Whether you’re extending, converting, or renovating your home, an architect is one of the best assets you can have. Their expertise on design and planning means your project runs smoother, looks better, and gets the most out of your space. Yet when it comes to finding an architect, many homeowners are confronted with an industry of fluctuating price tags.
Why are some architects so expensive, while others seem cheap as chips?
Here’s what’s really going on behind those numbers…
Team size
One of the first things that affects an architect's rates are the number of people they have in their team. Big teams tend to cost more than one man bands.
It can be tempting, when looking for a good deal, to focus more on the lone local architect who’s willing to give a good price, and seems to offer a more personal service. It could be that you do get what’s on the tin. However, there is a downside to having a smaller team working on your project. If you’re not their only client, and their other customer’s work becomes more time intensive, you could be looking at delays in your own project. There’s only so many hours in the day, and in order to compensate for cheap prices, a small team might take on more work than they can handle.
Likewise, if you go for a larger team, make sure you know who’s doing the work at any given time. You don’t want to see quality suffer from too many cooks in the kitchen.
