Most people who call us have never built anything before. They've got a house they like, a family that's outgrown it, and a rough idea of what they want, but no real sense of what happens between now and living in the finished thing.
The two questions everyone asks first are what it will cost and how long they'll be living around it. Both get answered before you commit to anything.
These are the nine stages every AA7 project runs through, start to finish.
We start at the property, not over the phone. There's no cost and nothing to sign.
Andrew walks through with you, listens to what you're planning, and looks at what the site and any existing building are likely to allow. The wall you want gone might be holding up the roof. The extension you've pictured might not fit the setback. On a new build, the slope or access might change how the house gets built. Better to hear that on the first visit than after you've paid an architect to draw it.
You'll also get an honest read on how what you want lines up with what you're prepared to spend. If the two don't meet, we'll say so that day rather than six weeks in.
If you've already got an architect, we work with them. If you haven't, we'll introduce you to architects and designers we've worked with and you deal with them directly.
Either way we stay involved while the design is still moving. Anything expensive to build, or that the existing structure won't take, gets raised early while it's still a change on paper. Your architect or designer will confirm the right approval pathway, usually a development application or a complying development certificate. Where a principal certifier is needed, you appoint them directly, and we work with them through the build.
This is where we find out what your project really costs.
We take the developed plans to trades and suppliers we regularly work with. They're pricing your actual drawings and scope rather than applying a rate per square metre to a house they've never seen. It takes longer than a quick estimate, and it gives you a number built on your project rather than an average.
You get it in writing: what the work costs, what's included, what isn't, and how long it takes.
Then we sit down and go through it with you properly. By the end you should know where every allowance sits and what would cause a number to move.
Any variation, one you've asked for or one we've brought to you, is priced and agreed in writing before the work goes ahead. The exception is genuinely urgent work needed to protect people or property. We don't price a job low and find the rest later. Most budget blowouts start with a proposal nobody explained, and a homeowner who didn't find out what was excluded until the invoice turned up.
Plenty of proposals come back higher than people were hoping for. That's where the conversation starts.
We'll show you where the money is actually going, which is rarely where people assume. Sometimes it's a finish. Sometimes it's a structural decision in the design costing far more than it's adding. Sometimes it's holding part of the work back for a few years. We'd rather rework the scope with you until it fits than see a good project stall over the number.
Once the plans and the costs are settled we prepare the building contract. Scope, program, progress payments and inclusions, all written down before anyone lifts a tool.
We also arrange Home Building Compensation cover where it's required. NSW requires it for most residential building work over $20,000, before work starts or any payment is taken. It's last-resort cover for you if the builder can't finish the job or fix defects because they've become insolvent, died, disappeared or had their licence suspended. Any builder who suggests working around it is telling you something worth listening to.
Then we build it, from demolition through to the last coat of paint.
Andrew runs the job and coordinates the trades, engineers and certifiers so the work happens in the right order. You'll hear from us regularly, and you're welcome to walk the site with Andrew as the work progresses.
When something unexpected turns up, you'll know straight away. On an existing home it's usually behind a wall: old services or hidden structure. On a new build it's more often in the ground. We'll tell you what it is, what we recommend, and what it does to your cost and timing. Nothing extra goes ahead until you've approved it.
You've waited a long time for this day, so we don't rush it.
We walk the whole house together, room by room. Anything that isn't right goes on a list and gets fixed before handover, not after you've moved in. You'll get your certificates, warranties and manuals, and the house arrives cleaned and ready to live in rather than with a fortnight of loose ends still attached.
Then you get the keys, and the first walk through your finished home is yours.
Your build carries the statutory warranties every NSW builder is bound by: six years for major defects and two years for other defects. That's the law, not something we're offering you.
What isn't automatic is if the builder picks up when you ring. Call Andrew and you get Andrew, same as you did during the build. Houses settle, seasons turn, and small things show up that nobody could see on handover day. If it's ours, we come back and sort it.
A lot of our work comes from people we've built for before, and from the neighbours who watched the job run. That only happens when the house is still right years after we've left it.
Tell us about your project. We'll come out, look at the site and give you a straight answer on what's possible.
Start the conversation