Home Renovations in Brisbane

The honest test is structural. If the existing frame, roof and foundations are sound and the layout can be reworked without relocating everything, renovation usually wins on cost per square metre and on time.

If the plan requires moving the kitchen, the bathrooms, the stairs and the external walls, you are approaching rebuild cost for a compromised result — new work stitched into old geometry, with the old constraints still setting the limits.

There is a compliance dimension too. A rebuild delivers a house built to current standards throughout. A renovation only brings the parts you touch up to current requirements, which is often the right trade but should be a decision rather than a surprise.

We give clients a straight comparison, including the cases where we recommend doing less work than they came in asking for.

In Brisbane housing stock, the recurring finds are termite damage in timber framing, previous unapproved work that does not comply, undersized electrical switchboards, failing galvanised plumbing, and no insulation at all.

Asbestos is likely in anything built before the late 1980s — commonly in eaves, wet area sheeting, and sometimes vinyl flooring backing. It requires licensed removal with documentation, and it is not something to discover after the demolition crew has started.

Stump and bearer condition matters on any older Brisbane home, particularly where the house has been previously altered without engineering. We inspect before quoting, not after.

A rear extension is the most common Brisbane renovation and the most commonly underestimated. Connecting new to old means matching floor levels, tying in roof structure, dealing with an existing wall that may not be load-bearing where you assumed, and managing the junction where two building systems meet.

Removing internal walls to open up a plan is straightforward when the wall is not structural and considerably less so when it is. Where it is, the answer is a beam sized by an engineer, with supports carried down to adequate footings — which sometimes means new footings in the middle of a finished house.

Where an extension increases the building footprint, setbacks, site cover and overlays apply just as they do on a new build. Character overlay provisions in particular affect what can be done to the front and sides.

Fixed price where the scope can genuinely be defined, with a clearly stated and sensible contingency for what is behind the walls. We tell you what we find before we act on it, and we price it in writing before proceeding.

A renovation contract that carries no contingency at all is either priced with a hidden margin or set up for variations. Neither is honest, and both cost you more than a stated allowance would.

Renovation is the work that most rewards an owner-run builder. Nothing is square, dimensions vary across a single room, and decisions have to be made on site by someone with the authority to make them.