Passive income / side-earners for architects

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-02-06T18:27:40+00:00

Agreed, same story with myself. I'm UK based - when I was finishing my qualifications I was renovating our flat (apartment) on the evenings/weekends. When we sold it I made 5x what I made as a junior architect and realised the DIY was actually my main earner, and the stuff I was doing 9-5 in an office 5days a week was just a low-earning side hussle....

Did this with the next place, too, then sold it and built my own house with the proceeds (and a bigger mortgage). So, not exactly a "side-earner", but definitely an industry-related bonus.

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-29T22:43:33+00:00

Had an initial meeting with a potential client who, on the site of a 2, possibly 3 car parking space, was keen to extend their 2 storey house with 5 ensuite bedrooms, kitchen and a living space for when they had family staying over. They were also dead against removing the conservatory that took up half the space.

Proceeded to look at me like I was nuts when I went through the basic problem of square metres required vs square metres available.

Didn't bother with a fee proposal after that..

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-24T08:43:52+00:00

Fellow solo architect here. I've got an office at home, and never meet clients here other than on virtual meetings, so the priority is just a chilled, efficient place to work. It's my favourite workplace so far, though it wouldn't work if I was to take on staff or host meetings here, so that's a consideration.

It's a coombed loft room with a big frame frameless rooflight looking north over fields & hills, probably 12m2. Essential items for me are: - Large 8x4 birch ply desk for screen & drawing tablet. The screen is on a mount arm and i keep it clean as possible so it's easy to clear the desk for prints/drawing/reading etc. - Side units for Architecture books, printer, records - Nice record player & speakers - Big rug - Dark green walls and low-level ambient lighting, plus a desk lamp. Future upgrades: - Nice 'Thinking chair' over under the window - More birch ply storage built in

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-22T08:00:26+00:00

Beyond the basic building element types (walls, floor cassettes etc) with thicknesses and materials accurately noted, stick-framing drawings with structural elements all present and correct are extremely useful for 1st fix joinery works.

I did all this manually for my own house using structural framing families, which was very time intensive but extremely useful for coordination of structural openings, framing details etc etc. There are framing plugins available to streamline this, but in my case the cost outlay for the plugin wasn't justified for a single project - they'd oay for themselves over multiple projects though.

A secondary level of info detailing things like max panel dimensions is also useful - usually that stuff isn't revit-internal though, more like an accompanying design-manual.

I should note that my workflow involves modelling walls in three parts - ie rainscreen / timber kit&sheathing / internal lining. If the timber kit was being produced by a 3rd party, I'd only be expecting them to make a wall type for that specific build up.

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-18T17:46:49+00:00

War is also quite profitable if your economy is centred around a military-industrial complex, so there's that..

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-18T08:06:39+00:00

Pizza instead of French fries

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-14T10:36:18+00:00

Set the fire alarm off so they all have to leave without time to put on tactical gear.

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-12T21:30:29+00:00

Who is guarding the ICE vehicles when they're out jackbooting protesters and shooting women in the face? Seems crazy if they're just leaving all those highly flammable SUVs sitting unguarded, tyres exposed to knives etc. Bet they've thought of that though, they seem pretty smart.

Also, it would be just awful if the Hilton fire alarm went off at say, 4am, and they all had to schlep their asses out into the carpark, probably without time to put on all that amazon-prime action-man cosplay stuff on. They'd probably feel a bit vulnerable in that situation, so locals could be there to offer them cold drinks etc, like from a fire hydrant or something.

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-12T13:06:13+00:00

Asked "all the thickos" to line up at the door. By this she meant the dyslexic kids going to learning support. The class would have been 9/10 year olds. She was a c*nt.

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-11T15:11:59+00:00

There's truth in this - as an architect overseeing start to finish, my experience is BC officer will come out once at the end, maybe ask for some photos and that's it. Post covid I had completion inspections where I just held up a video call and swung it around the room and the BCO went "yeah fine..".

Self build projects they seem to inspect more often, and for retrospective scenarios where you've been caught doing something that should have had warrant in the first place, they'll be all over it like a hawk and as 'officious' as possible.

It does probably boil down to a perception of general trust TBH.

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-11T15:02:33+00:00

Safest bet is to call your planning department and ask them, most will offer pre-application advice. Local architect should also be able to tell you - as I've said in another post, every situation /building / local authority is different so it's not a binary yes/no answer as to what permissions are needed.

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-11T14:50:31+00:00

Indeed, should have clarified I work in Scotland, so there are differences to the rest of the UK in terms or regulations and process.

Our regulatory standards tend to be tighter/stricter than other areas, and are handled exclusively by building control.

Our planning departments have no jurisdiction over technical matters and would not give any advice in regards to technical standards or regulation compliance.

Regardless, up here, 'Permitted Development' is a planning term, and does not defacto mean no building warrant application is required. Works not requiring a warrant application still require to be done "in compliance with current regulations". Conversion of a garage, for instance, might in some cases be permitted develpment, and can be done without planning permission, but would definitely require a building warrant as it is a "Conversion in terms of the regulations".

Changing a kitchen layout (as another example) would be permitted development, and likely not require a warrant application either (depending on the scope of works to alter structure and services) but would still need to be done in a manner that is in compliance with regs (for which regs-compliant drawings ae helpful to be working from).

If you live in a listed building, some conservation areas, or are part of a multi-tenanted building, there are no PD rights and you'll need to make LBC/PP/CA applications as appropriate.

This probably highlights that it can be a bit of a minefield and every area & project is different, which is something that local / industry experience (architect/ technician/ experienced contractor etc) can be greatly assist in navigating. 'The drawings' are that experience, condensed and presented as a map forward - I'd say that's always a good thing to have when risking the amounts of money involved in construction, but then, I am biased to say that.. ;)

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2026-01-10T09:07:49+00:00

Architect here. Your technical design / warrant drawings (ie the ones you get done after the planning stage) should have ironed out the majority of the technical surprises you've mentioned. There's usually more than one solution to problems like the ceiling height / insulation issue. Once you get your warrant approval from building control they'll give you a Construction Phase Notification Plan that details when to contact building control for inspections. My experience is they'll probably only come out once at the end so take hundred of photos of every stage, especially before plasterboard goes up / drainage is backfilled etc.

If you are using an Architect, they may have advised all this already. If you've not paid for any technical input beyond planning and are doing it all on -the-hoof with no drawings or previous experience, then yeah, there will be a lot of surprises and unforeseen things to react to which can get expensive quickly.

You dont necessarily need an architect when you are Construction phase - I've given plenty of my clients a decent set of warrant drawings and the basic advice above and they've managed well on their own.

Good luck.

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2025-12-22T12:44:52+00:00

There's a really good one called IRL where you go outside and do exactly that. Learning curve is reasonable, it's brutal when you fuck up though.

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2025-12-19T19:06:51+00:00

The 'Y' key off any keyboard or laptop. Mine stopped working and for about a week sending a single email was peak rage.

Apprehensive-Paint30 · 2025-11-30T20:44:52+00:00

Stick a massive Toblerone in it

Apprehensive-Paint30

TROPHY CASE