10 questions to ask your designer
Choosing the right professional to plan your home is an important step in any self build journey. Mike Hardwick runs through the questions you should ask any prospective designer before making your final decision
The person who creates the drawings for your home has a crucial role to play. They are the ones who are responsible for turning your dreams of the perfect house into reality. It is the designer who needs to understand what you are trying to achieve and what sort of budget is available to play with. However, they are not clairvoyants, so you need to be able to communicate your ideas effectively and ask the right questions. Expecting your architect to second guess your requirements, or worse, to keep producing drawings until they manage to create something you like is a waste of everyone’s time. This month I’ve picked out 10 questions that you should ask your designer to check if you will see eye-to-eye before signing on the dotted line.
1 What are your qualifications?
It’s a common misconception that only architects can design properties. The truThis, anyone with a modicum of skill can sketch out a scheme that will satisfy the planners. It’s also true that letters after a name are no guarantee of excellence, but a fully qualified architect will have had seven years of training, so they’ve earned the right to call themselves that. It’s legally protected; everyone who hasn’t qualified will have to use another term. You will encounter architectural technologists who specialise in the performance of structures, but also produce full designs – especially in the eco market. Everyone else is simply a designer. Don’t get me wrong, there are some superb house designers out there who won’t charge anything like the fees that a fully fledged architect will try to squeeze out of you, but there are more questions to ask before you proceed.