{Renovation Junkies} Getting the Construction Certificate

The next step in our renovation adventure is to get the Construction Certificate (CC).

No CC means no renovation means no new kitchen means heartbreak.

Basically a CC is a list of a stack of items and you need to supply and/or pay to the local council. Once supplied and paid, the council checks them.

Things on this list include;

• detailed architectural plans
• Basix certificate
• detailed stormwater plans
• landscaping plans
• dilapidation report of Council's assets, e.g. footpath
• Sydney Water approvals
• pay levies, rates, damage deposits (thanks Council)
• details of planned erosion

If they are happy, they give you the CC. If not, you go around in circles trying to make them happy so they will eventually give you the CC.

Cause like I said no CC, no renovation.

We have been fortunate our architect, Stuart, has helped us out with getting a lot of things, like engineer reports and Sydney Water approvals.

Our builders have also been great in going through the list with us and telling us explicitly what is our responsibility, leaving no doubt who has to do what and by when. 

Now I just need to get organised and tick my things off the list!

Had any issues getting a Construction Certificate?

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{Renovation Junkies} Our Builders, Steve & Dave

After much back and forth and lots of messages and un-returned phone calls with several builders over the past couple of months - we have chosen our builder!

Steve and Dave at Sydney Select Constructions (SSC) will be guys building our renovation and we are super excited.

Steve and Dave came recommended to us by James (over at Renovation Junkies) as he had worked with then both in the past. 

We met with Steve at our house to go through the plans and what we wanted and he told us that he would have a tender offer to us by the end of the following week - he did!

He told us he would then give us a few days to look at it before meeting with us again to go through the tender and the rest of the SSC process - he did! and  had booked a time to meet us near our work to take us through it all and answer any questions. 

We met for coffee and went through the tender offer answering any questions that we had. 

He also introduced us to the SSC process and the binder!

I have to admit by this stage I was pretty much sold to the fact that SSC would be doing the renovation - but as soon as Steve showed us that binder, with it's dividers and organisation I knew Steve and Dave were the guys for us. 

Steve went through the binder explaining to us about the Home Warranty's Insurance, Construction Certificate, the pre-construction checklists, site meetings with minutes, certified pest control barriers, lock-ups and handovers. We were amazed. 

Compared to the other builders we had asked for quotes, none of them came close to SSC in regard to the beginning quotation stage. For first-time renovators it was really great to have the time taken to explain all this to us. 

Got any stories on picking a builder?

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