Architectural Plans

[ccbush]

We thought we could whittle down architectural fees to somewhere around $16K for plans for whole house remodel. But it ended up being closer to $35K once you factor in costs for utility drawings and electrical drawings. The $35K is what other architects quoted us originally and they were basically right

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. I think my sticker shock on this is probably a good barometer if we can afford the project all together. I would hate to spend $20k just for the builder to tell us we can’t do the project with our total budget and then it’s $20k down the drain.

It's important when hiring an architect to understand how to end the contract and what the deliverables are. We had a contract that capped around $22K for an addition and major renovation, but with a soft bid process about $5K in. It was clear at that point that pricing had changed so much that our vision was not aligned with our budget (they were about $400K apart). We could have scaled back plans or tried to come up with more money to go forward but we were so frustrated we exited the relationship.