Builders in Paddington

Paddington runs across a series of ridges falling toward Milton and Red Hill, and very few blocks are flat. Cross-falls of three or four metres across a site are ordinary here, which means retaining, engineered footings, drainage design and careful management of where the house sits on the slope.

Frontages are narrow by modern standards, and the houses were built close to their boundaries long before current setback provisions existed. That restricts machinery access, complicates scaffolding, and frequently means concrete has to be pumped rather than discharged directly.

Access is the item most often underpriced on a Paddington job. A builder who has not walked the block and worked out how material actually reaches the work has not priced your site.

Most of Paddington sits within character areas, and much of it in Demolition Control Precincts. Demolition of a pre-1947 house is heavily restricted and, on a house contributing to the streetscape, unlikely to be approved.

That is not the obstacle it first appears. The overlay is concerned with what the street sees — roof form, verandah, front setback, window proportions and materials. It leaves considerably more freedom at the rear.

The approach that works is a restored, compliant street elevation with contemporary living in a rear addition, plus raising the house to build in underneath where the permitted height allows it.

Paddington is dominated by timber workers' cottages and small colonial Queenslanders, many over a century old and most modified repeatedly since.

The recurring finds are stumps at the end of their life, termite damage in bearers and joists, previous unapproved alterations done without engineering, undersized switchboards, failing plumbing and no insulation anywhere.

A structural assessment before design is not optional here. It is the difference between a fixed price and a sequence of variations.