- If you are planning on building something that will have any structural work involved you generally need to get an engineer to design it, and a certifier to sign off on it. This includes works like: creating openings in walls and installing a beam (if the wall is load bearing), building a new deck or patio, extending your home, large retaining walls, raising and building underneath your home.
- Things you need before a builder can accurately quote on on your renovation. Building design plans and engineering plans.
- Things you need before you can start your renovation. Plans, engineering and certification.
- Once you have plans and engineering a private certifier will submit them to council and obtain your Building Approval. If you are developing you will need a Town Planner for this process.
- If you already know what you want your renovation to look like you can save costs by designing a rough plan with room sizes, bathroom locations, door/window type and style, kitchen dining layout etc. If a building designer or architect has something to go from it can make their job a lot faster which saves you money.
- If the work you are doing is over $3,300 the tradesmen needs to hold the appropriate QBCC licence.
- The cheapest quote is definitely not always the best. Would you pay $90 dollars for a cheap accountant to do your company tax return? Would you find the cheapest doctor to do your knee reconstruction? Probably not. The same applies to building. Cheap builders are in a rush, they cut corners, they don’t build to last, they don’t back up their work and are often not available once the job is finished if anything needs rectifying.
If you need some help deciding what you need, just give us a call and we’ll arrange a convenient time to meet with you and discuss the project – no obligation, of course.
