furthermore, many architects work directly with builders to get more accurate cost estimates. In fact, it is wise to factor in a couple of thousand dollars so that the architect can hire a builder as a consultant to help estimate the costs. In terms of keeping the construction costs down, your biggest enemy is probably yourself. You see a fancy kitchen island or bathtub in a magazine and you tell the architect to add it in and the next thing you know you planned renovation is thousands of dollars over budget.

Third, let's deal with the question of how much an architect costs, whether they have exact knowledge of the structural supports, readjusting H&V, electrical or is that the Builder?

The cost of hiring an architect varies. Some of the more established architects charge a set fee. We interviewed one architect that wanted 15% of the final build cost. The one we settled on cost 10% of the final build cost. Other, mostly younger architects that we interviewed charge a set fee for each service. So, for instance, the initial design drawings might be $5,000. Construction drawings would be$ 5,000 - $10,000. Running the tender process to hire a builder might cost $5000. and so on. The younger architects argued that this was a fairer fee schedule because the amount of work to design and draw a house with cheap fixtures is the same as the amount of work to design a house with expensive fixtures. After all, just because you decide to put in $60,000 worth of exotic wood kitchen cabinets, there is no reason the drawings should now cost $6,000 more. It's a fair point, however, I think for an average quality house the cost will work out about the same whether one hires an architect for a set percentage of the build cost or based on a fee per service. It's when you get into a house with lots of expensive finishing that the price will sky rocket with the former fee schedule. In my blog post Picking an architect for our renovation I talk about some different ways to pick architects and how much they cost.

It's absolutely true that architects will have knowledge of structural components, H&V and electrical, often better knowledge than the builder. For anything really tricky, they may call upon the advice of a structural engineer. In any event, most structural changes to your house must be signed off by an architect or a structural engineer.


Fourth, let's deal with whether we had to make a trip to the municipality to ask what the land regulations were.

Fortunately, I did not need to go to city hall because the City of Ottawa has a pretty good website. However, depending on what you want to do, it's wise to check things out with city hall first. For example, if you wanted to open a B&B, or put in a rental apartment in the basement, your zoning may not allow for that. Similarly, you may not be able to add a floor on to your house because you are already at your zoning's height limit. Before even thinking about doing renovations on our house, I checked out our zoning and the required setbacks to make sure we had enough room to put on an addition. Still, that said, any architect or builder worth their weight in salt should know where to find the relevant regulations and one of the first things they should do before they start to design your renovation is look up the relevant regulations. I talk more about this in my blog post Getting zoning information and old air photos of your property.

Fifth, let's deal with what I have learned from the process so far.

I think going into our renovaton project we vastly underestimated the cost of bringing the home up to the standard we wanted. Part of that was because we came across expensive problems, like the foundation, that there was no way to predict. But part of it was because we really had no idea how much renovations could cost. If I had known from the begining that the cost to renovate would be almost as much as the cost to build new, then I think we would have gone straight to Uniform to begin with and skipped everything with the architect. That said, I loved the process of working with the architect, I felt a good connection with our architect, Linda Chapman, and when I do it again, I will go into the project with a much more realistic budget and the intention of building a new house with an architect.

I would also say that I feel the cost of hiring an architect is worth it, especially for big custom jobs. I had lots of builders tell me it is a waste of money to hire an architect, but I don't think it is. With an architect, you do all the planning up front and end up with a very specific design which can then be taken to a builder for a quote. In turn, the builder's quotes will be accurate and competative, saving you money. Certainly, I did not get the sense through my research that it is any cheaper to go with a build-design company or a designer, at least for big jobs. However, for smaller jobs, where there are no structural changes, then I think a designer would be just fine for the job. It also depends on how confident you are reviewing the work of your builder. If you feel that you have both the time and the technical skill to check the work of your builder on a regular basis, then it may not be worthwhile hiring an architect. But most of us don't have the time or knowledge, which is where hiring the professional expertise of an architect comes in.

Traditional style wins out

After much back-and-forth, we decided to go with the more traditional looking house. The contemporary design was nice, and we loved the porch that Linda designed, but in the end I think I'm a sucker for the strong horizontal lines produced by the prairie style. I also didn't care too much for the windows in the contemporary design. I felt they were too plain, even though they were very characteristic of the Modern style. In addition, the hipped roof of our house does not really lend itself to the modern look.

In terms of deciding factors, cost was not one of them, as both styles cost about the same. Similarly, fitting in with the neighbourhood was not really an issue, because all around we can find examples of Arts and Crafts, Modern, Mid-century Modern and Victory houses.

Another consideration that was raised, which we had not thought about, was that our house might end up looking too squat in the modern style. If you look at all the examples of modern houses in my previous post, they are all tall; they have a lot of presence on the street. Our house would lack that height (at least in the front) making it potentially look squat from the street.

So, with that sorted out, its onto the next step, designing the kitchen and starting to find a builder.


Examples of Craftsman and Modern style homes in the neighbourhood

Modern vs Traditional style house

Because we really like to make things difficult for ourselves, we asked our architect to do a concept drawing of the house in a more modern style so we could compare it to the more traditional, Arts and Crafts/Prairie style.

The only problem is that we like the new concept as much as the first.

Tell us what you think.

Below is the more traditional look, with the first picture the front of the house and the second of the rear of the house. (the picture of the front of the house was provided in black and white, so I had to colour it myself, which is why the colours don't exactly match)

and below is the more modern look. First, the front of the house. We both really like the asymetrical porch that she has designed. It's a bit difficult to tell on this picture, but the porch would be covered by a flat roof with wood sticking out the front so it looks sort of like a pergola. There is a wall at the front of the porch, about 3 feet wide or so, that screens the front door from the road. This provides a place to put things like strollers, snow shoves, etc. so that they are in front of the house, but not in sight from the road. The porch would be open at the side behind the wall. The cladding is a combination of stucco and wood siding. The siding would be by a company called Maibec, and they have a 25 year warranty of their siding (which means I don't have to paint it every five years).

and here is the rear of the house. The same basic design, but different windows from the more traditional look. This more modern look would allow us to have large corner windows in the bedroom and the living room.

Revised concept drawings for our renovated bungalow

Woohoo! Today we met with our architect and she showed us the revised concept drawings for our renovated bungalow in Ottawa.

We'd like to thank everyone who commented on the earlier draft drawings for their great suggestions. You helped reaffirm many of our thoughts about the drawings and offered some great new ideas. We think you will find many of your suggestions incorporated into this latest set of drawings.

Quickly, here is what we told our architect about the previous options she proposed. We said we liked the main floor of Option 1 with the lower level of Option 2. However, on the main floor, we wanted to have a mud room off the foyer, expand the kitchen to significantly increase the counter space, and make the kids' bedrooms bigger. We also heard what many of you said about having a powder room on the main floor right next to the kids' bathroom. So, we gave that up in favour of having a larger kids' bathroom. We also asked her to add what we call a "communications centre" by the foyer. This is a space with a small counter for an iMac computer, plus a bulletin board, cubbyholes for mail, hooks for keys, a calendar, etc. We also liked the suggestion to put the laundry room on the main floor, but there was just no room to do so without sacrificing something else, so it is staying in the basement.

On the lower level, the play room has expanded because the bedroom above has been bumped out a couple of feet and the area under the terrace outside the kitchen will be excavated to create an office. In theory, this could also become a media room or even another spare bedroom.

When we looked at these new plans, we really couldn't think of too many changes that we would want to make. There are a couple of things, like making the island in the kitchen a bit bigger and putting a wine fridge underneath it, as well as moving the door for the master bedroom ensuite bathroom to the little hallway rather than leading directly from the bedroom. On the lower level, we have asked for double doors leading into the office and to increase slightly the size of the laundry room so that there is more room for drying racks.

Our Architect also provided us with a proposal for the look of the rear of the house. There is a terrace leading off the kitchen with a pergola over it. If we grow grapevines on the pergola in summer, it will keep the terrace and the house cool and remind us of the farm in Chile, while in winter the leaves will fall off the vines, allowing sunlight to stream into the master bedroom and kitchen/dining room. This terrace leads to another terrace, set down a few steps behind the family room creating a quiet, partially enclosed space with great views to the back garden. From here, steps lead down into the back garden.

For the style of the house, she has gone with a modern take on the Arts & Crafts style. The lines are more simplified than Arts & Crafts, more similar to Prairie style, which is what we originally suggested. We may ask to see a conceptual drawing of a more modern style of exterior, just to compare. We are hoping to partially clad the house in stone with stucco on the rest, but it will depend on the budget. We may have to go with stucco only. Either way, a new layer of blue foam insulation will be added to the outside of the home all the way around and the stucco or rock cladding put on top of that, which will significantly increase the insulation value of the home.

We told our architect that we will send her any additional comments that we may have by the end of this week. If you have any comments or suggestions we'd love to hear them. Feel free to leave a comment.

For comparison, here is what the rear of the house currently looks like:

Revisions to the concept drawings for our renovation

Thanks everyone for your comments via this blog, email or facebook. We have sent some ideas back to the architect for her to incorporate into a second draft of the concept drawings.

Basically, we like the upstairs of Option 1 with the downstairs of Option 2. In particular, we like the architecturally interesting staggered design of the rear of the house in option 1, the kitchen at the heart of the home, the south facing aspect of the main living spaces that will be flooded with sunlight through all those windows, and great access to the terraces that will allow them to become outside rooms in summer. We also like the sequence of spaces in the main living area with an away room that can function as a play room while the kids are young, but can be converted to a library with a computer when the kids are older. Downstairs, we preferred option 2, with the bike storage off the garage, large play room and spacious office.

However, there were a few changes that we want to make. We prefer the foyer, mudroom and stairs of option 2 on the upstairs level. We are also willing to get rid of the powder room on the upstairs level in order to give the kids' bathroom more space. We also need to have a larger kitchen and slightly larger bedrooms for the kids. So, we have asked the architect to bump out the rear of the house by another three feet or so. This should give us enough room to create a more U-shaped kitchen with more counter space. Downstairs, we have asked the architect to increase the size of the mechanical room to allow for more storage and to combine the laundry and mudroom into a single room with lots of cabinets for storage, a sink, and enough space to open an ironing board. In the play room, we have asked to incorporate a wine fridge, cabinets, counters and a sink, which will come in handy for cleaning up after art projects and serving food during birthday parties in the back garden.

We hope to have a new set of drawings to look at by the end of this week, or perhaps next week, so check back then to see how our ideas have been rendered.

Thanks again for all your suggestions.

Concept drawings for our Ottawa renovation

With much anticipation, we met with our architect this afternoon and she showed us two sets of concept drawings for the renovation of our Ottawa bungalow. Generally, we are pretty pleased with what she has shown us. I think we are leaning toward the main floor of design one, while liking the lower floor of design two. We have suggested a few changes already, but we have some time to mull things over and get back to her. We'd sure like to hear what others think. Feel free to give us comments on the designs.

We will be getting pdf versions of the drawings soon, but in the meantime, I have these lower quality images to look at.

First, here's what it currently looks like inside.






Below is design one:




Below is design two:

Dying with anticipation to see our renovation concept drawings

Tomorrow is the big day! That is when our architect is going to show us her conceptual plans for the renovation of our little Ottawa bungalow. We are both really excited.

Of course, there is always the possibility that we will not at all like what she gives us. But that's OK, it's going to be a back and forth process. One of our architect's references told us that the first set of concept drawings they saw were way different from what they were expecting. In fact, they were worried that the architect had not listened to them at all. However, the architect explained that she just wanted them to see what the house could be and then they took ideas from those drawings and made new ones.

Anyway, we hope to post pictures of the concepts here, and we are looking forward to reading any comments.