10 Things Your Architect Won't Tell You

While Americans may not be buying and remodeling homes as quickly as they were during the recent housing boom, we are still a nation obsessed with home improvement: Consumers are expected to spend $224 billion this year on housing facelifts, according to the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, up from $164 billion in 2002.

And bringing in the right architect can mean the difference between dream home and disaster area. To ensure the former, first make sure your architect is licensed-and not just someone with an education or background in architecture.

To locate licensed architects, start with the National Council of Architecture Registration Boards (www.ncarb.org). Also look for membership in the American Institute of Architects (AIA), which has its own code of ethics (www.aia.org). Finally, ask for referrals to get a sense of how well an architect works with clients.

2. "You may not need me at all."
Hiring an architect can add thousands to the cost of a home improvement project, which is a lot of money when your project is relatively small — converting a garage to a game room, say, or expanding your kitchen.

Architects will argue that they offer expertise that will make any addition, however small, flow better with your house, but experts say hiring one can sometimes be overkill. "If the project is entirely interior to the house," says C.C. Sullivan, editor in chief of Architecture magazine, and "as long as you're not moving windows or adding to the footprint [basic outline] of the house, you may not need an architect at all."

The ultimate authority, however, is your local municipality's housing department; some may require architect-stamped drawings in order to get a building permit, while others might allow you to give your drawings directly to a contractor. For small projects, you may be able to use an interior designer or, if you're doing just one specific room, a kitchen, bath or even basement design specialist. For a qualified designer near you, check out the Web sites of the International Interior Design Association, at www.iida.org; the American Society of Interior Designers, at www.asid.org; or NARI, at www.remodeltoday.com.

3. "If I can't read your mind, I'll just design things my way."
While you can get a good sense of an architect's sensibilities looking at his past projects, it's up to you to make sure which parts of his style do and don't surface in your home. When Janet Kennedy, a health care professional in Brooklyn, N.Y., was having her brownstone remodeled in 2001, she was surprised to see that a prominent set of new windows had a sleek, modern look, while she had assumed they would appear more traditional for her century-old home. The architect "never went through with us what the woodwork would be like. It was shocking."

To help avoid surprises, talk in as much detail as you can, early on, about what you envision. David Ashen, an architect based in Long Island City, N.Y., says he encourages prospective clients to "pull a library together of things that inspire them," such as clippings from newspapers and magazines. That "gives me a little bit of a DNA of what the client responds to." He also asks new clients to think hard about how they live in their home, from where they like to have morning coffee to how they entertain. If you are part of a couple, finally, make sure that you and your spouse or partner agree on aesthetics beforehand so you can present a united front.

4. "I see your budget as an opening bid."
When landscape artist Tom Zavitz bought some property in Montana in 1999, he and his wife decided to build a modest, Arts and Crafts-style, three-bedroom home with a view of the mountains. They signed up an architect they found through a referral from an acquaintance and told him their budget was $200,000. But during weekly meetings over the next six weeks, they became increasingly frustrated to see a consistently bigger scale and elaborate details in the architect's proposed design. "We kept saying, 'This is too much.' But every time he came back [with revisions], his projected budget kept going over, by as much as 50%," Zavitz says. "I think he just had it in his head that we had more money." The Zavitzes ultimately paid him $5,000 to end the relationship and found another architect, who helped them stay within their budget.

Zavitz says he was much firmer with the second architect about his unwillingness to go over budget. To play it safe, Ashen advises, "whatever you think your budget is, say it's 10 to 20% lower. Things happen," such as small building glitches, "or you may change your mind" about details or finishes along the way.

5. "My payment plan may take advantage of you."
Once you decide that you like an architect's basic ideas, you should sign a contract to get the terms in writing. The AIA has a template contract that many architects use, and it covers the size, or "scope," of the project; the homeowner's budget; a time frame for the project; and a payment schedule.

Setting the fee structure, however, is completely up to the architect. The traditional fee is based on a percentage of the cost of the job — typically between 10 and 25% — based on estimated total construction costs, including design and consultation through the construction process.

Some architects, though, may insist on an hourly fee, which can run anywhere from $50 to upwards of $200. Many architects do this, understandably, to protect themselves from impulsive clients who ask for endless revisions throughout a project. But even if you don't plan to be wishy-washy, an hourly rate will almost always cost you more. "I strongly advise people not to go hourly," Sullivan says. "Interview another architect." You can negotiate some specific wiggle room, too. Ashen says his contract with clients usually caps the number of revisions, and anything above that will incur new fees.