I’d be curious to see what he produced in basically almost two days.
Dont mix friends and business
I think it’s ok as long as you hash out pricing and stuff before works starts. It’s perfectly ok to help friends out. There is a fine line between friends and acquaintances though.
Friends do work as more as a favor. Acquaintances should always have money set before work starts.
as an architect i would say i probably would not go the same route working with a friend…probably do it as a favor…but i might not even go ahead and do the work for them either depending on the complexity of the project and my gut feeling of how likely something could go wrong with it all. at the end of the day your buddy should have insurance premiums that he is worried about and those aren’t always so cheap when you start slapping your stamp on things…particularly little renovations here and there when your day job is at an office. if he’s doing this stuff and doesn’t have any insurance he’s asking for trouble depending on if he makes a habit of moonlighting.
i’d have to double check but i do think my billable rate is typically around $100/hr when doing projects in the office…i don’t see anything close to that in my paycheck, but that is what clients pay…
Does he even have his license/stamp? If you pull a permit the town may require it to be stamped then you will be starting over and wasted $500. A licensed architect wont just stamp someone else’s plans. You will have to pay to have it done again.
Correct. Most towns (very few are the exception) will require a completely spec.d drawing detailing all connections and members, especially if it is a load bearing wall. The architect / engineers stamp is the towns release of liability if something is incorrect. Again, I don’t know the extent of your renovations but your initial post leads me to believe you are increasing a room size, perhaps a kitchen. Building department will / should tell you all you’ll need if you are planning on doing it yourself.
Yep.
If I worked on this system I’d be able to fill a swimming pool.
Yes he has his stamp. That would be a real dick move if he did all the work and didn’t have the ability to stamp it and charged me anyhow.
Yes it is a copletely spec’d drawing showing everything needed including the two load bearing walls that are going to be removed. I walked into the building department and walked out with the permit in 5 minutes this morning.
And you’re right, it is a kitchen. I am removing two walls that enclose the staircase leading to the finished basement, with a new set of stairs, and a post to support the main beam in the basement since it has to be cut to install the new stairs. It’s definitely not something I am willing to do myself, I have a contractor for all of this.
That’s good, as much as it sucks I would just pay him walk away.