Building in Bayside Melbourne

Parts of Brighton, Hampton and Sandringham sit under heritage overlay, which means a planning permit and a heritage assessment before you touch the front of the house. Additions usually need to sit back from the original roof line and read as clearly secondary. We know what council will and will not accept, and we get the conversation started early.

Even without heritage, character controls shape setbacks, height, roof form, materials and front fencing. Council wants a new addition to sit comfortably in the street, and it is much cheaper to design to that than to argue with it after a refusal.

Victorian, Edwardian and California bungalow homes all have their own quirks: stumps and uneven floors, solid brick without a cavity, lath and plaster, lead paint, asbestos in old sheeting, and cornices and mouldings that need matching or reproducing. We price the unknowns honestly and open things up early rather than late.

Little or no side access means craning materials, working off the street, permits for hoardings and skips, and staging deliveries carefully. We manage the traffic and the neighbours, and we keep the frontage clean because you still live here.

ResCode sets real limits on habitable room windows, balconies and shadow cast on a neighbour’s north facing glass and secluded private open space. It is the most common reason a first floor addition gets redrawn. We flag it during design, with obscure glazing, screening or window placement solved before lodgement.

Salt air near the beach is hard on fixings, hardware, roof sheeting and finishes. We specify galvanised or marine grade where it matters, so the house still looks right in ten years.