Feature and Level Survey: What It Shows and Why a Sloping Block Needs One Early
Every decision on a sloping block starts from its levels. A feature and level survey measures them. It belongs at the start of design rather than the end.
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Guidance for building with confidence.
Practical thinking on custom homes, knockdown rebuilds and residential developments across Melbourne's south east.
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Protection Work Notices in Victoria: Building Next to a Neighbour
When excavation or new footings could damage the house next door, Victoria's Building Act sets out a notice process between neighbours. Here is how it runs.
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Soil Test Before You Buy: The One Check Worth Doing on a Sloping Block
Of everything you can check before buying a sloping block, our director puts the soil report first. Here is why it matters and how to get one before you are committed.
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Knockdown Rebuild on a Sloping Block: What Changes Once the Old House Comes Down
The old house hides the ground you are about to build on. On a slope that matters more, because the soil, the old fill and the fall all decide the new footings.
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Retaining Walls on a Sloping Block: When You Need a Building Permit in Victoria
The Building and Plumbing Commission sets two triggers for a retaining wall permit. On a sloping block with a new house going up, a third rule usually decides it.
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Legal Point of Discharge: Getting Stormwater Off a Sloping Block
Council decides where your block's stormwater must leave the property. On a block that falls away from the street, that one point can reshape the drainage design.
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The Victorian Planning Rules That Decide What You Can Build
The statewide rules that set what you can build on a Victorian block, plus the council rules sitting on top of them that change from one suburb to the next.
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Passive Design for a Melbourne Home: Working With the Site You Have
Passive design is what a house does before anything gets switched on.
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All-Electric Homes: What It Means for a Melbourne Custom Build
Victoria restricts gas in new homes through two separate pieces of law. They were made almost two years apart, they catch different houses and only one is in operation yet.
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7-Star NatHERS Ratings: What Victoria Requires of a New Home
Victoria requires every new home to reach a minimum 7-star NatHERS rating before a registered building surveyor will issue a building permit.
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Building a Custom Home in the Cardinia Growth Corridor: Officer and Pakenham
Buy a block in Officer and the title tends to arrive with reading attached. A registered covenant sits over the land.
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Building a Custom Home in Melbourne's Monash Corridor
Owners in the Monash corridor rarely move. They already hold the school zone and the short run to Clayton or the Business Park, so when the house stops suiting the family, the house is what changes.
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Building a Custom Home in Old Berwick: What to Know
Building a custom home in Old Berwick works differently from building on a greenfield lot fifteen minutes down the road.
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How Long Does It Take to Build a Custom Home?
A realistic timeline for a custom home, the pre-construction and construction phases, what stretches a build and why custom takes longer than a project home.
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Fixed-Price vs Cost-Plus Building Contracts: What's the Difference?
Fixed-price or cost-plus? What each contract structure means, where the pricing risk sits and the protections every Victorian building contract must include.
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Building a Custom Home, Step by Step: From Design to Handover
The full custom home build sequence in Victoria, from design, engineering and permits through the base, frame, lock-up, fixing and completion stages to handover.
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Site Classification on a Sloping Block: Reading Your Soil Report
What the site class on your soil report means when the block slopes: the AS 2870 classes, the ground movement behind each letter, what Class P covers and the footings that answer them.
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Why Volume Builders Turn Down Sloping Blocks
Why project-home builders quote sloping blocks out or turn them away, how provisional sums pass the risk to you and what a custom builder does differently.
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Building on a Sloping Block: Cut-and-Fill, Split-Level or Stumps
Which way your block falls, how steep it is and the three ways to build on it, with the retaining, drainage and neighbour questions a slope brings in Melbourne.
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Which South-East Melbourne Blocks Suit a Knockdown Rebuild?
Not every block in the south-east corridor suits a knockdown rebuild. Which Berwick, Officer, Clyde North and Pakenham blocks do, and why.
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Knockdown Rebuild vs Renovate: How to Decide
Renovate the house you have or start again? An honest framework for deciding, and the signs that tell you which one your block is asking for.
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What a Knockdown Rebuild Actually Involves: Demolition, Permits and the Real Sequence
The demolition, disconnections and permits that come before a knockdown rebuild, in the order they actually happen and why the sequence matters.
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Dual Occupancy vs Townhouse: Which Suits Your Block?
Two dwellings or three? What separates a dual occupancy from a townhouse development in Victoria, which one your block will carry, and how to decide between them.
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Monash Dual Occupancy Feasibility: Zoning, Site Area, Setbacks and Site Coverage
What decides whether a Monash block can carry two dwellings: the zone over your land, the site area each dwelling needs, the setbacks you hold and how much you can cover.
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Dual Occupancy in Melbourne: Zoning, Cost and How to Choose a Builder
Which blocks qualify, what your zone allows, what it costs to build, and the questions that separate a good dual occupancy builder from a costly one.
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