How can I make the most out of our consultation?

Excellent question! Firstly if you can upload the estate agent plans and information of your house with the booking that would be great (we provide a nice little button for that in the booking form!). Some other tips for making the most of our time together:

• Put any photos of your house / garden / land that you would like to share on the call somewhere easily accessible on your computer and you can share your screen in the discussion

• You also may wish to share images of projects and designs that you like to give an idea of what you want to achieve

• Make note of any key questions or topics that you would like to cover and let us know so we can guide you through them

• Ask us to explain anything you don’t understand. There are no silly questions! Design and construction is full of odd words, acronyms and terminology… and that’s before you get to all the processes, requirements and regulations.

What if I don’t even know which questions I need to ask yet?

No worries, we love to talk and are brimming with ideas and knowledge. We know all the questions we need to ask in order to help you work out what is right for your project. We’re happy to talk you through the whole process.

I’ve already had a consultation, can we continue the conversation?

Yes, absolutely. Feel free to book in another consultation via the main page. If you want to continue the conversation feel free to book the ‘Basic Service’, if you would like another Sketch Plan, please book the ‘Advanced Service’.

Do I need to own the house or land prior to booking a consultation?

No, you can talk to us before you purchase the property or land. We can give you advice on the potential of what you could do and how prior to you making an offer.

Is this a full design service?

No, this is a one hour consultation. For context it may take well over 100 hours to provide a full design service for a house project. But we will give you plenty of design advice in that hour.

Can I use the sketch plan to build my project?

No, the sketch plan provided in the Advanced Service is an outline sketch (or feasibility study) to provide an idea for your project’s potential. It will be based on limited information and there will be many constraints that need to be investigated by professionals prior to committing to building work. For example, existing structure, utilities locations or neighbouring boundaries. But you can use it to get the next phase of your project going.

Are there things you won’t be able to advise on?

There are lots of specialisms in the design and construction process. Architect’s have some knowledge of all of them. For example; we are not Structural Engineers and so cannot provide calculations for beams etc. We can however advise what you’ll need to hire a Structural Engineer for, what their likely scope of service will be and how they fit into the whole process.

When will I receive my Sketch Plan?

We aim to send you your sketch plan within 5 working days of our consultation. We will use the consultation to listen to what you want to achieve, look at the Estate Agent Plans or Site Plan that you’ve uploaded and provide a sketch plan based on this information. We will email the plan to you as a PDF file.

Can I provide feedback?

Sure thing! You can either email info@thehelpfularchitect.com or use our ‘Contact Us’ form to let us know if we can improve on any part of our service.