When working with an architect or designer on your building plans, it’s important to concentrate on getting the details right.
Things that are commonly focused on include room sizes, window styles and design flows. But there are also lots of other smaller details that need attention.
Less significant details are often neglected on building plans because they’re assumed to be obvious or unimportant. But both you and your builder need to be sure about what you want. Otherwise, you’re more likely to get inaccurate quotes and blow your budget.
Seeing as these little details often get forgotten, it’s not surprising that it’s hard to work out what parts of your building design they might be. So to help you produce a detailed plan and avoid budgeting disasters, we’ve come up with 6 features to ask your architect to include in your plans.
1. Internal doors
At first, this sounds like a bit of a silly example. Even the most basic floor plans have doors marked on them, so you might think that they’re not things that usually get forgotten.
However, whilst people remember to detail door positions, they often forget to include things like door sizes and materials. How wide and high are the doors going to be? Are they going to be painted or have a wood veneer? And will they be solid-core or hollow-core? Specifying details like these will ensure that your quotes are accurate and that you stay in budget.
2. Flooring
Flooring material is another thing that’s worth specifying. If you’re planning to use carpet it’s not really necessary to go into detail, as you’ll probably source it through a supplier yourself. But if you’re thinking of using materials like wood or tiles you need to make it clear exactly what you want.
Wood flooring, for example, could mean a range of things. It could imply that you’re going to use wood laminate, bamboo or traditional strip flooring. These vary in price, so it’s important to make it obvious in your plans what you’re going to use so your builder understands what you need.
3. Wall tiles
It’s also important to go into detail about wall tiles. You calculate the cost of tiling by square metre, so it’s important that you specify where exactly you want your tiling to be. For example, is your tiling going to cover all the walls in a room or only some of them? And will it be full height, skirting level or somewhere in between?
You should also be clear about what type of tiling you want to use. Different materials cost different amounts. So instead of assuming what you want is obvious, detail exactly which tiles you want and where they’re going to go.
4. Woodwork
Wooden built-in cabinets no longer just appear in the kitchen. It’s now increasingly common to find them in bedrooms, bathrooms and offices.
Wooden cabinets are a great example of a feature that is usually included in building plans, but not in sufficient detail. It’s often fairly obvious where they’re going to be, but people often don’t include information like colour, material and design. These can make a big difference to how much the cabinets will cost.
To make sure you get an accurate quote, ask an interior designer to create some detailed drawings or note how much you want to spend in your plan.
5. Cupboards
Built-in cupboards are also a common feature in modern homes. It’s a popular move to create custom-made cupboards to suit your possessions and lifestyle. But cupboard styles can vary hugely, so it’s dangerous for your builder to assume what you want. Rather than leaving it up to chance, be clear about what parts of the cupboard you want building and what you’re planning on doing yourself.
6. Lighting
You should also go into detail about lighting. Light fittings vary hugely in price and electric plans are rarely completed by the time you get an overall building quote. The result of this is that your quote will probably be inaccurate.
To make sure you know exactly what you’re going to be paying, do your research early on. If you know exactly what lighting you want you can include it in your building plans and get an accurate quote.
Including these 6 small but significant details in your plans should make your building work considerably less stressful. Think carefully about what you want and ask your architect or designer to include it in your plans. This way you’ll get accurate quotes and be less likely to exceed your budget.