To borrow a line from Passive House Consultant Adam Cohen via Hammer and Hand, one of my favorite building-science influencers (yes, that’s a thing), “I don’t know, how much does a bag of groceries cost?”

Are you shopping at Aldi or Whole Foods? Did you buy chuck roast or chateaubriand? Were Utz buy two get one free or not?

As a homeowner searching for “good architect near me” for your first home addition project, you probably do not even know which store you’re shopping at (sorry mom). I mean you probably don’t even know at which store you are shopping.

I’ll try to cover some actual numbers here, but what I’m really going to do is help you compare apples to apple pie when it comes to selecting how you go about getting your house designed.

 

How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Architect?
(the answer you think you want, but might not be reliable)

The unofficial answer is that design fees are going to range from 3% to 15% of the expected cost of construction. A 3% fee is probably an engineer or draftsperson providing bare bones permit sets. The 15% range is more likely a multi-person firm providing complete architectural detailing of your kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities and specifications for your toilet paper holder. My fees, over the last 12 months, have been between $12,000 and $28,000 or in the 5% – 9% range.

 

How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Architect?

(still ambiguous, but real knowledge, aka the answer you need)

The real answer is more of a question. How much work do you want the architect to do? And more specifically, how much are YOU prepared to do?

Architecture fees will increase with the completeness of the drawings and specifications. Note that “completeness” in this context does not have a positive or negative connotation. Even the most perfect set of architectural drawings (like the ones I did for my own house) are incomplete. The best we can ever do is provide a more clear picture of the design intent. Perhaps it would be best to say that the higher the design fee, the more comprehensive the communication of the design intent should be.

 

 

How Much Should Be Shown In My Floor Plans?

I always tell new clients that they are on the precipice of 10,000 decisions. Some of them they will make together with the architect. (Some the architect will make on their behalf without their knowledge.) Some they will make with the builder. (Some the builder will make on their behalf without their knowledge.) And some they have to make on their own. All in all, thousands.

Consider a bathroom design. A bare minimum set of permit plans should show that the bathroom meets current code for head height and clearance around the fixtures. Beyond that, here are a few of the decisions that need to be made to finish a bathroom:

• Floor tile selection
• How does the floor tile transition from adjacent wood flooring?
• Wall tile selection
• Is the wall tile just a surround at the shower or tub, or does it go all the way around the bathroom?
• If it does go all the way around, does the wall tile go all the way up to the ceiling or stop mid wall?
• Does the shower have a door or just a shower curtain?
• What shower head/faucet will you use?
• For a custom shower, what drain will you select?
• Do you want a curbless shower? (This needs to be coordinated with framing)
• What mirror do you use at the vanity? Is it a mirror or a mirror/medicine cabinet combo? At what height is that mirror mounted?
• What is the vanity light and at what height is it mounted
• Do you want a vanity light and a ceiling light?
• What actual vanity furniture do you want to use?
• What towel racks do you want to use and where will they be installed
• What toilet paper holder do you want and where will it be installed

15 seemed like a reasonable place to stop, but you get the point. And you may not care about 75% of this list or may not want to hire an architect to help you locate your toilet paper, but this stuff has to be built, which means someone has to make a decision. Any architect should, at a minimum, work with you to create the general layout of any space, even if they are not going to be involved in picking all the final selections.

Anyway, if you are not explicitly dictating this stuff in your drawings (making the decision with the architect) then it’s up to the builder to ask you, make the decision on their own or to delegate to the subcontractors, in which case the junior electrician apprentice may be the one deciding the vanity light mounting height and switch location.

The more of these decisions that are done with the architect’s input the higher the architecture fee will be. What you gain from that extra spend is 1) the finished space will more accurately reflect your vision and 2) you should have a more accurate idea of the construction costs before you start, and wind up with fewer change orders.

If the architect is NOT involved in these decisions, the architecture fee should be lower, at the risk of more uncertainty in project costs, less agreement on the project requirements and possibly less than ideal design decisions being made.

Take the tile for example…if your vision is a tiled shower, with the tile extending along the adjacent walls to create a tile wainscot and this is NOT shown in the plans, and no interior elevations are provided, then the builder may not know that, and in the absence of direction almost certainly won't include the wainscot area in their pricing (though to be fair, that is also highly dependent on the builder and their own minimum standards). When it comes time to build you either get the price you were quoted or the get the tile wainscot and a change order.

 

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN FEEs EXPLAINED with drawings

Here's a better example with some bathroom drawings. There is no right or wrong answer here, it's just an illustration to help you decide what you need for your own renovation or new construction project. By the way, this is the owner suite bathroom in my own new construction home in Takoma Park. Check out that link or download the project book to see all our finish selections.

Bathroom Plan #1

Homeowner: “This is great! We have a huge shower, two vanities and a water closet. This is all we need.” This is a pretty clear plan of a very nice bathroom. BUT…in this example, nearly all of the decisions we listed above need to be made in the field by the builder, hopefully with your input. This is below the level of detail I am comfortable providing, so I can't propose a fee that would result in this drawing. If this is all you need I am not a good fit for your project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bathroom Plan #2

This is getting better! Same great design, but now we have some actual dimensions, vanity and door sizes, an indication of the floor finishes and more. Not shown is a set of accompanying construction allowances I provide with my drawings to further specify the requirements of this space. I always provide three possible design fees for my projects, depending on how detailed owners need me to be. This drawing approximately represents the minimum level of detail I will provide, for my minimum fee.

 

 

 

 

 

Bathroom Plan #3

If you want even more detail, you need to start showing interior elevations, which are drawings of the walls of a space. These can show things like wall finishes and wainscotting, fixtures with mounting heights, interior trim and more. My middle level and top level fees include drawings at this approximate level of detail, with the higher fee also including more site visits and general oversight during construction to make sure this actually gets built the way we designed it.

 

 

MORE ABOUT ARCHITECTURE SERVICES

You can download this excerpt from my architecture services proposal. It lists the various services I provide at the three different tiers I usually propose for a project. You can also visit my design process page to learn more about the architectural design process in general.

Even better, get in touch with me today to discuss your project! To get the conversation started you can send me an email or book a free project consult.