Initial meeting and brief:

At Cactus Designs we meet with you to introduce ourselves and to gain an understanding of your needs and your expectation from the Building Design Process.

We also gain an understanding of your site and take in into account your design ideas.

We are able to research any planning requirements or restrictions that may apply to your property if we know the site location prior to our meeting.

We share examples of projects that maybe similar to yours or any other project that may inspire you. We discuss your budget and then provide a fee proposal. If accepted we both sign a Building Designer Engagement Agreement which details the project, a fee schedule, our design services to you and a list any external consultants required.

Preliminary Design:

We complete concept plans or a sketch design to show our understanding of the client brief. We address all of your initial needs and take into account the restrictions or other options that the site has to offer. We meet again to discuss and refine the sketch designs and to develop these ideas further.

It may take 2 or 3 meetings to settle on a design that meets your expectation and takes into account all of the project options and restrictions.

Once we have a design that you are happy with we guide you through the town planning process if required. We also review any local statutory requirements and Building regulation and make applications on your behalf

Detailed design/Documentation:

Once we agree on the plans and have refined the details of the building materials we can then engage the relevant consultants for their services such as a structural engineer or an energy rater.

We produce a series of images, schedules and drawings for your final review. This details the project to assist with the building process allow the builders to provide quotations on the project.

Builder Selection and Pricing:

We provide you with your full set of detailed plans which you may use to gain quotations. We can recommend builders that we have worked with or you may use or your own connections.

We can also offer a tendering or quotation process which could also include a selection process and specification writing.