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We own a 1940’s era house in Northern
California. Our front porch is about
8’X 4′ brick with wrought iron fence and
roof support/ surround. We’d like to
enclose the porch to create a new entry
and vestibule for coats etc… Should we
hire a designer or architect to figure
out the project or can we trust a good
contractor. We have to marry the old to
some dated metal siding & brick work. Suggestions??
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Mike,
Should we hire a designer or architect to figure out the project or can we trust a good contractor?
Ummm, I'm not so sure that architects are any more trustworthy than builders...
For such a small project it seems questionable as to whether you'd need an architect, but it might be useful. Might. I assume you need to submit plans to the city building inspector, so either you or your contractor would need to draw them up. It's not that hard, but the technical specs may be beyond your level of expertise, so you'll probably need help. Even if you have some CAD wizzard software, the details will likely be non-existant at best (I've had more than one client approach me with drawings done in their spare time on a pc that, although they were as proud as new parents of, weren't use-able -- but they were a good starting point).
When you choose a contractor, choose one on the basis of References, Resume and Reputation. Don't hire the low bid because you'll get an ugly finished product. Or worse. Ask your friends if they know of a reliable (another "R" word) contractor. Ask potential contractors for references and call them. Ask also for previous projects they've completed that you can have a look at.
Ask the references about final price vs estimated price, ask about scheduleing -- was it accomplished in a reasonable amount of time? Were there changes that affected the outcome of the time/price schedule? Was the contractor easy to work with? Ask the contractor for references who are builders. Call the BBB...
Make sure that when you interview contractors you give them all the exact same information:
Who draws the plans?
What materials are to be used?
Don't be afraid to tell them what your budget is.
If the contractor is to draw up the plans, make sure to state that you want the addition to blend with the existing house. In this sense it might be worth having a set of plans that all the contractors can look at to make sure their bids are based on exactly the same thing. But then again, it's only three walls around a 4x8 porch... I would think it'd be hard to screw that one up, but "you learn something new every day"...
Good luck,
Dan Morrison
Little Guy Builders