We take a house through planning most weeks. Council has no surprises left for us.
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ONE AGREEMENT
Consultants and council, run by us
$10–15K inc GST, consultants included
Engineered, approvable drawings and a contract ready to sign
$5K when you build with us
ST LUCIA, 2025 · TWO NEW HOUSES ON ONE BLOCK, PRICED FROM FINISHED DRAWINGS
WHERE IT SITS
Design, plan, build. Three agreements, and this is the second. It starts when the drawings are finished and ends when a construction contract is signed.
The plan stage, week by week
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Agreement and soils
Plan agreement signed, every overlay and code read, the soil test booked and back. You learn which approvals path you are on.
YOU LEAVE WITH
Town planning advice · Soils report
Engineering and reports
Footings, steel, bracing, raise and retaining designed from our drawings. The energy report and services review run alongside.
YOU LEAVE WITH
Structural drawings · Energy certificate · Services review
The quote
The build priced from the engineered set and put in writing. Accept it and you are ready to sign. Where a development application is needed, it is lodged in parallel.
YOU LEAVE WITH
Fixed-price quote · DA lodged if needed
Building approval
Lodged the week you sign, with any siting relaxation, and issued inside the three months before site start.
YOU LEAVE WITH
Building approval · Plumbing approval · Siting relaxation
Most surprises on a renovation are found in the ground or at council. We go looking for both before we price the house.
FIRST MEETING AT THE STUDIO · NO CHARGE · BRING YOUR DRAWINGS
The plan stage, delivered
GEOTECHNICAL
CERTIFIED
COMPLIANT
LOCATED
MAPPED · DA LODGED IF NEEDED
IN WRITING
Then a Master Builders contract, 5% deposit, and the building approval lodged the week you sign.
DA or BA? Which approval your house needs
Every house needs a BA. Some also need a DA first. Most of ours don’t.
GRACEVILLE, 2022 · RAISED CLEAR OF FUTURE FLOODS UNDER THE RESILIENT HOMES FUND
BA
BUILDING APPROVAL · EVERY HOUSE
DA
DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION · SOME HOUSES
WHO DECIDES
A private certifier, engaged by us
Brisbane City Council
Mapped in planning, lodged the week you sign the contract
Prepared and lodged during planning, before the quote is accepted
WHAT IT CHECKS
That the drawings meet the building code: structure, fire, energy, plumbing and drainage
How the house sits on the block, its height and how it looks from the street
DO YOU NEED IT
Always
Only when building outside accepted development
Lodged the week you sign; issued inside the three months before site start
Adds two months or more. The BA still follows
WHO HANDLES IT
Us. We brief the certifier, with any siting relaxation and plumbing approval alongside
Us. We prepare the application, lodge it and deal with council
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The overlay protects the street, not the whole house.
Most of the houses we work on sit under Brisbane City Council’s traditional building character overlay. It is a short list of things you cannot do to the front of a pre-1946 house, and a long list of things nobody minds.
The form of the house as seen from the footpath: the roof, the verandah, the front windows and the house on its stumps. Demolishing the original front is what the overlay exists to stop.
Raising and building under, within the height limit. Extending behind the main roof line. Replacing what is rotten like for like. Most of our renovations sit inside these rules and are certified privately.
Read the overlay, design to it rather than against it, and find the best approvals path for the house. You go into a fixed-price building contract knowing the approval is settled ahead of time.
HAWTHORNE, 2024 · HERITAGE HOUSE, THE NEW CARPORT DESIGNED TO THE ORIGINAL FRONT
Value engineering
/05
COORPAROO, 2025 · A CHARACTER HOUSE RECONFIGURED INSIDE, THE STREET FRONT KEPT
Over-engineering is the quiet way a renovation goes over budget.
Footings, steel, bracing, raise and retaining designed from our drawings, by engineers who know a timber house on a Brisbane block. Sized for what the ground and the house need, and no more. It is where a fixed price is won or lost, and it happens before you sign.
Common questions
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Is this the same as a preliminary agreement?
Other builders call this a preliminary agreement, and the paperwork does the same job: soils, engineering, approvals and a price before a construction contract. We call it the plan agreement because there is nothing preliminary about it. The soil test is the real one, the engineering is what gets built, and the price at the end is fixed.
What does planning cost?
$10–15K including the consultants and GST, paid up front so the work can start. $5K of it is credited to the construction contract when you build with us, on top of the $5K design credit, so $10K in total across both stages. Extra consultants for flood, noise or bushfire overlays are identified early and quoted separately.
Do I need a development application for a character house?
Usually not. The character overlay protects the street-facing form of a pre-1947 house; raising, building under, extending behind the ridge and like-for-like repair stay inside its codes and are certified privately. Demolishing the front, siting past the codes or a listed house needs a development application, which we prepare and lodge in the plan stage.
Why is the building approval lodged after the contract?
Because the approval is issued against a specific set of drawings and a builder. We map the path and resolve the questions in planning, then lodge the week the contract is signed, so the approval is current when the crew arrives about three months later.
How long does council take?
Council time is the one part of the process we do not control, and we say so at the start. A development application typically adds two months or more depending on complexity. We lodge complete applications to avoid requests for more information, and once you have signed a contract your build slot is held while we wait.
What if the soils report changes the design?
It usually changes the footings, not the plan. Reactive clay or a slope means deeper footings, more steel or a retaining wall, and the quote reflects that before you sign. That is the point of doing engineering before pricing.
ONE STUDIO
We design, and we build what we design. The same people draw the house, get it approved and build it.
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AUSTRALIA
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