Investigate before pricing
Where access allows, we open up and look before quoting — so the quote reflects the house you actually own.
Service 02
Renovating is harder than building new.
Nobody knows exactly what is behind the wall until it is open. What you can control is who is standing there when it is, and what happens next.
The service
Old house, new work, no nasty surprises.
Every renovation has unknowns — old wiring, rot in a bearer, a wall that turns out to be load-bearing. The difference between a good renovation and a horror story is not whether those things happen. It is whether they were anticipated, priced as a contingency, and dealt with in a day instead of a fortnight.
We scope renovations harder than new builds for exactly that reason. We open up and investigate before we quote wherever we can, we carry realistic provisional sums instead of optimistic ones, and we tell you what we find the day we find it.
Included
What you get with this service.
Every item below is part of the contract price — none of it is an upsell once we are on site.
Live-in staging
Wherever it is safe, we stage the work so you keep a kitchen and a bathroom. If you cannot stay, we say so early.
Dust and noise control
Sealed hoardings, floor protection and notice before the loud stages. Your neighbours get told too.
Matching the existing
Brick, render, roof tiles and trim matched properly, so the addition does not read as an addition.
Honest contingencies
Provisional sums sized for what old houses actually hide, not shaved to make the quote look better.
Written variations
If we open a wall and find a problem, you get a written price and a decision. Nothing proceeds on a handshake.
Scope
What we take on
- Second-storey additions. Including the structural work below to carry the new floor, and re-roofing the whole house so it matches.
- Rear and ground-floor extensions. Opening the back of the house to living, dining and outdoor space.
- Kitchens, bathrooms and laundries. Full strip-out and rebuild including waterproofing, tiling and joinery.
- Structural alterations. Removing load-bearing walls, underpinning, re-stumping and re-levelling.
Process
How a renovation runs.
Four stages, each with a defined output. You always know where the job is.
01
Site visit & investigation
We walk through with you, get into the subfloor and roof space, and identify what is likely to be hiding before anyone commits.
02
Scope & fixed-price quote
An itemised quote with clearly sized contingencies, plus a written staging plan showing what is out of action and when.
03
Build in stages
Demolition, structure, services, lining, finishes. You get a weekly update and as much of the house back as we can give you.
04
Handover & defects
Joint walkthrough, defect list written with you, and everything closed before the final invoice is issued.
Questions
Renovations & Extensions — the things people ask.
For a rear extension or a second storey, usually yes for most of the build — we seal the work area off and keep your kitchen and one bathroom running. For a whole-of-house renovation, generally no. We will tell you which one your project is at the first visit, not after you have signed.
You get a call the same day, a photo, a written price and your options. Work in that area stops until you decide. We carry provisional sums for the common ones so it usually comes out of an allowance already in your contract rather than as a new cost.
Almost always for anything that adds floor area or changes the roofline. Some internal work is exempt. We assess it at the site visit and handle the lodgement either way.
That is largely a materials question and we take it seriously — brick blends, render texture, roof tile profile and trim details all get matched and shown to you before ordering. On heritage or character homes we allow extra time in the program for exactly this.
Related work
Projects that used this service.
Also from Bhuran
Our other services.
Residential New Builds
Custom homes, knockdown rebuilds and duplexes built to a fixed price and a dated program, from bare block to keys in hand.
Commercial Construction
Office and retail fit-outs, warehouse and industrial works, hospitality builds, defit and make-good — programmed around your lease and trading hours.
Project Management
Already have drawings and consultants? We run the approvals, trades, budget and program as your builder or owner's representative.
Thinking about adding on?
Send through what you have — drawings, a sketch, or just a description. We will come out and price it properly.