Dyer Grimes Architecture

"Very happy how professional they are!"

"They did the plans for a house build for me a few years ago. Overall, while the design was very nice I would not recommend them. Firstly their initial cost estimate was too low and had to be increased by 80 percent. This was because they made no allowance for key things like finishes, the garden being redone and inadequate allowances for utilities. The whole estimate was totally wrong. Then they got the chances of avoiding a basement build wrong. Originally promising it was unlikely to be classified as such. I then saw a communication from one of their junior staff who said "we really should assume a basement classification for the side structure", which was shut down by the senior person. Planners then came out and classified it as a basement build. This added substantial cost. The rest of their time working with us was fraught with them constantly coming back with new, higher prices for things we had provisioned for. Separately their fee is linked to the final build value, so there's a moral hazard there. Then when we used their plans in the build, we found numerous errors. Based on my experience during the design phase, if they had still been on board during build (thankfully they weren't) I think I would have found them trying to explain how the planning errors were my fault. There are cheaper architects who will build the same quality house for you and who will not keep pumping up the price but actually help you manage costs sensibly. Look elsewhere or enter cautiously... They will pump up the price. When they start telling you doors should be 1.5k and other crazy numbers, don't be surprised and consider a new architect. They will tell you they can "value engineer it", but their revised costs will still be very high."