Good design really can save you money

We have heard it said that good design cannot be seen and bad design can be felt. This comment was made after we looked at a range of different pub designs and interiors, some of which have been carried out to a professional standard, others of which were nothing more than the location of where the landlord had been on holiday last year! We would also add that good design can make you money and save you money, be it for a commercial venture or an extension on your house.

If you would like us to consider an alteration or extension that you are proposing on a house or property you are buying, we are happy to do this when we carry out the structural survey. Equally, the existing owners have some plans that are either out of date or have been prepared for something that they wished to do but never got round to, we are happy to comment on these. We can advise you whether planning permission will need to be re-applied for, or building regulations, or party wall awards.

For a friendly chat phone 0800 298 5424.

Commercial properties

We can give you some brief examples of problems that we have come across in commercial properties; everything from the small and irritating, but costly to replace, such as the inset floor power points, often used in offices that are set in the floor (a raised floor). These seem to jam very quickly and end up either getting stuck or left open. Interestingly enough, we recently came across some that had put into a brand new university building, exactly like the ones we took out of a property more than ten years before. The owners, a corporate banking company, had put up with them for about a month and asked for them to be taken out over the Christmas period. This resulted in us putting cabling and trunking around the perimeter of the roof and across the ceilings, which wasn't pleasant to look at but at least it worked.

A recent example we came across of designers designing without thought for any future maintenance was in a new shopping centre that had large glass panel shop fronts and was not of a standard size. Unfortunately, the only way to get them into the property was literally to take the end of the building off, which was no problem whilst it was being built, but a bit more difficult once it had been finished. We are talking about a problem that only took a few months to raise its head before the first shop front had to be replaced.

Here is an example of how good design can save money

We were recently talking to an architect who had been brought in to look at the re-designing of store and his brief was not to cost them any money but to make them money. This is an interesting and hard brief for most architects, as, in our experience, they do like to stamp their mark, which will normally be costly as they don't have a good perception of the costs of what they are specifying or indeed the difficulty of carrying out some of the work.

We were brought in to help and add a more practical angle to it as surveyors. The company in question, in theory, sold sports equipment, although in practice profits were generated on the attire that goes with the sports equipment, i.e. the clothing.

Therefore, the building surveyor identified:-

•  that they needed to increase the display area of the sports equipment, and this is where the profit came from; and

•  they needed to help the customer to buy the product by putting mirrors up, as most customers wanted to see how they looked in whatever they were buying.

 

Whilst you can't try everything on sports equipment wise you can try on, or even hold up against you, some of the items. Training shoes issues in particular were identified as likely to be bought as a fashion accessory and therefore it was very important to see what they looked like. Therefore, mirrors were added to the end of aisles, the sides and backs of which were used to display further merchandise and also benches were added to incorporate merchandising shelves so that customers could self-select from plus increase the accessory sales. Interestingly enough, we have heard it argued that mirrors should be included in a shop so that people can see what they are wearing to compare within their mind that against the products available in the shop and decide that perhaps they would look smarter, neater, more stylish, etc, with the clothes from the shop.

Also, we looked at where the lighting was positioned to ensure it showed the goods off in the best light, which it didn't. If you are going to have lights (and pay the bills for them) they may as well be in the right place, as they are going to cost the same whether they are in the right place or not.

Your new home

We have been involved in many properties where extensions or alterations have been proposed on the property and, indeed, it is one of the reasons why they are being purchased, as the new purchaser has seen the potential to extend, alter, or, in one case, demolish completely (it was a bungalow and they were going to build a house instead). We are more than happy to talk through your ideas by meeting you at the property and looking at any plans or sketches that you have and indeed we, will of course, comment as to what alterations and improvement we have seen in the past that have worked well. We have found it is always worth asking the planning officer what they can and can't do.

A good example we had quite recently was a client who really liked balconies and the architect employed didn't and simply would not add a balcony to the design, which we were more than happy to do, once we had had discussions with the planners and, although they weren't keen on it, they weren't utterly against it and the client got their balcony and when it goes up we think it will look quite spectacular.

Economical design

We often find that architects and designers design without thinking very much about cost. We are more than happy to advise you on the sort of cost the design that you have already had will be and look at ways of saving you money, both initially and in the long term. For example, are flat roofs a good saving in money over a pitched roof, both in the short and the long term? The answer is, it depends on the quality of flat roof that you are using, as a good quality inverted roof incorporates insulation, which can last for a very long time, as long as the workmanship is of a good standard. We are happy to give you advice on different costs and future maintenance liabilities.

These are just some of the ways in which we can help you. Good design is rarely seen, however bad design is felt and ultimately affects the sales figures.

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If you truly do want an independent expert opinion from a chartered surveyor, and many of us are also chartered builders, with regard to leases, licences, landlord matters, rental issues, agreements , commercial surveys, building surveys, structural reports/engineers reports/specific defects report, structural surveys, home buyers reports or any other property matters please contact 0800 298 5424 for a chartered surveyor to give you a call back.

If you have a commercial property, be it leasehold or freehold, then you may wish to look at our Dilapidations Website at www.DilapsHelp.com and for Disputes go to our Disputes Help site www.DisputesHelp.com .

We hope you found the article of use and if you have any experiences that you feel should be added to this article that would benefit others, or you feel that some of the information that we have put is wrong then please do not hesitate to contact us (we are only human).

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