All You Need To Know About Getting a Draughtsman for your Extension…

Getting Drawings Done For Your Extension by a Draughtsman

If you are considering an extension to your property, which presumably you are, then you are going to need some drawings.

These will be to submit to the council for their approval. They will also be handed to the builders who will be tendering for the job, and they will also be for you, so that you can visualise how your newly-converted property will look.

So, you get the Yellow Pages out, open it on “A” and check out the local architects.

DIY Drawings?

Fair enough - nowt wrong with that, but you do not have to follow this well-worn path. Indeed, if you are handy with a pencil and a ruler, there is nothing to stop you from doing the drawings yourself.

The council will accept drawings from anyone as long as they are done in the correct manner and provide them with all the information that they require. Don’t do them on the back of a fag packet with a purple felt tip pen. Do them with a green felt tip pen instead.

A Different Path

But it doesn’t have to be this way you know. There is another way. The draughtsman. An architect is a professional who designs and plans structures. He may even want to stay on and supervise the whole process and charge you accordingly.

The draughtsman on the other hand, is a skilled technical artist who can turn rough sketches into precise plans.

In the construction fraternity, there is none more deadly with a pencil. His is a profession that requires acute attention to detail.

For many years his work was done with compasses, protractors and drawing boards, but these days his work will most likely be done on a computer using a C.A.D. system. C.A.D stands for computer aided design. So why employ him and not and Architect?

As Barry Norman used to say, “You pays your money, you take your choice”

Well, there are arguments for both. Indeed this decision can often come down to expense and it is undoubtedly true that the fees of an architect will, on most occasions, be higher than those of a draughtsman.

Qualified architects will have had many years of extensive training and quite rightly can charge to reflect that.

On many projects such as conversions or tricky alterations or when dealing with older and listed properties, his skills will come to the fore.

But if yours is a simpler and relatively straightforward project, as many extensions tend to be, then the draughtsman could be the very fellow for you.

Having a RIBA professional design a box on the back of your house would be considered a bit over the top and it is a job that could easily be done by the draughtsman.

It may be that this is the cost-effective solution for you and the money you save can be ploughed back into the construction process.