Building Designer and Draftsman Sutherland Shire

Start with the block. On a Gymea Bay slope or a Burraneer waterfront the sandstone shelf, the fall towards the water and the foreshore building line shape the house long before anyone chooses a floor plan. We take the levels ourselves, work out what the land will carry, then document the scheme so a builder can price it and Sutherland Shire Council can assess it. The approval work stays with us, from the development application through to the construction certificate.

Cost, and the size of the job. Most of what we draw around Cronulla, Caringbah South and Woolooware is a second storey, a granny flat, a pool terrace or a carport, and none of that needs an architect on a percentage of the build. We quote a fixed amount, measure the house that is standing, and assemble drawings Sutherland Shire Council will assess without a long list of extra requests. A one off waterfront house at Lilli Pilli is a different brief, and worth an architect.

It is the formal request for consent to build on your land or change how the land is used. Second storeys, new houses, granny flats, pools, decks, sheds and retaining all sit in that bracket, and so does work below the foreshore building line on Port Hacking, including a jetty, a boat shed or a slipway. The submission needs levels taken on site, shadow diagrams, a written planning case and engineering where the excavation or the structure warrants it. We prepare all of it and lodge.

Allow 6 to 8 weeks for a deck, a carport or a retaining wall, and 10 to 14 weeks for a new house or a granny flat, assuming the submission is complete on the day it goes in. Waterfront work on Gunnamatta Bay or Port Hacking takes longer because foreshore and tidal matters attract referrals, and so does land mapped bushfire prone where a rear boundary meets the Royal National Park or the Woronora bushland. Most of the delay we see traces back to documents missing at lodgement.

Nothing starts on site until a certifier confirms the approved design meets the Building Code of Australia and the standards behind it. This stage carries the structure, the waterproofing, fire separation and thermal performance. On a Shire block the footings are usually the interesting part, because a slab bearing on sandstone at one corner and on fill at the other needs a design that answers for both. We put the certificate documents together and work through the certifier’s questions.

Frequently, and it saves money. A pool with the terraced walls holding the yard above it, or a carport with a new crossover, read as one set of works on one site and can go in together. Two submissions means two sets of fees and two waits. Before drawing starts we ask what else is on the list for the next year or two, then document as much of it as the controls allow. It also avoids a second job undoing something the first one had already been approved for.

Setbacks, site coverage, landscaped area and private open space decide whether a granny flat fits at all, so those numbers get checked against your address first. Where a rear boundary backs bushland at Yowie Bay or Kangaroo Point, the bushfire mapping comes into it too and can set the construction standard. After that you get the levels, the plans, the sections and the submission package for complying development or a full application, whichever pathway the land allows.

Waterproofing, falls to the waste, fixture positions and the tile setout all end up dimensioned, along with any wall or service that has to shift. Plenty of Shire bathrooms sit inside a 1960s brick home where the original wet area was tiny and the wall you want gone is carrying load, so the structural note matters. Most of this work runs as complying development or needs no application, though we confirm that for your job rather than assume it. Plumber and tiler price off one set.

Leave the walls and the footprint where they are and generally no application is needed. Take out a wall in a 1960s brick home at Caringbah South and it often turns out to be structural, which changes the answer. We draw the bench setout, the joinery elevations and the services, mark the beam and its supports where one is going in, and tell you which pathway your job falls under before the cabinetmaker quotes. Three trades then work off the same sheet.

Everything a builder and a certifier need, drawn around the land you own. On a block falling to the water at Dolans Bay or Sylvania Waters that means excavation depth through sandstone, the retaining, where stormwater discharges and how close the building can come to the foreshore building line, all resolved before anyone prices it. The set covers levels, layout, sections, elevations and notes, plus the development application or complying development paperwork behind them.

In nearly every case. Council looks at how far the shell sits from boundaries and footings, how much rock is coming out, where the backwash and the overflow go, and whether the barrier complies. Those four details hold up more pool applications than the pool ever does. Around Gymea Bay and Yowie Bay the yard usually falls away, so the pool arrives with terracing and retaining attached, and we document the lot as one package. Rebuilds and the paving get the same drawings.