Heritage Overlays: What You Can and Cannot Change
14 August 2026
A heritage overlay is not a ban on renovating. It is a set of rules about what is visible from the street — and the rear of your house is usually fair game.
Cost, timelines, approvals, warranties and the things people are too polite to ask a builder. If yours is not here, call us — we would rather answer it now than after you have signed something.
There is no useful average, and any builder who gives you one over the phone is guessing. The cost is driven by the size of the job, the condition of what is already there, how much has to move behind the walls, and the finishes you choose. We come out, measure up, and put a fixed price in writing for the scope we have agreed — free, and with no obligation to go ahead.
A fixed price for the scope in the contract. It does not move unless you ask for a change, or unless something we could not see — rot behind a wall, an old failed membrane, a slab that is not where the drawing says — turns up. In that case you get a written variation with a price before the work happens, never an invoice afterwards.
No. The visit, the measure-up and the written quote are free. We would rather spend an hour finding out that a job is not a fit for us than have you pay for the privilege.
A provisional sum is an allowance for something that cannot be priced accurately yet — often site costs before a soil report, or a fixture you have not chosen. They are legitimate, and they are also where budgets quietly grow. We keep them to a minimum, name every one of them in the quote, and tell you what we think the real figure will land at.
Almost always because they are not quoting the same job. One has allowed for waterproofing to standard and the other has not; one has included the rubbish removal, the temporary works and the making good, and the other will invoice them later. Put the quotes side by side and compare the scope lines, not the totals — we are happy to walk through ours with you line by line.
Against progress, in the stages set out in the contract, and never in advance of the work. A deposit is taken at signing within the limit the Domestic Building Contracts Act sets, and each later claim falls due when that stage is actually complete.
A single bathroom is one of the shorter jobs we do — the constraint is not labour, it is the waiting: the membrane has to cure, the screed has to go off, the stone has to be templated and cut. We sequence the trades back to back so there are no idle days, and you get the dates with your quote before you commit.
Whole-house work is measured in months, not weeks, and the honest range depends on how much is being moved. What matters more than the total is the programme: your quote comes with staged dates, and if something on site changes them you hear it from us before it costs you anything.
Usually, and we plan for it. The works get sealed off from the rest of the house, we stage the job so you keep a kitchen and a bathroom for as much of it as possible, and the programme tells you up front which weeks are going to be the disruptive ones so you can plan around them.
Standard domestic building hours, which councils across Melbourne set at roughly 7:00am to 6:00pm on weekdays and shorter hours on Saturdays, with no work on Sundays or public holidays without a specific permit. Neighbours get told before anything noisy or access-restricting happens.
You get told early, in writing, with the reason and the new date. Some delays are ours to wear and some are not — a wet fortnight, a permit that sits longer than it should, an appliance that does not land — and the contract sets out how each is handled. What we will not do is let the date quietly slip and hope you do not notice.
They are different things and some jobs need both. A planning permit comes from your council and is about what you are allowed to build — overlays, setbacks, neighbourhood character, overshadowing. A building permit comes from a registered building surveyor and is about whether it complies with the building code. Most internal renovations need only the second; extensions and anything touched by an overlay usually need both.
Often not, if you are re-fitting a room within the existing walls and not touching structure. But the moment plumbing is relocated, a wall comes out, or the work is part of a bigger job, it changes. We work out what applies to your address before quoting rather than after, and we will tell you plainly if you do not need us to lodge anything.
You do, and that is deliberate — the surveyor is independent of the builder. We will recommend surveyors we have worked with, coordinate their inspections and manage the paperwork, but the appointment is yours to make.
Almost always, yes. A heritage overlay is about what is visible and what is significant, not a ban on work — the frontage and the streetscape are protected, the rear of the house is usually a far more open question. We engage a heritage adviser and prepare the response as part of the planning application.
We do. Permit applications, the structural engineer, the energy assessor, the surveyor’s inspections and the final occupancy paperwork are all coordinated by us. You sign; we chase.
A standard major domestic building contract, which is what the Domestic Building Contracts Act requires for work of this size. You get it to read before you sign it, with the scope, the staged payments, the programme and the variation process all written down. If anything in it is unclear, ask — and get your own advice on it if you want to.
Domestic building insurance (DBI) protects you if the builder dies, disappears or becomes insolvent. In Victoria it is required on domestic building work over $16,000, and the certificate has to be in your hands before you pay a deposit. On any job over that threshold, yes — you get the certificate before any money changes hands.
Yes, and you should check — it takes a minute. The Victorian Building Authority keeps a public register of registered building practitioners at vba.vic.gov.au; search the name on your quote. Do this for every builder you are considering, not just us.
The statutory warranties under the Domestic Building Contracts Act apply to the work — that it is done with reasonable care and skill, to the plans and specifications, and with suitable materials. Domestic building insurance cover runs six years for structural defects and two for non-structural. Every certificate and manual goes into your handover pack rather than being posted to you months later.
You call us and we come back. There is a defects walk-through before the final payment, which is when most things get picked up, and a defects period after handover for anything that shows itself later. We are a small local business — coming back is cheaper for us than the reputation of not coming back.
Yes, in practice. Removing tiles damages the membrane underneath, and an old membrane that was compliant when it went in usually is not now. Retiling over a compromised membrane is the single most common reason a bathroom fails a few years after a renovation, and it is not something we will do.
Yes, and it is genuinely cheaper because the drainage and most of the plumbing stay where they are. If moving one fixture would make the room work substantially better we will show you what that change costs, and you decide with the number in front of you.
Either. Plenty of clients enjoy choosing their own and we are happy to install what they supply. If you would rather not spend your weekends in showrooms, we will put a selection together and price it as part of the job.
Less time than the demolition suggests and more than the optimistic answer. The real constraint is the joinery lead time, which we confirm before you sign, and we will set up a temporary bench, sink and fridge run so the house still works while the kitchen does not.
Yes. Strip-out, rubbish removal and asbestos assessment are in the price, not extras that appear later. Anything that has to be disposed of under a specific regime — asbestos most often — is handled by the licensed people who are supposed to handle it.
It depends on whether the existing footings and frame can carry one, which is an engineering question rather than an opinion. We assess that before anything is drawn — it is much cheaper to find out at survey stage than after you have paid for a design.
Not if it is detailed properly. Matching the roof pitch, the brick and the render is a real part of what we quote for. Where an exact match genuinely is not achievable — and with some bricks it is not — we will tell you, so you can choose to contrast deliberately instead of accidentally.
For anything that removes or adds load — a wall out, a new opening, an addition, new footings — yes. We coordinate the engineer, and the design is priced off their drawings rather than estimated ahead of them.
Yes. We will price them as they stand and tell you honestly where we think the drawing will fight the house. Clearances, floor levels and how the new roof meets the old one are the three that come up most often.
Anything built before the late 1980s in Melbourne should be assumed to have some until tested. Assessment is part of the strip-out, and removal is done by a licensed removalist with the clearance certificate going into your handover pack. It is not a reason to abandon a renovation; it is a reason not to let an unlicensed trade rip it out.
Four straightforward stages, so you always know what happens next and what it will cost before work begins.
Tell us about the site, the home you have in mind and when you would like the work done.
We assess the block, access and scope on site, then price the work specifically for your project.
Surfaces are levelled, services connected and the frame set out before a single wall goes up.
Fit-off, detailing and cleaning are completed, then we walk the finished home through with you.
A heritage overlay is not a ban on renovating. It is a set of rules about what is visible from the street — and the rear of your house is usually fair game.
From first sketch to handover, a realistic programme for a Melbourne new build — including the approval months most timelines quietly leave out.
Slope is not the problem. Fighting the slope is. How split levels, suspended slabs and honest early engineering keep a difficult site affordable.
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