Builder Guide

How it works

1. Pin the documents

   The drawings and the specification you are agreeing to should be the ones named in the contract, with a date you recognise.

2. Match the registration

   Search the state building register for the name on the contract. The class should fit a new house, an extension, or the renovation described.

3. Variations before they are built

   When a wall moves or a fitting changes, the change is written and accepted first. A message sent after the framing has already shifted is a weak record.

Services

• New houses

  A contract to build a home, with the registration, inspections and stages that accompany it.

• Extensions

  Rooms or another storey tied into the existing frame, roof and services.

• Renovations

  Kitchens, bathrooms and reworked living areas where several licensed trades share one programme.

• Structural alterations

  Opening walls and changing roofs, work that needs design rather than only a weekend crew.

• Sequencing the other trades

  Ordering electrical, sanitary, waterproofing and finish work, and writing changes before anyone shifts a wall.

What a builder does

A builder holds the building class and the contract for a new house, an extension, or a renovation that is more than one trade dropping in for a day. They sequence footings, frame, lockup, fixing and finish, and they are the name on the paperwork the state asks to see. Subcontractors do the licensed slices: fixed wiring, sanitary plumbing, gasfitting, waterproofing. The builder's task is to order those slices so the membrane is finished before tiling starts, and so a variation is written before a wall moves. List the rooms in the contract and the rooms left alone. Allowances for taps or tiles you have not chosen yet should stay labelled as allowances. Do not leave those allowances vague on the page.

Reading a building offer means reading the specification, not the heading. Provisional sums, prime cost items and exclusions show what is still a guess. Drawings attached to the contract should be the drawings you approved, with a date. Owner-builder is a different path with its own state rules. Check with the regulator in that state before you assume you can run the job yourself. Who lodges the approval, how neighbours are protected, and how deliveries reach the block belong in the same conversation as the scope. A builder who will not name their registration is not ready for that conversation. Ask which licence class covers this contract and how a change is written once a wall is open. The registration number should match that class.

• Wet-area membranes are a class of their own inside the programme.
• Framing may be subcontracted to this trade.
• Slabs and driveways on the same block may be this trade.

Licensing by state

When you need a licensed builder

Residential building work in New South Wales is read on the NSW Fair Trading register. Check with NSW Fair Trading where a value test applies.

The Building and Plumbing Commission builder entries list Victorian building practitioners; match the class to the work named in the contract.

Queensland builders are searched on the QBCC licensee register. Check with QBCC where a value test applies.

Consumer and Business Services lists South Australian building work contractors; read the conditions on the entry before you commit.

Building and Energy holds Western Australian building registrations, and the class on that search should fit the contract.

CBOS lists Tasmanian building services providers, and the tradesperson search is the public view of that registration.

Access Canberra publishes Australian Capital Territory construction practitioner registers used to confirm a builder.

Northern Territory builders are searched on the building practitioner register before the contract is treated as registered work.

What changes the price

• A tight inner-city block, a battle-axe drive, or nowhere to stand a crane changes how materials arrive.
• Owner-selected windows and tapware follow a different supply path from the ranges named in the specification.
• Approvals, inspections and the insurance a state ties to a building class are compliance, not a surprise at handover.
• A storm-damaged house that must be made safe this week is organised differently from a renovation with a start window.
• Evening trade stacking, so a household can remain upstairs, is not the same programme as an empty shell.
• Hidden asbestos, rock in the footing line, or a boundary that is not where the fence sits are site conditions.
• Moving a kitchen after the frame is up is a scope change and should be written before anyone shifts a wall.

Hiring checklist

• The registration you found matches the name on the contract.
• Drawings and the specification attached are dated and are the set you approved.
• Provisional sums and prime cost items are written in plain language.
• Exclusions such as soft landscaping, window furnishings and appliances are listed.
• The person who lodges approvals is named.
• A variation is described as something written before the extra work is built.
• Electrical, sanitary plumbing and waterproofing each name who holds the class.
• Progress stages match work you can see, and you know what finished looks like at each one.
• Protection of a neighbour's property, and the path for deliveries, is agreed.
• Rubbish, temporary fencing and a site toilet are accounted for.

Questions to ask

• Which drawings and which specification does the contract refer to?
• Who lodges approvals, and whose name is on the building class?
• How are provisional sums described so they are not an open guess?
• How is a variation accepted before anyone builds it?
• Which stages mark a progress claim, and what is visibly complete then?
• Who coordinates fixed wiring, sanitary plumbing and waterproofing inside this contract?

Builders in your city

City pages open when a city has enough published listings. See builders near you.

Featured builders

• ABN checked

  143 Boat Building

  Coomera

• ABN checked

  A & P Leemhuis Builders

  Fyshwick

• A.S. Lodge

  Kilsyth

• ABN checked

  A.n.t. Renovations

  Wantirna

• ANSC Group

  Cranebrook

• ABN checked

  Aas Homes

  Doncaster

Search builders in the directory

Common questions

Sources and review

Reviewed 2026-10-22.

• NSW Fair Trading licence search Checked 2026-10-22.
• Victorian practitioner check Checked 2026-10-22.
• QBCC licensee register Checked 2026-10-22.
• South Australia licence holder search Checked 2026-10-22.
• Western Australia licence search Checked 2026-10-22.
• Tasmania licensed tradesperson search Checked 2026-10-22.
• Access Canberra construction registers Checked 2026-10-22.
• NT building practitioner register Checked 2026-10-22.
• LBP public site Checked 2026-10-22.