That is a hard one. But first you will need to find another surveyor who is willing to take up your project. Depending on what your extension consists of, you should have all the relevant certificates from different trades on hand. Those would be needed when you appoint your new surveyor. Once you h...

You will need to check with your insurer. As adjoining property insurance wil require full survey of the adjoining property condition. Both parties will need to agree on all clauses and covers and both need to sign. You are best to get surveyor to check whether your renovation and extension will cau...

Don't think that you stand a chance in getting anything legally. To get your neighbour to pay for the half, they have to be presented with the quotes BEFORE fence is built in the first place. You neighbour can choose to agree the lowest price of the quotes. And if you want to go with higher costs on...

Looks cool! Mine's on post as well. I was thinking about doing more myself at first, but my build is too challenging. I got a project manager who's also a builder to look after things. I learn new things everyday. lol Still life is hard for me coz there are so many things to decide.

It is much harder now. You will need to provide all details in format that the banks want. You will definitely need someone from the industry for help on this one. I work with my supervisor/pm to work all these out. Nice looking presentations, concepts, etc.. forget it. Banks are not interested in t...

It all depends on how much experience and how much time you have, and how hard to try to find bargains. Labour wise, unless you have existing connections, most likely you will be paying above average. Finding a good project manager is not easy as well. Most likely your project manager will be your s...

Thanks for your advise! My draftsman is in QLD. :) So that makes things harder. I'm sure things will work out.

Totally agree with this. I am thinking of going this path as well. Any recommendation for a PM? I do feel that unless you have the time or you can wait, getting a project manager can save a lot of hassles. I do need some advice as this point as well since I am going to start the real work soon.

No.. render is not a requirement. Rendered or not does not affect whether the house can be locked up or not.

Suggestion is to make up your mind regarding location first. Price varies a lot around Melbourne.

My suggestion is.. to be an owner builder, there is only one thing you need to think thru. TIME. Either you have a lot of time to attend to your own build.. or you don't mind taking a long time to finish the build. And you will need quite a bit of time to study and plan what you are to do with your ...

It depends on too many things. Depends on level of finish, how much things you are going to do yourself, how good you are at for striking bargains.. etc.. Also, site conditions, materials used.. But if just for really rough idea, I would try with $1200 ~$1500 / m2 for a start. That's roughly for sta...

Thanks! That's helpful. It's along the line of my thought as well. So probably a pergola / vergola style covering would be a better choice then. As long as sunshine can get thru, you can't really say it is a roof.

I am in a dilemma regarding location of garage. If I put the garage in ground floor, then a upper level with rooms and on top of it is a covered deck. Would the covered deck be considered as a storey?! The deck is not enclosed on 3 side, and the fourth side is located above the single storey section...

That's good. As long as the bore hole is not in middle of your future garden then it is ok. That's more for rural blocks where no one is around you or for locations where you are facing the ocean. :)

It depends on the size of your block, condition and your house placement. But minimum would be 2 bore holes within your future house perimeter and especially location where extensive excavation is expected. For myself, I always ask for 3 bore holes as my block is on slope. This really will minimise ...

Frankly speaking, all your questions are answered on other forum. You won't hear an answer that you prefer to hear. As other already mention, no matter your neighbour is on boundary or behind wooden fence with 1.5m setback, there won't be any significant difference in noise level from your living ar...

Home Designer by Chief Architect is a good choice which will cost quite a bit but worth it. You can import CAD drawings as reference to draw up your slope. If you go this path, you will need the most expensive version (Pro). There will be a learning curve in getting the slope details into the progra...

Comparing Exsulite with Hebel is really not an apple to apple comparison. Exsulite is just another EPS cladding product, which is why it has a higher insulation rating as it is an insulation product by itself. If really looking for polystyrene type cladding, there are plenty of better choices out th...