About ABDS

Architectural Building Design Services has been working out of Swanwick, near Alfreton, since 2000.

In that time we've designed over a thousand projects. Around fifty a year, every year, across Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and the East Midlands. Extensions, loft and garage conversions, barn conversions, new build houses, industrial units, offices, leisure developments.

An architectural designer turns your ideas for a building or an extension into a design that can be approved and built.

That means:

- Discussing your ideas and understanding what you want to achieve
- Measuring and surveying your existing property
- Creating drawings and plans showing what the finished building will look like
- Designing the layout, including rooms, windows, doors and stairs
- Preparing planning drawings and submitting a planning application where required
- Preparing building regulations drawings showing how the building will be constructed and meet the regulations
- Working with other professionals, such as structural engineers, when needed
- Making changes and dealing with queries from the council or other professionals
- Helping you understand costs and practical considerations before work starts

An architectural designer is there to design and draw your project and take you through the planning and building regulations process.

A structural engineer works out whether walls, beams, roofs and foundations are structurally safe.

"Architect" is a protected title in the UK. "Architectural designer" is not. You don't necessarily need an architect for many domestic projects such as extensions, loft conversions or new homes.

Design, drawings, planning permission, building regulation approval, structural calculations, Party Wall Act work, and getting prices from suitable reputable builders.

We do not carry out building work. We're designers. When the time comes to build, you appoint a builder and we help you choose the right one.

The first thing that happens is we come to your house. Free, no obligation.

We look at the property, listen to what you want, and tell you honestly whether it's possible, practical and feasible. Whether you need planning permission, and what the timescales are.

You get a price within 24 hours of that visit. If you appoint us, we start within a few days, and you see drawings within 10 days of the survey.

Then the bit that we think matters most. We don't force a design on you. We'll usually draw two or three options so you can see the difference between them, and where it helps we'll get rough build costs against each one from builders we work with, so you're choosing with real figures rather than guessing.

You comment. We adjust. We keep going until it's right.

And when your builder is on site, we're still available and still involved. Queries come to us. Building control questions come to us. Something unexpected in the ground comes to us. That doesn't stop the day the drawings are approved.

Domestic work is the bulk of it. Single and two storey extensions, loft conversions, garage conversions, barn conversions, listed building work, conservation area work, and new build houses on individual plots.

But we're also specialists in industrial and commercial work, and have been from the beginning. Factory units, warehousing, starter units, offices, retail, leisure and tourism developments. We've designed schemes for developers and contractors as well as private clients.

We provided the structural design work on a BBC DIY SOS build.

Swanwick, Alfreton, Belper, Ripley, Heanor and the wider Amber Valley area is home. We're in Derby and Nottingham regularly, and across Chesterfield, Mansfield, South Normanton and North East Derbyshire.

We submit applications to Amber Valley Borough Council, Derby City Council, Nottingham City Council, Mansfield District Council, Ashfield District Council, Chesterfield Borough Council and North East Derbyshire District Council.

We do travel further for the right project. Over the years we've worked in Lancashire, South Yorkshire, Teesside and Somerset.

Yes. We carry £1.5m professional indemnity insurance.

Chris Froggatt, who runs the practice. Not a call centre, not a different person each time.

Have a look at our projects, or read about our planning applications service if you're not sure which parts of the process you need.

If you want to talk about your own project, for more information please call us on 07773 899 597 or contact us through this website. The first conversation is free and there's no obligation at the end of it.