restrict the building cost through architecture design

[Able]

ryan mel,
Have you factored in the infrastructure charge for creating an additional home site? Not sure what it is called in Vic but in NSW it is the Section 94 contribution. For example where i live on the North Shore in Sydney it is around $35k and you will pay the fee once for the one additional home site that you are creating. I have seen Section 94 fees higher than this for outer suburbs in Sydney and even on the Central Coast.

Regards
Able

 

[ryan_mel]

sorry.. re-read your post.

NO its not box design

box design is 5 corners max yours has 9 (thats a LOT)

-- the master can surely be tucked into the eave (tell your architect he will understand i.e. 0 eave) - that will knock out at-least 2 corners
-- your entry is $$

sorry i'm repeating... GOOD LUCK!

Thanks heaps, tcocaro!

They are all good suggestions, and I've passed part of you and Muffin's idea to my architecture. I'll attach the new sketch here after my architecture does further adjustment.

The reason why we are not locating both garage to the south side is because I'd like to extend the existing house, which is 3bedrooms+1bath, to add another ensuite room for the existing one, which is planned to put on the space where marked as "we need open space for the unit 1".

I'm not happy with the current design of the entry door, and I'm going to change it to new way (attched in the map below) to make the feeling of entering the house is much more open, and to connect the living area and meal area better. But just wondering what the cost would be?

Cheers

Ryan

 

[ryan_mel]

ryan mel,
Have you factored in the infrastructure charge for creating an additional home site? Not sure what it is called in Vic but in NSW it is the Section 94 contribution. For example where i live on the North Shore in Sydney it is around $35k and you will pay the fee once for the one additional home site that you are creating. I have seen Section 94 fees higher than this for outer suburbs in Sydney and even on the Central Coast.

Regards
Able

Really, never heard about it before, and didn't get any similar reminds/information from this forum before. I'll ask the people around to confirm it.

thanks for the reminding........

Ryan

 

[Muffinman]

ryan yes you will have fees to pay to council.
Total highway robbery if you ask me , you will need to supply an estimated construction costs and depending on your location you have to pay a % .

The last two houses I constructed cost me $15000 each before I even dug the foundations on a standard 800 sqmt block.
Your fees will be nothing close , so don't stress on my figure.
Just now I have a development approved and the head works is $180,000 and I was just informed the council have increased it 40% this month and advertised their intentions over the xmas break. Who the hell reads the papers during xmas or is around.
Before financial year it will rise another 40% total of 80% rise on $180 k , talk about make me angry. I now need to find the money for a project Im not ready for just to save the 40%

 

[Muffinman]

ryan just out of interest what are you being charged for these plans?

 

[ryan_mel]

ryan just out of interest what are you being charged for these plans?

Sorry, not quite sure about what's your question, maybe not a question at all. Do you mean how much have I been charged for my current sketch plan?

 

[Muffinman]

Never used a licensed architect myself just wondering what they charged you for a set of approved plans?
They have always been to expensive for me with lack of knowledge when it comes to building costs.

 

[ryan_mel]

Never used a licensed architect myself just wondering what they charged you for a set of approved plans?
They have always been to expensive for me with lack of knowledge when it comes to building costs.

It means you do all of that kind of stuff yourself? You're amazing!!!!!! What did you study before?

I'm not sure if my architecture charged me much or not, by comparing to other quotes, it's fair. He charged $4000 for my unit + GST for all the design and planning stuff. It doesn't include any mandotary costs such as application fee, surveying fee, site measuring etc.

After dealing with my architecture for a while, I got kind of similar feeling as you that they are experienced in design, but lack of knowledge in building cost, for him, he thinks different design doesn't cost too much difference of building cost, which makes it not easy to explain why I insist on the suggestions from you guys to him

Cheers

Ryan

 

[tcocaro]

latest sketch

Ryan,

regarding your entry proposal may i suggest.. and let me take a deep breath here because as a developer i cannot beleive i am suggesting it.. but...

perhaps a raised portico\parapit with box gutters...

that would give you the entrance your after for less $$... but who-ever buys it will have maintenance headaches because box gutters always fail.


oh and regarding muffins comment about not using an architect (and not wanting to put words in his mouth) but I am pretty sure he uses a draftsman which is cheaper than an architect.

Cheers

 

[Muffinman]

Yes I always use a drafter or often engineers will have their own drafter or fairly good themselves.
I do employ an architect that is not licensed for Australia only for her cad and rendering skills. But of course I'm only paying her 1/10th of what some one here in Australia would charge me.
She does some great design work , won many awards but I have to educate her constantly on building costs...no bloody clue!
Just because it fits on the paper does not mean it can be constructed at a fair price or at all.

I guess $4k is a fair price myself would only be willing to pay $1500-2000, if it was a full engineer design for say tilt panels I'd be up for about $3000-$5000 all depending but that involves engineering fees.

 

[ryan_mel]

Yes I always use a drafter or often engineers will have their own drafter or fairly good themselves.
I do employ an architect that is not licensed for Australia only for her cad and rendering skills. But of course I'm only paying her 1/10th of what some one here in Australia would charge me.
She does some great design work , won many awards but I have to educate her constantly on building costs...no bloody clue!
Just because it fits on the paper does not mean it can be constructed at a fair price or at all.

I guess $4k is a fair price myself would only be willing to pay $1500-2000, if it was a full engineer design for say tilt panels I'd be up for about $3000-$5000 all depending but that involves engineering fees.

Just wondering what kind of services a draftman usually provide? Do they help me to apply for the application as well except for drawings? for example: what about the services to visit coucil planner, attend meetings with coucil planner, deal with neighbours if any objection raised.

thanks!

Ryan

 

[Muffinman]

Just wondering what kind of services a draftman usually provide? Do they help me to apply for the application as well except for drawings? for example: what about the services to visit coucil planner, attend meetings with coucil planner, deal with neighbours if any objection raised.

thanks!

Ryan

It really depends what you need them to do in the price.
None of it is all that difficult for a simple house/unit, material change notification , respond back to a few complaints if needed, possible ammend plan or mention sound barrier fencing, landscape screening options , privacy area ect.
As for town planner meetings or a few emails I suggest use some one experience in this as they loved to be entertained and have a bad habit of talking alot of BS about nothing to confuse you.
They love to watch you burn your money on BS reports that are not relevant to your project and will happily let you do it in some sick twisted way as they try and justify their jobs...grrrr
Meetings with such people requires a hard core experienced person who talk no BS and straight to the point. Luckily I have one even though he costs me $150 an hr but money well spent in pushing projects through the council.
One quick phone call to my man and he can have a 40 page report down to a few sentences and the rest in the trash in minutes.

If your guy is doing all the running around for $4000 and not having you spend extra congrats.






If your guy is doing

 

[ryan_mel]

It really depends what you need them to do in the price.
None of it is all that difficult for a simple house/unit, material change notification , respond back to a few complaints if needed, possible ammend plan or mention sound barrier fencing, landscape screening options , privacy area ect.
As for town planner meetings or a few emails I suggest use some one experience in this as they loved to be entertained and have a bad habit of talking alot of BS about nothing to confuse you.
They love to watch you burn your money on BS reports that are not relevant to your project and will happily let you do it in some sick twisted way as they try and justify their jobs...grrrr
Meetings with such people requires a hard core experienced person who talk no BS and straight to the point. Luckily I have one even though he costs me $150 an hr but money well spent in pushing projects through the council.
One quick phone call to my man and he can have a 40 page report down to a few sentences and the rest in the trash in minutes.

If your guy is doing all the running around for $4000 and not having you spend extra congrats.






If your guy is doing

Yes, my architecture does all the services for DA until it gets approved. The reason I don't prefer do it myself due to my full time job, which makes me have no time to deal with others in the working hours. And furthermore, I'd like to spend my spare time on picking up a right potential property than doing those details. But I know I do need know those details! Thanks to your replys, I think I've got something from you already!

Have a good evening!

Ryan

 

[ryan_mel]

It really depends what you need them to do in the price.
None of it is all that difficult for a simple house/unit, material change notification , respond back to a few complaints if needed, possible ammend plan or mention sound barrier fencing, landscape screening options , privacy area ect.
As for town planner meetings or a few emails I suggest use some one experience in this as they loved to be entertained and have a bad habit of talking alot of BS about nothing to confuse you.
They love to watch you burn your money on BS reports that are not relevant to your project and will happily let you do it in some sick twisted way as they try and justify their jobs...grrrr
Meetings with such people requires a hard core experienced person who talk no BS and straight to the point. Luckily I have one even though he costs me $150 an hr but money well spent in pushing projects through the council.
One quick phone call to my man and he can have a 40 page report down to a few sentences and the rest in the trash in minutes.

If your guy is doing all the running around for $4000 and not having you spend extra congrats.






If your guy is doing

By the way, how do you pick up a drafter? and how do you know if they are experienced guy in dealing with council planners? Usually, after I open the yellow page, I have no idea which one shall I pick?

 

[Muffinman]

I guess that might be difficult for some , but when your in the building game you talk with developers and other builders.
Some one in the trade for long periods just knows who is good and who's not and it does not take long for word to get around between builders.

My suggestion would be to talk to " well established builders" and ask who they recommend. It might not be wize to ask new builders as many might not have dealt with drafters personally.

I've lost count on how many developers were being screwed by drafters/architects/engineers. You project is virtually engineer free so that is not some thing you need to be concerned about.
TXT book Engineers can send you broke , my best mate is an engineer in Melbourne and I would not have him design my dog kennel..lol

 

[ryan_mel]

My suggestion would be to talk to " well established builders" and ask who they recommend. It might not be wize to ask new builders as many might not have dealt with drafters personally.

En yes! But the same question how to find out " well established builders"? Definitely, not yellow page, right?

Thanks!

Ryan

 

[ryan_mel]

the updated plan

Hi guys,

Today, I received the updated sketch from the architecture, which would be attached below. you can click here to view it more clear.

Compare to the previous design, the following items have been changed:
1. Entry door: to connect the living area and Lounge better
2. Main Bedroom: reduce the size for the width, swap the WIR and Ensuite inside the room.
3. Laundry Room: move to the wall next to get easy access to the backyard.
4. WIR of bedroom 4: this is just for application, in the future, I may design the big WIR as a very small study room (2.2m X 2.0m) with a sliding door next to the Main Bedroom.
5. Attach a new small ensuite bedroom to the existing house (3beds+1bath currently) to 4 bedroom and 2 bath. (Thanks to Tcocaro's suggestion to have more rooms for both units). Not sure how much will it cost to attach this room, is it worthy to do?

However, there are still a few good suggestions my architecture doesn't prefer, they are:
1. Reduce the corner number from the design of main bedroom, and also reduce the cost of roofing: the reason for no change is the main bedroom will be too small if shringe its south wall back to level with the south wall of bedroom 2&3. Only 2.7m width left if the main bedroom shringe the 72cm back to north, which my architecture doesn't prefer.
My question about this is: is the 2 meter's width of the ensuite of the main bedroom is too wide, will 1.6m be enough?

2. Make the distance of the pipe as short as possible, so swap the location of the public bathroom & toilet with bedroom 4: the reasons for no change are A) the architeture thinks it's better to let toilet next to the wall to make it easier for aeration; B)If put the bedroom 4 on the location of the main bathroom, then it means the window of bedroom 4 has to be in the wall opposite to the existing house (unit 1), which means one more meter's distance is required between the existing house & the new unit; C) It's not good from the "Feng Shui"(Asian people treat this as an important aspect) point of view to locate the toilet in the middle of the house.

3. The slide door/windows in Bedroom 1 & 4: the reasons for no change are: A) the architecture thinks the difference of the cost is minor; B) this way looks more modern
I have no idea if the architeture's comments are right or not at this point.

Any further improvements can I do, I welcome and thank your ideas and suggestions. Let's discuss and learn!

Ryan

 

[Muffinman]

Hhhmmm all a little confusing for me at this moment.

Honestly I don't think he has looked to much into it, looking at the WIR in bedroom four instantly does not add up, why would you want so much wasted space . its not a master , it has no attached bathroom.

I have the feeling this is his last change for you , more intent on pushing it out the door and moving onto thenext customer. ( they do this and don't like to be questioned about their own poor designs)

Ryan I feel it pointless giving 2cents worth as your architect is not taking these things into account..but hey that's normal.

Best of luck

 

[pulse]

architect: one who studies architecture.

sorry it was getting to me

cheers
pulse

 

[ryan_mel]

looking at the WIR in bedroom four instantly does not add up, why would you want so much wasted space . its not a master , it has no attached bathroom.

The WIR drawing of Bedroom 4 won't be the design for building coz the architecture told me if he draws a small study room their instead of the current WIR, then the unit will have 5 rooms all together, which makes the application hard to get approved. And because it's internal design, he thought I can modify it a little bit before building.

Is it too risky to do that?

I got a little bit nervous in my development now. Could you give me some of your thought about my architecture's explanation?

Thanks!

Ryan