Why choose an Oldham Architect and what do they do?

An architect can help you if you’re thinking of building an extension or major alterations to your house or building a new one. Architects Oldham area, are professional who devotes their time to building projects. They can look at your project and possibly come up with new ideas. You will get a better idea of what it will take to move forward with the project.
Talking to friends who have completed building projects is always fun. Most people are happy with the end result and are proud to have been involved in it. Then I ask them a question: If you could do the building project over again, what would you change about the design? They usually respond with “With hindsight,” which is often a yes answer.

Although it is impossible to purchase ‘hindsight, we can buy advice and time from experienced professionals.

Professional help can save you a lot of money and is always helpful. For a building project, however, we don’t want to spend a lot of money on architectural advice. This could lead to less money being available for actual construction. The right balance is important.

How can we reduce our architectural design expenses? Before you hire an architect to draw up plans, it is important to get your thoughts together. Talk to your friends and think about the requirements for your project. Next, think about how much assistance you will need from an architectural firm. Do you need an architect to help you with your initial design ideas? Are you planning to create your initial plans yourself and ask your architect for feedback and to provide a list of additional points to be considered? You will most likely need professional drawings once you reach the building regulations and planning permission stages.

You will also need to decide whether you require professional architects or will you hire someone else. You might also consider a surveyor or a drawing technician. While many people work full-time producing architectural designs, they are not registered architects. A professional architect is the best choice if you are unsure. However, it is a good idea to talk to many people before you decide on who you think will be most helpful.
My case study: Loft Conversion and Two-Storey Extension

My house was a four-bedroom, two-story house built in 1990. It had a roof made with premade truss and rafters. The house measured 8m in width and 14m in length. The roof pitch was unusually high at 47 degrees. The height of the roof space’s apex was an amazing 4m. Although the loft had a lot of space, it was almost inaccessible due to the premade trusses that were positioned in every direction.

I felt that there was great potential in this loft conversion, but it would not be simple and it wouldn’t be inexpensive. There was also the possibility of building a second story extension to the end of the house, which would extend the house out to 3.7m. This would also add more space to the loft.

For many years, I thought about building a house. It was something I had discussed with friends and I finally decided to explore the possibility further. Although I initially thought of getting an architect to look at it, I instead decided to do everything myself as I assumed this would save me money.

PS35 was the lowest price I could find for an architectural design program. This program was very affordable and I spent several weeks learning about it. After measuring up the building, I created a model in the software. Then I designed a floor plan. I made sure to preserve as much of my house as possible. It was obvious that moving the bathroom or kitchen would be expensive so I avoided it.

To accommodate my grandfather’s 12 chairs and dining table, I had to make the dining area longer. After calculating the room dimensions, I was confident that I had it just right. I then showed my wife the floor plan for her approval. Unfortunately, she did not approve. The room was too small, she felt. For a few more days, I went back to the drawing board. The program has a 3D feature that allows you to walk through rooms and see how they will look. To see how my furniture would look, I measured it and made some illustrations in the program. After that, I set my wife down at the computer. We opened the door to our new dining room and saw the furniture in place. My wife was very pleased with the results of the program, which showed that the room dimensions were correct. Approval granted.

I designed a small space on the north side of my house to serve as a library. It has one window. My wife preferred patio doors that open out to the garden. A window was my preference. This was simple to solve. We chose to install patio doors.

The plan was then shared with friends for a couple of weeks, and further discussion ensued. Some of our friends had more ideas than we could have imagined and were able to help us incorporate them. Although I was surprised by how far we were able to get without the help of an architect, I was not less eager to use an architect as my next step.

Now I was confident in the strength of our design and recommended an architect to us by a friend. We showed him our plans and discussed our reasoning. Then we waited to hear his opinion. He felt that we had it right and didn’t suggest any major changes. He took our measurements and drawings and produced a more complete set of drawings that was later used to submit Buildings Regulations.

Overall, we were pleased in many ways. We were happy that we had done a decent job and that we probably had saved some money.

After obtaining Planning Permission, Building Regulations approval was also granted. The building was then allowed to proceed. We made some changes along the way, but we were able see things slowly coming together. The biggest change was made to the roof’s top floor. We wanted to achieve a variety of goals, some of which were in conflict with each other.

You will be able to build a staircase that is not too cramped.
Use the space below the eaves, where there is not much headroom.
You can use some of the eaves space to store and route cables, etc.
At the top of your attic, create a little bit of space.
Conform to fire regulations. In particular, no rooms that have 2 doors rather than 1 door for accessing a fire exit must be met.
You could also use this small space for storage as a bedroom.
Hanging space for pictures.
A spare bedroom.
An investigation.
The chimney pipe can pass through this area on its journey to the roof. Also, we wanted the chimney to be as open as possible so that it could extract as much heat from it as possible.
My wife supported by dear friends made the decision to install an ensuite bathroom and toilet in the spare bedroom.


We were fortunate that the top floor was originally designed as one large open space. To represent potential locations for walls, we could place lengths on the floor from here. These planks were then moved around until we found the best compromise. Then, we marked the locations of the walls on the floor and let builders begin construction. Although the floor layout of our new floor was completely different to what we originally planned, we were confident that we had made a significant improvement.

The project was eventually completed. We couldn’t think of any aspect in the design that we would change, and we can look back with hindsight. The final result was exceptional.
Summary

We should have used an architect more often than we did. In our case, I believe we did it right. While it is important to use an architect, don’t forget your input as well as that of your friends. You will need someone to take your ideas and review them, then create professional drawings.

It might be a good idea to have an architect present at the beginning of the project (even though I did not). Not to create plans, but to talk through the possibilities with you. Many architects will gladly do this for you and won’t charge a lot. This could be a good use of your time and money.