Quote Instant estimate
Quote Calculator
Tell me about the work, tick what you need, and press Calculate. The estimate appears on this page straight away, nothing is paid, and nothing is sent until you press Send. These are the same rates I quote by hand, and every one of them is explained underneath the calculator. For a more complicated building, full BCMS documentation, or anything that will not fit this form, contact me directly and we will put a proper quote together.
How the price is worked out
No black box and no sales call. Every figure the calculator uses is set out below, so you can work the same total out on paper before you ever contact me.
1. Floor area pays for the drawing work
Drawings take time in proportion to how much building has to be drawn, so area is the base of every quote. You enter up to three areas and each is charged at its own rate per square metre. The rates below are residential; commercial has its own table, set out in section 6:
- Existing area: €10 per m². The property as it stands today, drawn for context only. No design, no changes, it is the record of what is already there that every other drawing is built on.
- Area of renovation works: €20 per m². Parts of the existing building that are actually being altered. This does not stack with the existing area, so no square metre is ever charged twice.
- New build: €30 per m². Anything built from nothing: an extension, a new room, a new house.
If only part of the house is changing and you do not need the rest drawn, tick Focused design and only the part being worked on is measured and charged for.
2. Big projects cost less per square metre
A large floor plate repeats itself, so the rate tapers. The first 200 m² is charged in full; everything beyond it is charged at 60% of the rate. Renovation and new build share a single 200 m² allowance between them rather than getting one each, and the calculator shows the taper on the quote line whenever it applies.
3. Documentation packages are flat fees
The area covers drawing the building. The packages cover what the drawings are produced for, the council, the builders pricing the job, or the site. Each is a fixed price, whatever the size of the project. Residential prices are shown here; commercial prices are in section 6:
- Planning Package: €1,000. The drawings and documents a planning application needs.
- Tender Package: €1,500 basic, €2,500 complete. The set builders price from. The complete level carries the detail that stops a builder pricing in guesswork.
- Construction Drawings: €2,000 basic, €3,000 complete. The set the job is actually built from, prepared to the Building Regulations.
One surcharge exists: a house built from scratch on a bare site, with no existing or renovation area at all, adds €1,000 to the Planning Package, residential or commercial. A new house carries far more planning work than an extension to a building that is already standing.
4. Taking more than one package saves you money
Work done once should not be billed twice. A tender set built on planning drawings I have already produced takes less time than one started cold, and the saving goes to you:
- Planning + Tender, 20% off the Tender Package.
- Planning + Tender + Construction, 20% off the Tender Package, plus a further 30% off the most expensive package in the set.
The savings appear as their own lines in the quote, so you can see exactly what came off and where.
5. The two flat items that sit outside the discount
- Measured Survey: €500 flat, up to 200 m². On site measuring of the existing building. Only available alongside an existing area, since that is the drawing the survey feeds.
- Commencement Notice with opt out declaration: €600 flat (residential). The notice lodged with the council before work starts. Separate from the drawings, and handled after yours are finished. Commercial work cannot opt out, so its commencement is priced differently, see section 6.
Both are fixed cost work rather than drawing time, so neither is discounted and neither discounts anything else.
6. Commercial, and the minimum fee
Commercial projects carry heavier regulation, more consultants and more coordination, so they are priced from their own separate table rather than the residential one:
- Areas: existing €15 per m², renovation €35 per m², new build €40 per m². The 200 m² taper in section 2 applies the same way.
- Planning Package: €2,000.
- Tender Package: €2,000 basic, €3,000 complete.
- Construction Drawings: €2,500 basic, €3,500 complete.
- Measured Survey: €500 flat, the same as residential.
- Commencement Notice: full BCAR assigned certifier, €3,000 flat up to 200 m² of renovation and new build combined, then €15 per m² over that.
- FSC (Fire Safety Certificate): €1,500 flat. Fixed-fee certification prepared for the project, commercial only.
- DAC (Design and Construction Certificate): €1,500 flat. Fixed-fee certification prepared for the project, commercial only.
Every job also has a minimum fee: €250 residential, €500 commercial. Below that, the time spent opening a project, setting up a model and talking to you costs more than the fee does. If your total comes in under it, the calculator adds the difference as its own visible line.
7. What the number actually is
An honest estimate, not a bill and not a contract. It is built from what you typed, so it is only as right as the areas you gave me, and some things genuinely cannot be priced from a form: an unusual site, a protected structure, a party wall, a building nobody has measured in forty years.
When you send the request I read it properly, come back to you with any questions, and confirm the final fee in writing before a single drawing starts. If the estimate was wrong I will tell you so and tell you why. Nothing is owed until you agree to it.