Wondering if you need an architect, engineer, or draftsperson on your project?

It’s important to have the right team involved in your project so you get the results you want, but who you need on your team members depends on the scale and scope of your project (and the skills of your interior design team). Do you need an architect, engineer, draftsperson for your project? Below we talk about all three professionals and also chat about how an interior designer fits into the equation.

Architects

If you plan to build a home from scratch, add an addition to your house, or dramatically change the location of doors, windows, and stair locations, you might just need an architect.

Architects are experts at creating the envelope of a house. They consider how the structure will sit on the property, think about access to and from the home, and strategize how to place doors and windows to maximize both the best views from the house (avoiding staring right into your neighbor’s bathroom) and the natural light coming into the home. They are also trained to consider (and design for) mechanical systems, acoustics, snow load in winter, passive heat build-up in summer, and more.

Architect fees *tend* to be higher than designer fees, in part because they have much more stringent education and licensing requirements (you can NOT legally call yourself an architect without having passed the licensing exams in your state).

What architects don’t (tend to) do:

Architects are great with the bones of a building, but usually don’t get involved in anything past the structural design. Many will create a lighting plan, and some will layout kitchen cabinets, but after a project will usually be handed off to an interior designer to determine the layouts of kitchen and bath cabinetry, the details of the lighting plan, and (of course) the pretty details from counters and tile to sofas and window treatments. If you have specific hopes and dreams for how many people you can seat for dinner, or how many people you can host for a Super Bowl party, having an interior designer working on your plan in addition to an architect will improve the odds of ending up with what you wanted.

Engineers

Whether you involve an architect or not, there will be a structural engineer working on your project behind the scenes if you are moving or opening up load-bearing walls.

An engineer’s job is to make sure that whatever the architect designs will actually work based on *science.* They crunch the numbers to make sure that (for example) the size of a new beam and the material it’s made of (wood? steel?) are strong enough to hold up the house *and* meet current code requirements.

What if you don’t have an architect, will you still have an engineer?

If you are making changes to your home that involve opening load-bearing walls or adding/moving windows (ie, any changes that impact the structural integrity of a house), the designs should always be handed off to an engineer so they can tell the builder exactly what size and material to use for the new posts and beams that will hold up your house. When you are properly permitting your project the city won’t let you move forward without that engineering work.

If I need an engineer, does that mean I need an architect?

Nope! If you have a layout in mind for your remodel (or if you’ve worked with an interior designer to create a new layout plan) you can hand those plans to a draftsperson. A draftsperson is usually less costly than an architect, and if you just need permit-ready drawings for the city that an engineer can “stamp” with their work, then a draftsperson might be the perfect person to bring onto the team.

Again, if you are building from scratch or significantly changing the envelope of your home I’d recommend hiring an architect from the start. They will likely involve a draftsperson and engineer behind the scenes and you won’t have to worry about it.

But if you are just moving a couple walls then a skilled interior designer can help you create those plans, and if needed you can bring in the talents of a draftsperson and engineer for any extra permitting documents the city or builder might need.

Where does an interior designer fit into all this? 

The first thing to know is that in most states anyone can call themselves an interior designer. There are no license or formal education requirements. That means that you need to evaluate if the experience and skill set of your interior designer is well-suited for your project scope.

Some interior designers focus on paint color consults or window treatments. Others do so much structural designing that they know nearly as much as an Architect. The key is simply to find out where the skills and experience of each of your team members starts at stops.

For example, at Seriously Happy Homes we feel extremely comfortable helping reshape a portion of the interior of a home. In this project we created a layout to turn one bath into two, and in this project we eliminated a wall between the kitchen and the living room, and in this project we reshaped a whole house!

You’ll notice, however, that in none of these were there big changes to the doors and window on the outside of the home, nor did we move any staircases. That’s when we would have suggested that someone bring in an architect to develop the new floor plan, and then hand the project back to us to help with furniture placement and sizing, and all the materials and fixture selections.

It can be a challenge figuring out who should be on your design and remodel team (and we haven’t even talked about the General Contractor who will actually execute your design) but hopefully this helps clear up some of the question you have about whether you need an architect, an engineer, or a draftsperson.

And if you’re looking for additional guidance, we’d love to help out! Schedule a Design Helpline and tell us about your project over Zoom, and we’ll give you our best guidance with the next best steps to take!

May your home always be happy!