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Wife and I and my parents are thinking about building a little house (ADU) in our back yard because actual houses are too expensive in Los Angeles. We already bought in when it wasnt too crazy back in 2015 but my parents moved closer to us and are currently renting. They were hoping to buy a small fixer place but that just doesn't seem like its in the cards right now. Anyway a lot people are telling us that the 'architect cost' is going to be close to 10% of total cost and total cost is going to be $300-400k in our area for a 1200sqft free standing little house. This is all new to me so 10% of $400k is $40k for architect seems a bit much. As I understand that includes some revisions and site visits to make sure everything is correct. And some engineering effort to make sure its safe etc. but $40k for all that for 1200sqft seems still excessive soft cost. BTW 1200sqft is the limit we are allowed in my area to build for an ADU. I don't think we can even fit 1200sqft on the buildable part of our lot. Maybe if its 2 story.
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Nov 19, 2023 01:37
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 15:18 |
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Thanks for the info. Why is a fully architected route so much more tho? Aren't modern design software doing all the heavy lifting and architect/designer just telling it where you want a wall, etc? Every stud, joist, joint, etc. can be placed by code right?
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Nov 19, 2023 02:48
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So I work in visual effects and graphic design and also hobbyist DIY so a lot of these concepts are familiar to me. If I did the leg work on a proper survey of the lot(my wife works in commercial real estate so she knows a guy) and got a head start on a design and floor plan my family likes in something like sketchup along with my own renders. Handed that off to an architect to take over. Will they be annoyed that I just handed them plans for a groverhous? I know a lot of professional trades don't really like it when randos hand them plans that may or may not make any sense. Obviously I would be polite about it 'so err, I did some napkin renders of what I think we would like...👉👈'. Obviously this isn't something normal people would do but its something I kinda want to do.
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Nov 19, 2023 04:41
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Arsenic Lupin posted:You're in luck living in LA. LA has a list of pre-approved auxiliary housing structures, and you can find it here. If any of these is close enough, then no architect is needed at all. Thanks. I'll dig through those designs but lol some of them are quite fancy and not as basic as I would have thought for free plans.
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Nov 19, 2023 22:09
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Arsenic Lupin posted:I don't think they're free; I think they're pre-approved, which means you don't have to go through the hassle of negotiating with the city about zoning. I assume you pay a flat fee to the architects. Thanks. We want to (maybe) try to shoot the moon and get something as close as possible to 1200sqft into our lot. I think this is possible but only with 2 story. Totally not possible as 1 story.
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Nov 19, 2023 23:25
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We have a housing crisis! Here take this, it’s on us 
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Nov 20, 2023 04:22
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Roughly speaking if I’m building 600sqft per level 2 story (1200sqft total) how much more can I expect to pay if I add a 600sqft basement? As a percentage of the original without basement.
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Nov 21, 2023 08:56
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 15:18 |
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slidebite posted:As opposed to a slab? Yeah instead of a slab.
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Nov 28, 2023 04:18
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