Deciding to take on a home remodeling project can be very exciting—that is, until you start adding up all of the costs. The cost of materials and labor alone can make you start to question if it is worth it to expand your home and/or make it more functional for you and your family. You might be wondering if you really need the added expense of hiring an architect—especially if you already have a good idea of how you want your remodel to turn out. Can’t you just draw up your own plans and submit them to the city for approval?
Trying to submit your own plans for a residential remodel without the help of an architect in Long Beach, CA is probably not the best option for most people. California has so many regulations that preparing your submission would take days or even weeks of research to figure out where to begin. Then, once your plans are drawn up, the city will likely present you with a long list of changes that need to be made or additional documents that need to be submitted in order to get your plans approved. The process can get very frustrating very quickly!
According to Mark Grisafe, owner and lead architect at Grisafe Architecture in Long Beach, “One of the greatest frustrations for homeowners or business owners when dealing with the people behind the city’s development services counter is that the two parties just don’t speak the same language. The city will ask for things like site plans, Cal Green Notes, Title 24 calculations, a WQMP, or a FEMA valuation. The average person would have no reason to know what any of these things are. Most people realize pretty quickly that they’re in over their heads, but there are others that try for a year or more without success before coming to our Long Beach architecture firm for help.”
Hiring an architect in Long Beach, CA from the beginning can save homeowners a ton of time because an architect can provide drawings in the format in which the city is accustomed to seeing them, accompanied by any additional documents the city will need to approve the design. As a result, plans designed by architects are generally approved much faster and require fewer revisions than those prepared by homeowners or business owners in Long Beach.
If you already have a design in mind, most architects in Long Beach, CA are happy to work with you to draw up what you want. However, it’s important to stay open to your architect’s suggestions. He or she may have some ideas that could actually improve upon your design, or thoughts about why your proposed design might not be approved by the city. In addition, it’s important to keep in mind that not all remodels that seem simple are actually simple! Some seemingly simple designs can require complicated calculations or structural modifications that you never could have anticipated!
When all is said and done, you’ll likely find that working with an architect in Long Beach, CA was money well spent!
