We value your time
We know that you’re busy, so we take the stress away and do all the heavy lifting to ensure that your precious time is spent doing what you enjoy.
From initial consultation all the way through to final handover, we work tirelessly to make your home building experience an exciting and enjoyable one.
We’ve spent years refining our processes to ensure that you receive a personalised home building experience as well as accurate pricing and transparency.
We’ll work closely with you to design and build your dream home that suits your budget, lifestyle and unique taste and the collaboration continues all the way through to final handover.
Benefits of engaging Gentrify from Day 1
It's all in the design
Enquiry &
Consultation
Phase
Step 1: Enquiry
Your home building journey starts with you making an enquiry with us, which you can do by calling us on 1800 436 874, emailing us at enquiries@gentrify.com.au or submitting a form from this website. Following your initial enquiry, we’ll contact you to start gathering information about your project and explain our process to you. This gives us an understanding of your objectives and helps you to determine whether our services are a good fit for you.
From here, we do some homework before meeting you face-to-face for a free consultation.
Step 2: Initial Consultation
During this initial face-to-face meeting, we’ll listen carefully to your goals and objectives. We’ll encourage you to bring anything that might help us to understand your project in more detail such as your scrapbook of ideas, photos and magazine clippings as this helps us to form a picture of your lifestyle, taste and unique preferences.
We’ll discuss things like the size and layout of your new home, the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and living spaces. We’ll also gain an understanding of your budget so that we can tailor a design to meet this and ensure that you’re clear on what you can expect with your budget.
We’ll discuss your particular site in detail and make you aware of any important information such as covenants, planning overlays, easements and any potential restrictions relating to your project.
Design &
Documentation
Phase
Step 3: Concept Design
This is where the fun part starts! To formally kick things off, we enter into a Design Development Agreement so we can commence more detailed investigation and develop an initial concept design for your new home.
We’ll take the information we collected during your Initial Consultation and produce an exciting concept design for your new home. The design will be based on your client brief and will include a preliminary floor plan and elevations with dimensions and façade.
Once complete, we’ll present your preliminary concept plans to you for review. After you’ve spent some time deciding what you do and don’t like about the initial concept, we’ll work collaboratively with you to fine-tune the design until it’s exactly where it needs to be.
Prior to commencing the next stage, we’ll provide you with an estimated build cost range, so that you have a good idea what the final cost will be. Any required design adjustments can then be made before detailed design, engineering and contract documentation is developed.
Step 4: Detail Design & Contract Documentation
Once you’re happy with the concept design, we enter into a Preliminary Expenses Agreement and we develop all of the documentation required in order to gain the necessary council approvals and enter into a Building Contract. If Council have any queries, we’ll address them on your behalf.
Below are the documents that we produce during this important phase:
- Geotechnical soil testing, report and site classification.
- Site feature survey.
- Architectural working drawings, including key internal elevations and detailing.
- Civil and structural engineering design, computations, certification and council approval.
- Detailed specifications, including all quantities, fixtures, fittings selections and colour schedule.
- Thermal assessment and design, including 6 star energy rating compliance and certification.
- Comprehensive fixed price building contract and associated documentation.
We’ll arrange for a geotechnical soil test of your site to be performed so that we can determine your soil’s reactivity and composition, which we need for the detailed design and engineering. We’ll also conduct a site feature survey to accurately assess the slope and contours of your site, locate underground services and identify any potential restrictions and obstacles.
We’ll handle the entire design and approval process, checking in with you along the way to provide regular updates and solicit your feedback.
We’ll also guide you through our selections process and connect you with our Interior Designer (if required) to help you make the final selections for the fit-out of your new home. The resulting document is a comprehensive specification detailing all of your selections and a full schedule of finishes for windows, joinery, tiling, plumbing and flooring etc. This will give you peace of mind and full transparency so you know exactly what will be included in your new home.
The final step of this stage is to present you with the final design, fixed price and contract documentation ready for signing. This is also an opportunity to make any final tweaks to the design and specification before entering into a building contract and commencing construction.
Upon signing of the building contract and receipt of the initial 5% deposit payment, we’ll organise Domestic Builder’s Insurance and Building Permit, which signifies the beginning of the construction phase.
Town Planning (optional and if required)
Some projects such as multi-dwelling sub-division projects and heritage listed properties require Town Planning approval before construction can commence. We’ll let you know during your Initial Consultation whether Town Planning Permits are required so you can decide how you wish to handle this. We offer a full end-to-end solution and can manage the Town Planning Process on your behalf, or you may wish to manage this yourself.
Property subdivisions and duplex/townhouse projects can be complex and if not undertaken correctly, can result in undesirable outcomes and at worst, they can be rejected by Council. For this reason, most of our clients prefer our full end-to-end solution where we manage the entire process from concept to completion, taking the stress out of what can be a complex and confusing process. We have significant experience in this area and can manage the Town Planning process on your behalf, ensuring that your project transitions through Council as smoothly and as stress free as possible.
Construction
Phase
Stage 1 – Base
Upon commencement of construction, our build team set out the site to ensure that your new home is correctly positioned on the block.
Most of the homes we build will be a concrete slab on the ground, however (depending on the site or Engineer’s design), some homes may be built on stumps or strip footings.
For concrete slabs on the ground, the underground plumbing is carefully installed and the concrete formwork and reinforcement is erected in accordance with the Engineer’s drawings, which provides the footprint of your home. Prior to the concrete slab being poured, the underground drainage work is inspected by a VBA Inspector and the foundations and reinforcing is inspected by a Building Surveyor. The concrete slab is then poured and the surface finished before the formwork is removed.
The Base Stage payment is then made in accordance with your building contract.
Stage 2 – Frame
Once the slab has cured and the site has been cleared, the timber frame is erected in accordance with the design layout. Some elements of the frame may be pre-fabricated off site in a workshop before being erected on site by our expert team of frame carpenters. Structural timber and steel beams, columns and floor joists are also installed during this phase in accordance with the Engineer’s design, which provide the home’s structural strength and integrity. Particleboard flooring on the upper level is then installed followed by the roof truss. Upon completion of the frame stage, the Building Surveyor conducts a thorough inspection of the frame in accordance with the plans and Building Code before issuing a certificate of compliance.
The Frame Stage payment is then made in accordance with your building contract.
Stage 3 – Lock-Up
At this stage of the home building process, we install the roof, guttering, sarking, windows and external cladding.
Before your home is enclosed with external cladding, the plasterboard wall sheeting is pre-loaded inside the home ready for erection later. Sarking is then installed on the outside of your home, which prevents water ingress and condensation.
External windows and doors and cladding are then installed, which completes the lock-up stage.
The Lock-up Stage payment is then made in accordance with your building contract.
Stage 4 – Fixing
All of the internal components of your new home can now be fitted and fixed into position such as insulation, plasterboard, architraves, skirting boards, stairs, doors, cabinetry, joinery and cupboards. We also paint the internal walls and ceiling at this stage.
The Fixing Stage payment is then made in accordance with your building contract.
Stage 5 – Practical Completion
During the Practical Completion phase, the finishing touches of your home are completed including the installation of decks, appliances, fixtures, fittings, door hardware, tiling, mirrors, shower screens and floor coverings. Air conditioning and heating units are also commissioned and tested during this stage.
Defect inspections are then undertaken and any remedial items are remedied at this point before final handover.
The Completion Stage payment is then made in accordance with your building contract.
Stage 6 – Handover & Maintenance
Your new home is now complete, so it’s time for us to show you around your new home and hand over the keys!
We’ll show you how everything works and will provide you with a folder containing all of the certificates of compliance and warranties.
For the next three months, we’ll keep in touch with you and will address any maintenance related items that may arise. We love to take this opportunity to check in and see how you’ve settled into your new home.
