Your best friend when it comes to your next home renovation project is a good architect. While your budget is an important consideration, there are essential questions you need to ask before hiring an architect to ensure that you achieve your vision of dream home. A good architect can improve the functionality, sustainability, and appearance of your home as well as the cost and time efficiencies.
Seven years of education and practical experience are required to become a qualified architect; still, you need to choose one who is accredited, remains abreast with trends and updates, and displays good industry knowledge. In this post, you’ll learn the right questions to ask before you hire an architect for your home renovation project. If you’re thinking of hiring an architect for a property development project, Alternative Bridging Corporation could help you to raise the funds.
1.Are you willing to work with a contractor as soon as possible?
Proper planning is crucial in the preliminary stage of home renovation, which should be handled both by the contractor and the architect from tndesignandbuild.co.uk. Choose someone who acts professionally, by observing how the architect answers your question. Here are the benefits of hiring the right architect:
- A good architect keeps updated with the latest industry practices to achieve the best design for your home (e.g., flowing, functional, and flexible living room space). Click here to find a trusted and reputable architect today.
- A good architect reviews the home renovation plan with you and the contractor (e.g., use of new materials, layout, and design).
- A good architect can present to you schematic planning and help you stay on top of your budget (e.g., giving you 30%, 50%, and 80% stages of completion).
- A good architect together with the contractor can help you develop a budget early to have a clear idea of how much you’ll be spending for your home renovation project.
2.Can you show and present your portfolio?
You want an architect who can help you achieve the renovation that you want and provide you with options if your plan is not feasible. Checking the portfolio of your prospective architect can help you decide whether or not your ideas could match. Don’t hesitate to tell your prospective architect the result that you envision and ask follow-up questions based such as:
- Have you designed a green home in the past?
- Do you have any experience renovating a Victorian-style home?
- What are your thoughts about having a Japanese-inspired home architecture?
3.Can you give me at least five references?
Ask your prospective architect about past contractors and clients he worked with, and be sure to follow up on each reference. Ensuring that you hire a trusted, reputable, and dependable architect will spare you headaches caused by an unreliable architectural firm. A good firm has plenty of references. When talking with previous clients and contractors, you need to take note of the following:
- Ask about the best personality traits of the architect.
- Ask previous clients to rate the architect’s communication skills, dependability, and overall performance.
- Gauge how satisfied and happy the clients are when interviewing them, which reflects what they think about the architect.
4.How much time will the entire home renovation project take?
It’s important to be clear about the type of client you are in front of your prospective architect by setting clear expectations (e.g., budget, design you want). One important thing to ask your architect is the timeframe of the home renovation that you want. Here are other important matters to tackle before hiring an architect:
- Whether or not the architect can meet you outside of business hours (e.g., weekends, early mornings, evenings). You might be one of the many people who can’t meet during business hours because of work or other obligations.
- Workflow and timelines the architect usually set for a similar home renovation project (e.g., 1 to 2 weeks cabinet and flooring installation, 7 to 10 days countertop fabrication and complete installation, 2 to 3 days backsplash and complete tile work).
5.What is your professional fee structure and what comes with it?
You should be open about your budget to determine cost limitations. Remember that high-quality work is expensive and architects use various fee structures when charging clients for professional services. Also, make sure that architect is also open to you about discussing any additional costs that are not included in the contract, such as amendments to the home renovation drawings, such as changes in the construction and extra construction administration hours.
Conclusion
Before hiring an architect for your home renovation project, make sure that you have done thorough research about their reputation, credibility, experience, specialization, and professional service fee. If the firm has a website, visit it and check customer testimonials and the “About Us” page. You’ll get a better idea of how the architectural firm works and treat their clients. The key to a successful home renovation project is having open communication with your architect.
