In article ,
BigWallop wrote:
In my experience, it is worth having an architect involved, for
many reasons. You can have your own plans drawn-up by any
technical drawing company, of which there are many, but your
architect can have all the proper information detailed on them,
which most of us amateurs can't.

This is a good argument for using someone with professional
knowledge but an architect may not be the most appropriate person
- especially if there's no real architectural input required,
just setting out on paper the work to be done in a manner that
will satisfy building control.

When I was a BCO some of the best people at doing this sort of
work were not qualified to call themselves architects and so
traded as Architectural Consultants or Architectural Technicians
(it is a criminal offence to style yourself as an Architect if
you are not registered as such) and many Building Surveyors would
do this sort of work too - what you need is a sound knowledge of
building, regs requirements and an ability to draw comprehensible
plans. If you are churning out several sets of plans a week for
(typically) 4% of the cost of the works you probably get to have
a better understanding of the regs than the person working on
many fewer jobs for higher fees.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk
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