8 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Home Designer

Most lists of questions to ask a home designer are written by people who have never drawn a set of plans. They tell you to ask how long someone has been in business and whether you can see their portfolio — questions nobody has ever failed.

These are the ones that actually separate designers, written from the other side of the desk. Several of them will make a designer slightly uncomfortable. That's the point. The answers you get, and how readily you get them, tell you more than any portfolio.

1. Who actually draws my plans?

At a lot of firms you meet a principal during the sales conversation and then get handed to someone junior. That isn't automatically bad — plenty of good work is produced that way — but you should know it going in rather than discover it at the third meeting when a name you don't recognise sends you a revision.

Ask who will do the drawing, whether you'll work with them directly, and what happens if that person leaves mid-project. At CDS you work with one designer from the first sketch through to the final set, and it's worth saying plainly that switching designers partway is expensive anywhere — a new designer has to re-learn your house, so most firms, us included, treat it close to starting over.

2. Can I see a complete set, not a portfolio?

A portfolio shows you renderings and finished photographs. Those tell you whether a designer has taste. They tell you nothing about whether the drawings are any good.

Ask to see every sheet of one real construction set. You won't be able to read all of it, and you don't need to. Count the sheets. Look for interior and cabinet elevations, a detail sheet, a forming plan, and door, window and header schedules. A thin set and a complete set look identical in a portfolio and very different on a job site, where every gap becomes a question a framer has to answer by guessing.

3. What is not included?

This is the question that prevents the argument later, and it's the one most designers would rather you didn't ask early.

Get the exclusions in writing. For almost every residential designer the list includes foundation and structural engineering, mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering, windstorm and civil engineering, permitting, and confirming that the design meets your local code and deed restrictions. Surveys are usually yours to provide.

None of that is a red flag — it's normal, and you want a licensed engineer doing the engineering. What matters is whether you were told up front or found out when the permit desk asked for something nobody had mentioned.

4. How many revisions, and what counts as one?

"Unlimited revisions" is a sales line, not a term. The useful question is what counts.

Moving a wall is a revision. Deciding you want a single-story instead of a two-story is a new design, and every firm charges for that — the honest ones tell you where the line sits before you sign. Ask specifically: how many rounds, at what phase, and what triggers an hourly charge instead.

Ours is three rounds of changes on one general layout during the preliminary phase, and a genuinely new layout becomes a new contract or an hourly rate, whichever costs less. Whatever the answer, get the line defined while everyone is still friendly.

5. Per square foot or percentage — and which square feet?

Two different pricing models, and the second half of that question matters more than the first.

Architects commonly bill residential work as a percentage of construction cost, which means the fee moves with your finishes and your appliances. A per-square-foot fee prices the drawings instead, so it doesn't climb when your countertop budget does.

But ask which square feet. Living area only, or total covered — everything under roof, including garages, porches and balconies? A house marketed as 3,800 square feet of living space might be 5,200 covered. A lower-sounding rate on the smaller basis is frequently the more expensive quote, and the comparison is impossible until you've asked.

Ours is $1.75 per total covered square foot with a $7,000 minimum, published on the site, and it's the same number whoever asks.

6. What happens when the architectural committee rejects it?

Almost nobody asks this, and in a subdivision with an Architectural Control Committee it's the question most likely to cost real money.

An ACC can reject a design you've already paid to have drawn — too little masonry, wrong roof pitch, a garage facing the street. Ask whether the designer has worked in your subdivision, whether they'll read the guidelines before starting, and crucially who pays to redraw it if it comes back.

The right answer involves getting the guidelines up front so it doesn't happen. The wrong answer is a blank look.

7. Can I speak to someone who has lived in one for a year?

Not a client who just received their drawings. Those clients are always happy — the plans are new, nothing has gone wrong yet, and nobody has tried to build them.

You want someone who has been through framing, through the surprises, and has slept in the house through a season. They can tell you whether the drawings held up, how many questions the builder had, and whether the rooms are the sizes they looked like on paper. That's a completely different conversation from a fresh reference, and a designer with nothing to hide will hand you the number.

8. What's the timeline, and what do you need from me?

Two halves of the same question, and the second half is the one that actually causes delays.

Ask for a realistic phase-by-phase timeline in writing, and ask what happens if it slips. Then ask what they need from you and by when — typically a current boundary survey, your deed restrictions, the ACC guidelines, a topographic survey if your lot has slope, and your utility requirements.

Projects stall on missing client paperwork far more often than on designer delays. Knowing the list on day one is the cheapest schedule insurance available.

One more, if you're building outside a city

Ask whether they've worked in your jurisdiction.

Inside city limits, a plan review catches problems. In unincorporated Montgomery County there's no comprehensive residential building code inspection — no county inspector checking the framing. That sounds like less hassle and isn't: it means your plan set is the only specification anyone is working to. A designer who understands that draws differently, and you want the one who does.

What good answers sound like

Specific, immediate, and occasionally unflattering. "We don't do that, you'll need an engineer" is a better answer than a vague yes. A designer who tells you where their work stops is telling you they know where it stops.

Be most careful with the opposite — the firm that answers every question with reassurance and nothing in writing. Every item above should end up documented somewhere before you pay a retainer.

If you'd like to ask us all nine, that's roughly what the free design session is for. It's an hour with an actual designer rather than a salesperson, and there's nothing to pay.