What are all the steps involved when building a new house?

Casa’s steps in designing and building a home, once you have your block of land and organised finance.

PHASE 1: PRELIMINARY (0.5 months)
    1) Get a copy of the house design software My Virtual Home (it’s free!)
    2) Get property information:
          a. Deposited Plan
          b. Sewer Service Diagram
          c. Local council Development Control Plan
          d. Contour map
          e. Soil test
    3) Talk to as many people as you can about the design and building process

PHASE 2: PLANNING (0.5 months)
    1) Put together a plan of each step with timing

PHASE 3: REQUIREMENTS (2 months)
    1) Document all your requirements (what you want without details about how to make it happen).

PHASE 4: BUILDING DESIGNER SELECTION (2 months)
    1) List what you are after in a Building Designer
    2) Interview Building Designers
    3) Select candidate Building Designers
    4) Examine candidate Building Designers work to see their quality level
    5) Talk to previous customers to see what their service is like
    6) Get candidate Building Designers’ ideas for a concept a design
    7) Select Building Designer
    8 ) What you want in the Building Designer contract
    9) Sign up a Building Designer

PHASE 5: DESIGN DEVELOPMENT (3 months)
    1) Finalise a concept design
    2) Get a physical model of your design
    3) Pre-DA meeting with Council
    4) Show the neighbours your plans
    5) Detailed design
    6) Collect information for DA
          a. Site plan
          b. Floor Plan
          c. Elevations
          d. Sections
          e. Shadow Diagrams
          f. Landscape Plan
          g. Environmental Effects Statement
          h. Drainage Plan (Stormwater/OSD Checklist)
          i. BASIX Certificate
           j. Heritage Report (if required)
          k. Geotechnical Engineers Report (if required)
          l. Structural Details
          m. Foundation Details
          n. Demolition Plan

PHASE 6: COUNCIL APPROVAL (3 months)
    1) Check with council to make sure they have everything
    2) While waiting, put together your Building Specification

The Building Specification details each of the items in your building such as fittings (manufacturer and part number)

PHASE 7: BUILDER SELECTION (4 months and in parallel to Phase 6)
    1) List what you are after in a builder
    2) Interview builders
    3) Select candidate builders
    4) Look at previous work of candidate builders to see their quality level
    5) Talk to previous customers of candidate builder to see what their service is like
    6) Get quotes from candidate builders
    7) Select builder
    8 ) Price negotiation/redesign
    9) List what you are after in a building contract
    10) Building Contract
    11) Construction Certificate

PHASE 8: CONSRUCTION (12 months)
    1A) Select building inspector
    1B) Finalise appliances/variances
    1C) Select furniture while house is being built
    2) Construction (the main event!)
    3) Progress checks with building inspector
    4) Progress payment if building phase is complete and correct

PHASE 9: ACCEPTANCE (0.5 months)
    1) Final Inspection
    2) Document any faults
    3) Follow-up final inspection
    4) Acceptance
    5) Final payment

PHASE 10: MOVE IN (0.5 months)
    1) Move-in
    2) Party!

A good book to buy is Building Your Own Home by George Wilkie (available through Choice).

jezzcb,

Get a copy of Building Your Own Home by George Wilkie and The Choice Guide to Building & Renovating On Time & On Budget by Peter Mason. Both are available from Choice. They're easy reading and should arm you for specific questions with answers from those that have gone down the Owner Builder path.

Cheers,
Casa

Thanks very much for your replies.

I will get my hands on those books. Are these books available in web form? If anybody has any other online info I can access that would be great too as it may be a couple of months before I can get back into Australia and to an Aussie bookshop.

Thanks again.

Jezz

Jezz,

Check this one out - there's some useful information on this site:

http://www.ownerbuilding.com.au/index.php

In NSW in order to be an owner builder, you need to register for an approved course. You'll need to check the requirements for Tassie.

http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/corporate/publications/ftb22ownerbuildersapprovedcourses.html

Here's another link which may help:

http://www.homesite.com.au/rebuild-extend/knockdown-rebuild/new-homes-nsw/tips-and-guides/should-you-become-an-owner-builder

The site you quoted looks good - I'd go for the one day workshop rather than correspondence course. You'll always get more out of a face to face class.

All the best for your adventure!

Perry