Residential construction · SA · VIC
Architect-designed homes, townhouses, dual occupancy and medium density developments across South Australia and Victoria, under registrations held in the company name. Priced package by package, administered in writing, and scoped against conditions we publish in full.
Where a commercial contractor adds most
Our core business is commercial and industrial construction. The residential registrations we hold let us bring that discipline to the residential projects that genuinely benefit from it.
Offices, warehouses, laboratories, fitouts and refurbishments are what we build most weeks. Alongside that we hold current residential registrations in the company name in both South Australia and Victoria, which means we can take residential work under the same systems, the same estimating discipline and the same written contract administration we use on a commercial project.
That combination is worth most on the projects that are not standard: a difficult or steep site, a one-off architectural design, a heritage overlay, an infill development with neighbours on three sides, or a client who wants every variation priced and approved before it happens rather than explained afterwards.
A volume builder is purpose-built for the opposite case, a standard home on a standard block from an established range, and does that efficiently. Working out which kind of project yours is takes one conversation, and we are happy to have it early.
Scope
A number on its own says very little, because the conditions attached to it are where the scope actually lives. So here are ours, in the regulators’ own words.
In South Australia we are licensed: building work contractor’s licence BLD 344769, issued by Consumer and Business Services, covering residential building work restricted to National Construction Code classes 1 and 10. In Victoria we are registered: domestic builder (unlimited), CDB-U 101761, carrying the condition “restricted to Class 1 and 10 buildings”. The two states use different words for the same idea and we use each state’s.
The dividing line is vertical stacking and storey count, not project size or contract value. A twelve dwelling single storey townhouse row is inside our scope. One three storey house is not. That is counterintuitive the first time you read it, and it is the single most useful thing to understand about what we can build.
What we build
Steep or sloping blocks, retaining, poor ground, tight access, and infill sites where the neighbours are close enough that the sequence matters as much as the design. Ground conditions are where residential budgets are most often lost, and they are the part a commercial builder tends to read most carefully.
Attached dwellings under Class 1a, up to two storeys. Party wall construction, acoustic and fire separation between dwellings, separate services to each, and a staging plan where the units complete in a sequence that suits settlement rather than convenience.
Where the documentation is genuinely bespoke, the details are not from a standard catalogue, and the finish schedule is the programme. This is the closest residential work gets to what we do every day on a commercial fitout.
Working in and around an occupied or partly occupied home. Temporary support, staged weatherproofing, and the discipline of leaving a site every Friday in a state somebody can live next to.
Class 10 work, either with a dwelling or on its own. Small, and frequently the thing that will not fit inside a volume builder’s system.
Apartment buildings, and any residential work above two storeys. Those sit outside our residential registrations, so we do not tender them. If that is your project we will tell you on the first call and, where we can, point you at somebody who holds the right class.
A licence number without its conditions tells you almost nothing. Ours are on this page.
Attached dwellings · library image
How a residential job runs with us
Trades tendered on the drawings rather than allowed for as a lump. You see what each part of your house costs, which is also how you make a sensible decision when something has to give.
A written contract with a start date, a duration and a payment schedule tied to stages you can see from the footpath, not to dates on a calendar.
Every change priced and approved in writing before the work happens. This is the single largest source of grief on residential projects and it is entirely avoidable.
A defects liability period that we actually service, with a list agreed at handover rather than argued about afterwards.
Insurance and consumer protection
Residential work sits under a different regime from the commercial contracts that make up most of our year, and the differences favour you. In both South Australia and Victoria, domestic building work above a threshold value requires the builder to hold the statutory insurance for that state before work starts, and to contract on terms that carry statutory warranties.
Thresholds, cover and exclusions change, and they are set by the regulator rather than by us. We will confirm the current position in writing for your project before you sign anything, and we would encourage you to check it against the regulator directly.
Consumer and Business Services publishes the South Australian requirements and a public licence register. The Building and Plumbing Commission does the same in Victoria, including a practitioner search that shows the class and any conditions. Both are free and neither of them needs to hear from us first.
Where we build
Head office and the larger part of our residential work. Development approval and building rules consent through the state planning system, and a trade base we price against every week.
An active team and a domestic builder registration in the company name. Building permit path, appointed building surveyor, and the Victorian variations to the National Construction Code.
We build commercial and industrial work in New South Wales. We do not hold a residential builder licence there, so we do not take residential work in that state.
Questions
Both, in two states. In South Australia, licence BLD 344769 covers residential work in National Construction Code classes 1 and 10. In Victoria we hold a domestic builder (unlimited) registration, CDB-U 101761, restricted to classes 1 and 10. Both carry a two storey limit. All of that is on the public register.
No. Apartments are Class 2, which sits outside our residential registrations, as does any residential work above two storeys. We will say so immediately rather than work out later that we cannot sign the contract.
For a difficult site, a one-off design or a client who wants the contract administered properly. Not for a standard home on a flat block, where a volume builder will be faster and cheaper and we will tell you so.
On a standard project, usually yes, because we are not buying a repeated product at volume. On a non-standard project the comparison often runs the other way, because the work that does not fit a standard system tends to arrive as a variation later.
We can run it as a design and construct contract, where the design and the price move together under one contract, or we can build to your architect’s documentation. Both are normal and they suit different clients.
The director is involved in the projects, the pricing and the delivery, and is contactable on every job. That is a deliberate limit on how much work we take at once.
The site tells us more than the brief does. If your project is better suited to a volume builder we will say so, and that will cost you nothing but the conversation.
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