Private houses
A house project: what it includes, what it costs and how long it takes
A house project is the set of drawings and calculations builders work from, and the document you use to check that they are building what you are paying for. A complete set has three parts: architectural, structural and engineering. It costs from 600 ₽ per square metre for a single section up to 2 500 ₽/m² for a set that is ready to build from, and takes anywhere from three weeks to three and a half months depending on what exactly you order.
Below is the detail: what is inside the album, what you pay for at each stage, how long each step takes, and how to tell that a project has been done properly before you hand over any money.
One thing first. Russian law does not require design documentation for a private house: part 3 of article 48 of the Town Planning Code gives the developer the right not to prepare it. The project is not for the state — it is for you, so that you can price the build, avoid rebuilding walls, and end up with the house you imagined. The rest of this article shows where that difference bites.
What a project is — and what it is not
The word "project" is used on the market for three very different things, and that is where most misunderstandings between client and contractor begin.
A picture with a floor plan is not a project. A beautiful render and a plan with furniture show the idea, but you cannot build from them: there are no wall thicknesses with dimensions, no details, no reinforcement.
A layout study is closer. It is a set of options for arranging rooms for a specific plot and a specific family. A useful stage for making up your mind, but again not something you can build from.
A project is a scaled album of drawings where every wall has a dimension and a position, every beam a section, every socket a place. It is what estimates are based on, what materials are ordered against, and what you point to if something is built wrong.
What the album contains: the sections of a project
A complete set for a private house is divided into sections. Here is what is in each one and why it matters to you.
| Section | What is inside | Why you need it |
|---|---|---|
| Explanatory note | Input data, plot and building parameters, decisions taken, list of drawings | One sheet that shows what was ordered and what the album should contain. Read it first |
| Site plan | The house positioned on the plot, setbacks, entrance, paved areas, levels, grading | Without it the house risks breaking setback rules or sitting so that water runs into the basement. This is also the sheet attached to the construction notice |
| AR — architectural set | Floor plans with dimensions, elevations, sections, roof plan, window and door schedules, room schedule | The main section. It shows what the house looks like, how big the rooms are and where the openings go |
| KR — structural set | Foundations, floors, roof structure, reinforcement, details, material specifications | This is what keeps the house standing. It also holds the concrete and steel quantities that make up half the estimate |
| Power supply | Panel layout, circuits, sockets, lighting, cable routes, load calculations | Lets you build the wiring into the walls before finishing rather than chasing them out afterwards |
| Water and drainage | Pipework, connection points, risers, septic tank or mains connection | Fixes where the wet rooms go. Moving a bathroom after the floors are cast is expensive |
| Heating and ventilation | Heating layout, thermal calculations, circuits, room ventilation | Determines your heating bills and whether the house will be damp |
| Visualisation | Exterior views of the house in context, sometimes interiors | Formally optional, but this is where questions about the facade surface — and they are far cheaper to solve in a model than on site |
Low-voltage systems, automation and landscaping are usually separate sections on request and are not part of the basic set. You can see how our albums look in full in the working documentation section.
Three levels of detail: what to order for your situation
Not everyone needs a complete set. These three scenarios cover almost every case.
| Concept design | Architectural set (AR) | Complete set | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | The look of the house, layouts, position on the plot, visualisation | Everything in the concept plus working drawings with dimensions, details and schedules | AR plus structure and engineering |
| Can you build from it | No | Yes, if your contractor handles the structure | Yes, with no further decisions needed on site |
| Estimate accuracy | ±25–30 % | ±10–15 % | ±5 % |
| Who it suits | People still deciding on the house and the budget | Small, simple houses with an experienced builder | Houses over 150 m², difficult plots, mortgage-funded builds |
| Timeline | 3–5 weeks | 5–8 weeks | 10–14 weeks |
The most common mistake is building from a concept design and trusting the crew to "work it out on site". They will: they will take fifty decisions on your behalf, each of them convenient for them rather than for you. A year later that looks like a badly placed staircase and a boiler room next to the bedroom.
What a house project costs
Design work is priced per square metre of the building. The logic is simple: more area means more sheets, more calculations and more coordination — although the relationship is not strictly linear, and most studios have a minimum price per section.
Our prices:
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Architectural set — plans, elevations, sections, visualisation | from 600 ₽/m² |
| Structural set — foundations, floors, details | from 600 ₽/m² |
| Complete project: every section, ready to build | from 2 500 ₽/m² |
| Layout options for the plot | from 15 000 ₽ per project |
| Exterior visualisation | from 20 000 ₽ per project |
| Interior visualisation | from 700 ₽/m² |
For a 180 m² house that works out as:
- architectural set only — from 108 000 ₽;
- architecture plus structure — from 216 000 ₽;
- complete set, ready to build — from 450 000 ₽;
- exterior visualisation — from 20 000 ₽.
For reference, market rates run at 400–600 ₽/m² for a concept, 600–800 ₽/m² for the architectural set, 600–1 000 ₽/m² for the structural set and 250–500 ₽/m² for each engineering section separately. A complete set averages 2 000–3 500 ₽/m².
What pushes the price up:
- Complex geometry. Broken roof lines, bay windows, cantilevers, split levels — every one of them means extra details and calculations.
- A difficult plot. Slopes, weak soils and high groundwater call for their own foundation and retaining wall solutions.
- Double-height spaces, full-height glazing, a pool. These need non-standard structures and separate thermal calculations.
- Urgency. A compressed schedule is charged separately because it means several people working in parallel.
What does not reduce the price, though it looks as if it should: dropping the structural section. The calculations will still be made — not by an engineer on paper but by the foreman on site, and usually with a generous margin "to be safe". That margin, in concrete and steel, costs considerably more than the section itself.
You can price your own area on the services page.
Timelines: how long design actually takes
Below is a typical schedule for a complete set for a house of 150–250 m². Some stages overlap, so the individual rows add up to more than the total.
| Stage | Duration | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Input data and brief | 3–7 days | Site survey, going through your wishes, family, construction budget |
| Layout studies | 1–2 weeks | 2–3 room arrangement options, one is chosen |
| Concept design | 2–3 weeks | Massing, elevations, position on the plot, visualisation, sign-off on the look |
| Architectural set | 3–5 weeks | Working drawings, dimensions, details, schedules |
| Structural set | 4–6 weeks | Calculations and drawings for foundations, floors, roof. Starts in parallel with AR |
| Engineering sections | 3–4 weeks | Power, water, heating and ventilation. Only once the layout is fixed |
| Complete set, total | 10–14 weeks |
What usually stretches the schedule:
- Unresolved layout questions. Until you decide whether you need a second guest room, there is no point calculating the structure — any layout change recalculates the floors.
- No geotechnical survey or topographic plan. Without them the foundation is designed with a safety margin, which is either more expensive to build or gets redone later.
- Slow sign-offs. Every week of silence on your side is a week added to the schedule. That is exactly why our contract sets a deadline for responding to material we send.
- Changes after a stage has been approved. Going back a stage is possible, but it is separate work and a separate timeline.
The practical takeaway: if you plan to start building in spring, start designing in September or November. By March you will have the set, the estimate and enough time to choose a contractor calmly instead of hunting for a crew in peak season.
What we need from you to start
The minimum without which design cannot begin:
- The cadastral number of the plot — it shows the boundaries, the land category and the permitted use;
- A topographic survey — relief, existing structures, utilities. Without it the house cannot be positioned correctly;
- The urban planning plan for the plot — the limits that apply specifically to your plot: setbacks, height, footprint ratio;
- A geotechnical survey — soil composition and groundwater level. It determines the foundation type;
- Your input — who lives in the house, how you use it, a budget range for construction, references for what you like and what you definitely do not.
People often try to skip the geotechnical and topographic surveys to save money. In our experience that is the worst saving available: the difference in foundation cost once the soils are known usually covers the surveys several times over.
The project and the paperwork: what you actually need to start
There is a lot of confusion here, so point by point.
You do not need a project to get permission. A private house in Russia falls under a notification procedure (article 51.1 of the Town Planning Code). You file a notice of planned construction and the local authority replies within seven working days with a notice of compliance or non-compliance. The notice is valid for ten years.
The house has to stay within the limits: no more than three above-ground storeys, no higher than 20 metres, and a single indivisible object — that is, not split into separate flats.
What goes with the notice: title documents for the plot and a schematic drawing of the planned house showing where it sits on the plot. In practice that is the site plan sheet from your project. In some cases — for example if the plot is inside a historic settlement — a description of the external appearance is also required.
After construction, a notice of completion with a technical plan is filed within a month.
A mortgage is a separate case. If the house is being built on credit, the document list is set by the bank rather than the local authority: there you will need the project, the estimate and the construction contract.
Rules and procedures change, and every region has its own land use and development regulations. Check the current version of the documents and your municipality's rules before filing.
How to check a project before you pay for it
Five things worth asking any studio, including us.
- Show me a complete album for a similar project. Not a selection of pretty sheets — the whole set, from the explanatory note to the specifications. If all you are shown is renders, that is a visualisation studio, not a design office. Our albums are open in the portfolio.
- What exactly is included and how many sheets. The phrase "complete project" in a contract, with no appendix listing the drawings, means the contractor decides what it contains.
- How many rounds of changes are included. Unlimited revisions do not exist: they are either capped explicitly, or priced in, or they quietly slow the work down.
- Who does the structural calculations. If the architect draws and the contractor "will work out the structure", you get two areas of responsibility and nobody responsible where they meet.
- When the rights to use the project pass to you. In our contract that happens on full payment, which is standard practice; what matters is that the clause exists at all.
Frequently asked questions
Can I build a house without a project?
Legally, yes: design documentation is not mandatory for a private house. In practice it means every decision — from wall thickness to socket positions — will be taken by the crew on site, and the cost will only be known after the fact. For a simple house under 80–100 m² that is sometimes a reasonable risk. For a house over 150 m² it almost never is.
How is a project different from a 30 000 ₽ ready-made plan from the internet?
In content and in fit. A stock plan is an architectural part designed for some average plot and average soil. It still has to be adapted to your plot: the foundation recalculated for your ground conditions, the house positioned within your setbacks and levels, the engineering brought together. The cost of that adaptation is sometimes comparable to a custom project — we go through it in detail in Stock plan or custom design.
What does a project for a 150 m² house cost?
At our prices: architectural set from 90 000 ₽, architecture with structure from 180 000 ₽, complete set ready to build from 375 000 ₽. The exact figure depends on how complex the shape of the house and the plot are; after a short conversation we give it within a day.
How long does a house project take?
From three to five weeks for the concept stage up to ten to fourteen weeks for a complete set. The main variables are how quickly you sign things off and whether the input data for the plot is available.
Do I need the structural section if the house is single storey?
You do if you want to know the cost in advance. A single-storey house is simpler to calculate, but it still has a foundation, a floor and a roof structure — which means quantities that somebody has to work out. The only question is whether they are worked out before the build or during it.
Can I order visualisation only, without a project?
Yes, that is a separate service — from 20 000 ₽ for exterior views. We need drawings, or at least a layout with elevations; if there are none, we start with the concept stage.
Let us price your plot
Send us the cadastral number of your plot and a rough idea of the size of the house. We will look at the boundaries, setbacks and relief and give you a price with the scope of work and a timeline. It is free and commits you to nothing.