Anbody use a Landscape Architect?

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MunkyButtr

Member
Apr 24, 2021
11
Wilton Manors, FL
Hey all,

I'm ready to take the plunge on a pool build in South Florida. I was hoping to use a landscape architect to design the pool and work on some other areas of my yard. I reached out to one Landscape Architect who seemed to have some stuff on their website that aligned with my vision. The email response I got indicated that the budget for the designs on their website ranged from $85,000 to $350,000, not including their design fee of $15,000-$25,000. I can only assume the $85,000 project on their website was the one that was only the front yard and did not have a pool in the design. Does this seem high? Should I be looking for another Landscape Architect? Or should I just have a pool company design the pool and pool area? My budget is $80,000, and I thought that was a pretty decent budget, but maybe I'm off.

Thanks in advance for any help and insight!

MunkyButtr
 
Welcome to TFP :)

Covid and no one traveling have created a design and pool and house and yard crazzzzzzy place.. They can ask almost any price and people are paying it... An 80k budget 2 years ago would get you a great backyard and pool.. this year 80k might get you a normal concrete pool with no upgrades.. The prices of supplies are starting to go down and people are starting to go back to work so it should start correcting the prices in a year I hope.. Lumber is already starting to come down.. The problem being they have work already in to next year and some companies have work out 2 years...

The best thing to do is figure out exactly what you want, take that to 4 or 5 companies and have them do a quote, all the same... find the one you like, that listens to you, will work with and for you... then have them build your pool and backyard.. :)
 
I suspect pricing is highly regional but around here (Central Texas), $80k won't get you much in the way of a concrete pool. Maybe pool only with minimal features. Add a spa and you are at least $100k would be my guess. Most people in my neighborhood have been spending $130-170
 
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Depending on size of the pool and amount of hardscapes, you're almost certainly going to need to increase budget in the current environment. The $15-$25k just for a plan would never fly with me though. We went with a builder that has landscape architects on staff, and they weren't the cheapest, but it definitely shows in the overall design/plan. We're still in permitting, and haven't broken ground yet. However, if we use our builder for the actual landscape install, they said to figure about 15% of the overall project cost. In the Atlanta area, we were looking at about $75K for the basic pool and all equipment. However, by the time you factor in decking, hardscapes, waterfall, fencing, integrated landscape lighting and landscaping, etc., that number more than doubled. I was originally hoping to keep our build at $100k, but that number quickly got revised once I started getting quotes. :ROFLMAO: Get at least 3 quotes, and make sure you factor in all costs before nailing down your budget or deciding if it is worth it to you!
 
Hey all! Thanks for the welcome! Thank you also for the quick responses and great info! So I agree-$15k to $25k does seem quite high for design fee, but I wasn't sure, which is why I posted here. So it sounds like I may need to just go straight to pool builder, perhaps one with a landscape architect on staff, and double my budget :(
 
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We recently met with a landscape architect whose "minimum" design fee is $3000. She is going to do a design for us but we suspect it will be more than the quoted minimum, intuiting maybe $4000.
You can look at American Society of Landscape Architects and maybe find others in your area for a competitive quote.
 
Rocket J Squirrel said:
We recently met with a landscape architect whose "minimum" design fee is $3000. She is going to do a design for us but we suspect it will be more than the quoted minimum, intuiting maybe $4000.
You can look at American Society of Landscape Architects and maybe find others in your area for a competitive quote.
Click to expand...
Good info! Thanks! That's more of the price range I was expecting.
 
We are doing a big back yard makeover, which includes a pool, casita and sports court and decided to use a landscape architect, but really only for the design plan. We are contacting the builds out. The design plan was less than $2,000. The main reason we decided to go through a landscape architect was because our HOA is kind of strict and we felt it was easiest to turn in a complete plan from an architect for approval then separately from each of the build contractors. If it wasn’t for the HOA, I don’t think it is/was worth the additional cost.
 

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BigPapaSmurf said:
Originally, we contacted a landscape architect. He does build about 10 pools a year, but when it came to pool design he just couldn’t deliver. He did offer to forego his design fee, which was 5k.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing you ended up just going with a pool builder design? I'm beginning to lean this way. I originally thought landscape architect was the way to go, but maybe I was wrong.
 
Rocket J Squirrel said:
We recently met with a landscape architect whose "minimum" design fee is $3000. She is going to do a design for us but we suspect it will be more than the quoted minimum, intuiting maybe $4000. [August 31, 2021]
Click to expand...
We just received the proposed design agreement and, what do you know, the fee for all the plans (concept, irrigation, lighting, layout, planting, etc.) came out to be $10,300. Cough. Quite a bit more than we'd expected, but in context, it's maybe 1/20 of what I imagine the total cost of the project will be. And that design fee is payable in increments as the design progresses, so we wouldn't be locked into anything at the start. Time for a second quote for a sanity check if nothing else.
 
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