Working with your architect
An architectural renovation builder in Bayside Melbourne, who works with your architect rather than around them
Most of our clients come to us with an architect already engaged, or about to be. We are at our most useful when we join that conversation early — reading the drawings the way a builder reads them, testing the budget against real construction costs, and saying plainly what each option will cost to build while changing it still costs nothing but a redraw.
The most expensive surprise in a renovation is on paper
A design can be beautiful and still be expensive to build, for reasons that are invisible in a set of drawings. None of that is the architect's failing — it is simply not what an architect is looking for. It is what a builder is looking for.
The example James gives most often is a house where the existing metal roof was being replaced with roof tiles. Reviewing the plans, he saw that both the architect and the structural engineer had overlooked how much heavier a tiled roof is — and that the existing structure would need strengthening to carry it safely.
Because it was picked up before construction started, the strengthening was designed in and built as part of the works. Found once the roof was already coming off, it would have meant serious structural risk, significant extra cost and a stalled site. On paper it was a conversation. On site it would have been a crisis.
We sit beside the design, not over it
Your architect drives the design. We do not redesign it, and we have no preferred practice. What we bring is the other half of the conversation: what each option costs to build, which details are expensive because they are ambitious and which are expensive only because of how they have been drawn, and where the same result could be reached more simply.
Then the decision stays with you. Sometimes the ambitious detail is exactly what the house needs and worth every dollar. The point is that you decide that with the number in front of you, not after it arrives.
How our pre-construction planning worksWhen to bring a builder in
Earlier than most people do. The useful moment is while the drawings are still moving, because that is when a builder's read changes what gets drawn rather than just what it costs.
Concept
The big moves: how much of the house is in play, whether you go out or up, what stays. A builder in the room here can say which of those moves is structural and which is just a plan change — before anyone has drawn either in detail.
Developed design
The drawings firm up and the cost is mostly decided. This is where we are most useful: reading each detail for how it will actually be built, and flagging the ones that are expensive only because of how they have been drawn.
Documentation
Selections, engineering, the detail that a price is built on. Fewer assumptions here means fewer provisional sums, and fewer provisional sums is what keeps a budget from coming apart on site.
Tender and pricing
Where most builders first see the job. By now the decisions that drive the cost have been made — the price can only report them. Bringing us in here is not wrong; it is just late.
Architect-designed homes we have built
Two of the houses on this site were designed by an architect and built by us from their drawings — one in Hampton, one in Brighton East. Both are the kind of project where the planning stage earns its keep several times over.
Questions we get asked
- Do we still need an architect if we use you?
- Yes. We work alongside your architect, not instead of them. They shape the design; we bring the practical building input that keeps it buildable and affordable. The best projects we have built were the ones where both were in the room early.
- Can you work with an architect we have already chosen?
- Of course. Most of our clients come to us with an architect already engaged, or about to be. We have no preferred practice and no interest in redesigning their work — our job is to make sure what they have drawn can be built for a number you can plan around.
- When is the right time to bring a builder in?
- While the drawings are still moving — before documentation is finalised and before pricing is locked in. Once the design is set and tendered, most of the decisions that drive cost have already been made, and changing them costs real money rather than a redraw.
- Why is an architect’s design often more expensive to build than expected?
- It is the most common and most costly surprise in the whole process. A design can be beautiful and still be expensive to build for reasons that are invisible on paper — a tiled roof drawn onto a structure that was only ever built to carry metal, for instance. A builder reading the drawings early is the cheapest way to find those reasons, while changing them still costs nothing but a redraw.
- Will you change our architect’s design?
- No. We flag what is expensive to build and what is expensive only because of how it has been drawn, and we say what each option costs. The decision stays with you and your architect. Whether the result blends with the original house or deliberately contrasts with it is a design call, not ours.
- Do you charge for the early planning work?
- Yes. It is real work, done properly, and it is priced as its own stage rather than buried in a build cost. What it buys you is a decision made with real numbers: whether what you are planning and what you would like to spend can meet, before you have committed to either.
Drawings on the way?
The earlier we read them, the more we can save you. Tell us where the design is up to.
Enquire
Let’s talk about your home.
The more you can tell us, the more useful our first conversation will be. James personally reads every enquiry.
We take on a limited number of projects each year, so the more detail you can give us, the faster we can tell you whether we are the right fit.
- Phone
- (03) 9787 4880
- Where we build
- Bayside Melbourne — Brighton, Hampton, Sandringham & surrounds