Custom New Home Builds

The most expensive mistake in a new build is designing before you understand the site. Slope, soil classification, orientation, services, easements, overlays and access all set hard limits on what can be built and what it costs to build it.

Across South East Queensland, soil classification under AS 2870 is the single largest cost variable. Reactive clay is widespread, and a site classified H1 or H2 needs an engineered footing system rather than a conventional slab. That difference can run into tens of thousands, and it is a function of the ground rather than the builder.

So we complete the investigation before quoting — soil test, contour survey and council property report. Our first number takes longer to produce and is far more likely to be the number you actually pay.

A fixed-price contract is only meaningful when the scope behind it is complete. Ours are built on full working drawings, engineering, and a documented selections schedule covering finishes, fixtures and appliances.

A low contract price with a thin specification is the oldest trick in residential construction. Provisional sums and prime cost allowances absorb the difference, and the final figure lands well above what you signed. We would rather spend longer nailing down the specification and hand you a number you can plan around.

In Queensland, domestic building contracts above $20,000 are Level 2 contracts, the deposit is capped at 5 per cent, and the work is covered by the QBCC Home Warranty Scheme. Any builder asking for a larger deposit is worth questioning before you sign.

Comfort in a Queensland home comes from orientation, shading and ventilation far more than from equipment. North-facing living areas, deep eaves, protected western glazing and a plan that lets breeze pass through do most of the work before any product decision is made.

New homes here are built to a raised energy performance standard under the National Construction Code. Meeting it through design costs essentially nothing at the drawing stage. Meeting it through mechanical systems bolted on at the end costs you every summer for the life of the house.

Western glazing is the decision we push back on hardest. Afternoon summer sun arrives low from the west at the hottest part of the day, at an angle no eave can block, and it is the most common reason a new house is uncomfortable in the room the family uses most.

One contract, one program with defined stages, and progress claims that follow those stages. Variations are priced and approved in writing before any work proceeds, never after.

Harj runs the sites. That is the practical difference between us and a volume builder — decisions get made by someone who has been on the job that morning, and problems reach you when they appear rather than when they become expensive.

Where an existing house has to come down first, we handle demolition, service disconnections, licensed asbestos removal and the associated approvals under the same contract, so there is one point of responsibility rather than three.