A common early decision that causes much conjecture for those proposing to do a Home Extension is whether or not to get plans done first or done by the selected Extension Builder!

Unfortunately the ramifications of this choice are not felt until after the event and at quoting stage.

It is certainly the view of Extensions Unlimited after many years of building home extension in Melbourne that getting plans done too early leads much more often than not to massive disappointment, disillusionment of the industry and thousands of dollars wasted.

Why? Its really a case of human nature…The Clients have ideas and find an architect or draughts person to draw up their ideas. As these people are not builders they quite often have no, limited or outdated ideas on costs and are basically just there to draw what YOU ask them too. This, after all, is what you have engaged them to do right!

And like all of us our ‘want’s and wishes’ can quite often exceed our ‘needs’ and the plans become a perfect picture of what you want your home to look like. You’ve drawn a ‘Ferrari’.

The facts are however that your budget was probably for something else. Maybe a commodore, maybe a Calais, or perhaps an Audi…but not a Ferrari.

But you don’t find this out until you send your plans out to Tender.

Assuming that you can find a Builder that will even look at your plans you will most likely discover that the quotes are miles over your budget which then makes your expensive plans worthless, the excitement of what you believed you could have gone and the very hard task of going back to a clean slate….You’ve just lost a lot of time and thousands of dollars !!

By engaging an Extension Builder that can do the whole process in house, from professional draft design, through plans and permits and to construction you will find that from the initial design stage, which should be a free service, an accurate budget can be established and monitored along the way so that any formal contract price and final construction are all within expectations.

This is achieved because the builder is expert in this area and can work in partnership to balance your needs to he most economical design and can have real time conversations on cost implications as you ask the question

Unlike finding out the answer months later when a quote comes in on your drawings.