How we work
No surprises, start to finish
Building is stressful enough. Here’s exactly what happens at each stage, how we work out the price, and what we commit to.
- 1
First conversation
A phone call or a short form. We ask about the job, your budget and your timing, and we’ll tell you straight away if it’s something we do.
- 2
Site visit
We come and look. You get a rough cost range on the day, so you know whether it’s worth going further. No charge.
- 3
Detailed quote
From your plans, or with our designer if you don’t have them yet. Itemised, with inclusions and exclusions spelled out. Usually two to three weeks.
- 4
Contract and approvals
A standard industry contract, a realistic program with dates, and we handle the approvals and certifier paperwork with you.
- 5
Build
One site supervisor from start to finish, and a weekly update with photos, what’s done and what’s next. If something slips, you hear it from us first.
- 6
Handover and after
A walk-through together and a written defects list we close out. We come back at the end of the defects period to fix anything that’s shown up.
Pricing
How to read our quote
Builders’ quotes are hard to compare because they’re laid out differently and leave out different things. Ours is itemised by stage and trade, and uses three kinds of line:
- Fixed items
- Most of the job. The price is the price.
- Prime cost (PC) items
- An allowance for things you’ll choose later, like tapware or tiles. Pick something dearer and you pay the difference; pick something cheaper and you get it back.
- Provisional sums
- Work that can’t be priced until it’s uncovered, like rock or rot. We give our honest best estimate, show it separately, and charge only what it actually costs.
What you can hold us to
A fixed price, in writing
Your quote is itemised and becomes a fixed-price contract. Where something genuinely can’t be priced yet, like rock in an excavation, it’s listed as a provisional sum with our best estimate, so you can see exactly where the price could move.
No surprise variations
Any change to the work is priced and signed by you before we do it. If it isn’t signed, you don’t pay for it.
A deposit of no more than 10%
After that, you pay in stages as each stage of work is completed, never ahead of it.
Insurance before we take a cent
Where your job needs home warranty insurance, you get the certificate before we ask for a deposit. We also carry public liability and contract works insurance, and we’ll send you those certificates too.
Time to read the contract
We never ask you to sign on the day. Take the contract home, read it, ask us anything. We’d rather you sign once you’re sure.
We’ll tell you if we’re not the right builder
If your budget doesn’t match what you’re after, or the timing doesn’t work for us, we’ll say so at the first conversation instead of wasting your time.
Tell us about your project
A short form is all it takes to start. We’ll get back to you within one business day, and tell you plainly whether we’re the right builder for it.