Having just
inherited planning drawings prepared by others to work up for BuildingRegulations approval and construction drawings, I am reminded how other
companies work, especially larger practices that need a good turnover of work
to keep themselves afloat.
Pressure to maintain profitability is always high
and one is never allowed much time to spend on drawings to sort details at an
early stage, rather these are left to try and sort out later, when it
might be too late to get a good solution.
As a small practice we always make
sure we are forward-thinking, resolving problems at an early stage so that we
are confident what we design and is approved at Planning stage can be built.
The design we have just inherited is obviously based on house types for another
site that don’t properly fit on this site. Furthermore the car parking spaces
are drawn slightly too small to fit the site. A small problem at Planning stage
when scaling from a 1:200 plan but a big problem for the client and builder
when construction starts. It is very easy to blur the lines and fiddle with the
edges to make it look good, but these types of problems only go away if the
project doesn’t get built. It has become a problem for this latest project to
such an extent that we have had to resubmit for Planning as the inherited
design just didn’t work.
Hire a small practice with lower overheads and for a
reasonable fee and you should be more confident that you get the service you
deserve and need.
