I've been required to draw elevations and sections from an existing ground floor plan. I will also draw plans for basements and roofs.
I chose the square foot rate method to quote the project. I already fixed a rate for each sq foot.
Should apply different rates for different spaces such as ground floor, basements or pergolas and yards?
Thank you!
Non Sequitur
Aug 27, 23 12:54 pm
How much are you charging?
JLC-1
Aug 28, 23 11:33 am
what?
reallynotmyname
Aug 28, 23 12:08 pm
You are correct to doubt a square foot rate in this instance. Square foot prices are usually associated with drawing things in plan with few to no elevations and never sections.
You should consider using another pricing method. An alternative would be estimating the number of hours it will take you to do the work multiplied by an hourly rate that covers your desired earnings and necessary expenses.
Chad Miller
Aug 28, 23 3:21 pm
You should provide a price that takes into account the amount of time it will take you to do the work, the complexity of the work, your overhead, and the proffit you want to make on the project.
I would never use just a cost per sq ft method for determining fees.
chris-chitect
Aug 28, 23 3:23 pm
About a decade ago a client approached asking if I would design their home and by paid on the square foot. I never went ahead, but tried my best to educate them and set up a contract on my own terms. Throughout trying to negotiate with them, they told me what other drafters were charging and were hoping I could match, or beat the price.
They didn't really want a design, but wanted to select a house plan and have it redrawn for permits.
Ultimately I thought I had a deal and when I pressed them for a retainer, they suddenly questioned my interest in the project and then said the house construction was on hold.
Unless it's a government project or something institutional where they have industry appropriate terms of payment, don't let a client set these terms.
reallynotmyname
Aug 28, 23 3:55 pm
Any client that comes to a firm wanting to pay by the square foot it should be a red flag. They are either really cheap, or at best, uninformed (as in they have never worked with an architect before). If you explain to them a more reasonable fee methodology and they still want to buy design by the square foot, there's usually a bulletin board at Lowe's where the drafters advertise. Send them there.
betonbrut
Aug 28, 23 3:38 pm
I had a mentor who used to estimate number of hours of work based on square foot and project type/complexity. I can't recall what his metrics were, but he found it to be helpful in putting together initial fee estimates.
But I agree with others, I wouldn't calculate my fee based on SQ alone. I think its better to think about how many hours it will take and what you need to charge per hour for that service.
Chad Miller
Aug 28, 23 3:55 pm
I will use the fee per sq ft as part of the process of determining fees. It uses the actual hours we billed per phase of similar past projects. It's only one of several methods we use to determine fees on a project. We then compare the fees from various metrics and determine our fee.
betonbrut
Aug 28, 23 4:20 pm
Totally. I just thought thinking about number of hours per square foot was an interesting metric. It automatically adjusts to current wage rates as his overall theory was that regardless of new technologies (hand drafting to Revit) didn't actually change the number of hours of work to document the project. The technology simply allowed us to document more in the same amount of time... It sort of tracked... old drawing sets are thin compared to what is produced now.
Wood Guy
Aug 28, 23 6:41 pm
I don't use square foot pricing for estimating, but I know that the new homes or major residential renovations I design will be around $350-500/sf, and that based on experience my fee will likely be about 6-8% of construction costs. That means my fee will be around $20-40/sf. Knowing that is a good way to provide quick fee ranges without investing too much time. To avoid wasting time, I usually throw out a fee range at our first phone call to help weed out tire-kickers. I use plenty of caveats and it hasn't been a problem yet. (Knock on wood.)
I've been required to draw elevations and sections from an existing ground floor plan. I will also draw plans for basements and roofs.
I chose the square foot rate method to quote the project. I already fixed a rate for each sq foot.
Should apply different rates for different spaces such as ground floor, basements or pergolas and yards?
Thank you!
How much are you charging?
what?
You are correct to doubt a square foot rate in this instance. Square foot prices are usually associated with drawing things in plan with few to no elevations and never sections.
You should consider using another pricing method. An alternative would be estimating the number of hours it will take you to do the work multiplied by an hourly rate that covers your desired earnings and necessary expenses.
You should provide a price that takes into account the amount of time it will take you to do the work, the complexity of the work, your overhead, and the proffit you want to make on the project.
I would never use just a cost per sq ft method for determining fees.
About a decade ago a client approached asking if I would design their home and by paid on the square foot. I never went ahead, but tried my best to educate them and set up a contract on my own terms. Throughout trying to negotiate with them, they told me what other drafters were charging and were hoping I could match, or beat the price.
They didn't really want a design, but wanted to select a house plan and have it redrawn for permits.
Ultimately I thought I had a deal and when I pressed them for a retainer, they suddenly questioned my interest in the project and then said the house construction was on hold.
Unless it's a government project or something institutional where they have industry appropriate terms of payment, don't let a client set these terms.
Any client that comes to a firm wanting to pay by the square foot it should be a red flag. They are either really cheap, or at best, uninformed (as in they have never worked with an architect before). If you explain to them a more reasonable fee methodology and they still want to buy design by the square foot, there's usually a bulletin board at Lowe's where the drafters advertise. Send them there.
I had a mentor who used to estimate number of hours of work based on square foot and project type/complexity. I can't recall what his metrics were, but he found it to be helpful in putting together initial fee estimates.
But I agree with others, I wouldn't calculate my fee based on SQ alone. I think its better to think about how many hours it will take and what you need to charge per hour for that service.
I will use the fee per sq ft as part of the process of determining fees. It uses the actual hours we billed per phase of similar past projects. It's only one of several methods we use to determine fees on a project. We then compare the fees from various metrics and determine our fee.
Totally. I just thought thinking about number of hours per square foot was an interesting metric. It automatically adjusts to current wage rates as his overall theory was that regardless of new technologies (hand drafting to Revit) didn't actually change the number of hours of work to document the project. The technology simply allowed us to document more in the same amount of time... It sort of tracked... old drawing sets are thin compared to what is produced now.
I don't use square foot pricing for estimating, but I know that the new homes or major residential renovations I design will be around $350-500/sf, and that based on experience my fee will likely be about 6-8% of construction costs. That means my fee will be around $20-40/sf. Knowing that is a good way to provide quick fee ranges without investing too much time. To avoid wasting time, I usually throw out a fee range at our first phone call to help weed out tire-kickers. I use plenty of caveats and it hasn't been a problem yet. (Knock on wood.)