Do you need a contractor for your residential project involving a building warrant? Then we might be able to help you, depending on the project specifications. The situation is very different if you have a building warrant in place or not.
1. If you have an existing building warrant in place
A lot of people go to an architect, get a plan and design from them and then look for a contractor for their project. If you have an existing building warrant in place, you can get a quote from us for your project.
It’s best if you can send us an electronic version of the plans before arranging a visit. For a variety of reasons, there are many projects we are not able to undertake.
You can use the form below to send us the plans and see if we can offer you a quote for your project. We can also send a ballpark estimate if you want before arranging a visit to get a final quote.
2. If you don’t have a building warrant yet
Many times we are not able to quote for projects with building warrants in place because the projects are over engineered. When you go to an architectural company first, they care less about the total cost of the project or how difficult it would be to find contractors, they care about fancy designs for their portfolio. A modern design usually involves very expensive materials and it’s difficult to undertake for contractors.
For this reason, a plan designed by the builder (or their architect) is going to be very different. The costs and complexity of the projects will be probably the most important parts of the design process, the projects where the builder deals with the building warrant are generally significantly less expensive overall than those where a building warrant is already in place.
Coming to us before going to an architect means that we should be able to offer you a price for your project even before starting the design process and spending any money
FAQ
No, we won’t be able to negotiate. We understand how costly these projects can be, but we would rather not do a project, rather than do it at a loss or a very low margin.
We try as much as possible to minimise the time to completion. For residential it’s very important to finish as soon as possible.
In most cases, conversions take 6-8 weeks in total and extensions around 8-12 weeks. The size of the project will influence the total time, but having most of the trades in house means that everything is done quicker.
When considering a project like this, we would offer you a quote for everything involved in the work. If there are elements we are not able to undertake, these will be subcontracted to other parties, but these instances are very rare.
We consider those projects that help us improve our portfolio and, at the same time, we’re confident we can do a profit with them.
It’s important to emphasise that these projects are not very profitable for us, we’re better off doing something else (like bathrooms or kitchens). Most building warrant projects are stressful, involve a lot of paperwork and are considerably less profitable than other projects, despite being very costly to you.
So why are we still doing this kind of projects? Because they help us pave the way for commercial projects, something that we plan to start undertaking in the coming years. Those are the truly profitable projects in the construction industry and these building warrant projects (like extensions and conversions) are small scale versions of what happens on commercial sites.
There’s a lot of building regulations that a building warrant has to take into account. Whether the total cost would be expensive or not is generally a matter of postcode. In expensive postcodes the costs of a large extension/conversion can be a small fraction of the total property value, whether in a less expensive postcode an extension/conversion can sometimes exceed the property value.
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If you haven’t decided if you want to do the project through a builder or architect, the following might be helpful:
| Architectural company | Builder | |
|---|---|---|
| Advantages | ○The best possible design ○Innovative Solutions that maximise the comfort and utility of your home ○The best chance for the warrant/planning application to pass the council requirements the first time | ○You’ll know the total cost before starting paying anything ○Builders understand better what is possible in terms of the actual construction and they’ll try to reduce costs as much as possible |
| Disadvantages | ○The construction cost can be extreme sometimes, to the point where many projects are never started ○You’ll have to pay the architectural costs, even if you don’t start the construction process ○You’ll have difficulties finding contractors, especially for fancy designs, even if you’re willing to spend a lot on this | ○The design will be simpler than what an architectural company would do ○The building warrant/planning process will most likely take longer, since architects submit much more applications to the council compared to builders |
