Planning a new build, renovation or extension? What's the process? What do you really need to do? Do you need an architect or draftsman? How can you save money without compromising on the result?
House number 8 for us is well under way and this week the extension started to turn our 2 bed, 1 bathroom home into a family-functional 4 by 2.
In a wave of perfect timing I was approached to be interviewed by the lovely Chanice from Oakbank Reno (who is also mid extension project) to discuss all things process when it comes to building and renovating. So if you'd like to rewatch that interview you can find it on Instagram here. But for those you prefer to read, here are our answers to her questions:
Image Credit: J.Parsons Photography
Introduce yourself (Katrina) and your background.
I’m half of The Reno Life. My husband Jesse has been a builder for 16 years and we have designed, built and renovated 8 houses over the past decade. A bit over a year ago we moved into renovation consultancy and design and our goal is to provide affordable design advice that is focused on being super practical and budget friendly. We do this in the form of 3D master plans to save people time, effort, money and resources in their renovation.
We’ve got a house, we don’t like it. We want to improve it. Maybe an extension, maybe a renovation. Where do we start?
Start brainstorming what’s on your wish list and what doesn’t work in your current home. It’s important to research the value of homes in your area and what boxes they tick to have achieved that price. This will help you ‘set your budget’ in the way that you won’t be overcapitalising if you decide to renovate/extend. Don't limit your wishlist to what you think is possible, add it all because you might be surprised as to the potential your existing home contains.
Do you actually need an extension? Is there wasted space in your home that could be otherwise utilised? We often get clients coming to us thinking they need an extension, or an extension of a certain size, to get everything they want. But once engaging with us we give them everything they want within the existing walls of their home or a much smaller extension. They’ve definitely saved our fee then!
Start saving/pinning inspiration so you know the look and feel you want your home to have. Just be mindful not to get too caught up with this step as a lot of what you see won’t be a realistic option from a budget perspective. But there’s always a way to get beautiful on a budget.
Now is the time to engage help if you need it.
Let’s break it down, what does it take to do an extension?
An extension follows the same rules and regulations as building a new house. It has to be done by a licensed builder/owner builder and have plans approved and signed off by the local council. Depending on what areas are being extended and how it is accessed from the existing house it may mean that you don’t have to move out of your house to complete the extension.
Who do you need on your team to complete an extension?
Required services for an extension are:
A draftsman and engineer to complete a set of plans
Council to approve the plans
Building surveyor/inspector (sometimes this is independent of the council)
Licensed builder or owner builder (only if it is your property that you are working on. Owner builder doesn’t mean you have to physically do the construction but you do become the project manager and are ultimately responsible for the build and afterwards for at least 10 years.)
Other licensed trades that are most likely necessary will be an electrician and plumber and any other trade you can’t or don’t want to do yourself.
Do I need to hire an architect or a building designer or a draftsman? What is for me?
When extending, the non negotiables are:
A draftsman will draw up your plans to scale and provide all the necessary detail that the council and engineer will need to create a design that will be constructed correctly and to Australian standards.
An engineer is required to design all of the structural elements of your home. This can include the slab or foundation, steelwork, sizes of timber required and a whole bunch of other details.
Council require both the draftsman and engineers plans to consider for approval, there can be a bit of back and forth between these 3 as the council may not approve a certain part of the plans for various reasons e.g. height, impact on neighbours, impact on infrastructure, distances from boundaries.
Then in terms of ‘the plan’, you have three options:
Engage an architect or building designer starting around 15k depending on your area, sometimes 50k + (a lot of architects take a percentage of the build cost)
You’re on your own. You design it completely yourself, take your concept to a draftsman/engineer to get it drawn up officially.
You hire us for a fraction of the cost (under 2k) to get the design perfect in consultation with you and then get the draftsman to regurgitate it into official form for council if need be.
If you are going to hire an architect, do some research/ask around to friends and family and have some conversations about who they’ve used and if they recommend them. We give this advice to clients when searching for a builder as well. Using an architect is a huge monetary investment and you need to be certain that they are a good fit for you. We would also advise asking for floor plans they’ve previously designed so you can ensure that practicality, flow and functionality are higher on their priorities list than how something looks.
Draftsman often do building design work as well, which is going to be cheaper than an architect but still a large investment of over 10k.
So the reason we started our consultancy and design business is because we saw this huge disparity that existed in the market between ‘you’re on your own’ or ‘spend tens of thousands of dollars’. We’re super passionate about function over form, that you can create beautiful spaces that first and foremost work for your family and set you up for future resell.
And good design advice shouldn’t cost you such a large percentage of your renovation budget.
What do you offer and where does that sit in the process? When do we engage you?
I recently wrote a post that I think resonated with a lot of people titled ‘Stop doing temporary renovations’. So many people put money, time, effort and resources into excitedly renovating an area and then later on down the track realise that they didn’t have a master plan so they have to either suffer with a less than ideal floor plan or redo stuff they’ve already done.
That’s really disheartening. So we decided to do something about helping people get it right from the beginning. So preferably engage with us first. But we do help a lot of clients overcome the challenges that have come mid renovation or even close to the end. We can work with you whichever stage you are at. Whole house, one room, extending and everything in between.
What we do is provide you with a master plan floor plan with all required measurements, positions, cabinetry sizes, even furniture. And then also present them to you in 3D so you can really visualise the space and also communicate more easily with your trades. Both for quoting purposes and once the work has commenced. We recently had a client hand our plans to their builder doing an AirBNB renovation 3hrs from them while they were stuck in Sydney lockdowns. The renovation was completed based on our plans without them going to the property – and it looks amazing!
Image Credit: J.Parsons Photography
Best money saving tips?
The biggest monetary saving you can make is by having a perfect plan. By spending a few hundred dollars at the beginning, you limit the mistakes and therefore costly changes along the way.
The other monetary benefit of having a plan is that you can then get to work on sourcing all you need in a confident manner. Utilising sales, sourcing from thrift shops, salvage yards, Marketplace and Gumtree. We’ve saved so much doing this. And it’s often not second hand, just new excess that people don’t want. It also gives you the time you need to hunt and order online if need be.
Plan into your renovation more standard sizes. A 900mm shower screen is a couple of hundred dollars off the shelf, a 1050mm will cost you a grand. These sort of things. We have a few other blog posts about our specific tips when it comes to saving money on bathroom and kitchen renovations.
Favourite thing about what you do?
Our favourite thing is helping your average person that would otherwise be muddling through this whole process on their own. I get so many clients commenting prior to working with us how much sleep they’re losing. Which is understandable because your home is your biggest asset!
We get so busy we forget to take stock but we are changing the way people live in their homes and that gets me really excited.
Image Credit: J.Parsons Photography
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