Should planning be approved before I ask for prices?

I think when you’re looking to do a build, part of the process of getting a builder in, awarded and contracted into your project, you need to make sure your planning is done and awarded. Because if it’s not awarded, you’re going to be going out trying to get prices on a build from builders without an engineering pack.

An engineering pack you don’t really want to pay for until the build has been approved, because if you’re paying for an engineer before the build’s been approved, they might come back and go, oh no, we don’t want to do that, we need to do this, and then there’s a change, which then costs you on the engineering again.

So just keep it as a clean process: architect, planning submission, approval, engineer, take the whole pack, hand that out, tender to the builders, and then get yourself into a situation where you can start getting some tenders back.

Or give us a shout before you start. Let’s start a design and build process where we can look after you from the start. We can look at budgets, where we are, build a project and planning award around what fits your budget, rather than the whole rollercoaster of emotions where you design something you just can’t afford.