Construction & Contractors Blog
Designing and building a new home as an owner-builder is a dream for many Australians. It's a way to have complete control over the quality of the workmanship and finishes and to feel a strong emotional attachment to the completed home. It can mean savings of thousands of dollars by minimising or eradicating the cost of contractor labour.
If you're embarking on an owner-builder project, you'll still need to ensure that your home meets all the building regulations and codes that are required by your local council and your state government. Before your home can be lived in, it will need to acquire a certification by a registered building certifier.
Over the course of the building process, you'll need to include three main consultation types with your certifier.
Planning certification
Before any work begins on your home, a certifier will need to make an assessment of your building plans. This is to ensure that your plans don't breach any regulations regarding construction methods, size and height restrictions, the proximity to the property's boundaries, and the disposal of sewage.
If the certifier is happy that your plans are in order, they'll provide you with a certificate of approval. This certification doesn't replace the building approval that you'll also need to get from your local council prior to the commencement of building.
Construction certification
Each state has slightly different regulations, but wherever you live there will be mandatory stages of construction that require certification. If a certifier finds any issues with the completed work, then they'll issue you with an enforcement notice which must be remedied before any more work can be legally carried out.
It's vital that you adhere to these mandatory inspections at each stage and remedy any breaches. Failure to do so will not only prevent final approval on your home, it may also cost you a significant amount of time and money if you need to tear down and rebuild parts of your construction to achieve compliance.
Final certification
Before you can legally reside in your home, you'll need to be issued with a final certification for occupancy. This stage in the certification process is needed to ensure that your new home is safe and fit for human habitation. If the certifier finds any breaches of regulations or code during this assessment, they'll need to be fixed before certification is given.
Making sure that your certifier is involved in all the crucial stages of your project is essential. It will ensure that your home is safe, legal, and the construction process runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
Share11 May 2017
Hello and welcome to my construction blog. My name is David and I would like to tell you about the process of designing and building a new home from the ground up. I had always dreamed of building my own home and last year, that dream became a reality. I had been saving money for many years so I could afford to buy the materials and employ the contractors needed to construct my home. I learnt so much during the process, I decided to start this blog. It was a wonderful day when the final piece of my home was put into place and I am now very happy.