Deciding to Extend and Renovate your home is a significant commitment. In a region as diverse as ours – from heritage buildings to sloping, bushfire-prone blocks – understanding the local area is vital.
At Jenkins Residential, we pride ourselves on a transparent, structured approach. To help you navigate the journey from the initial dream to final handover, we’ve developed a roadmap to help your project stay on track, on budget and on brief.
The Jenkins Residential pre-build checklist
While we’re always happy to be engaged early on and to help our clients navigate the building process, it’s generally recommended to consider the following in the initial stages:
- Define your scope: Write down your priorities (e.g. a fourth bedroom or an open-plan kitchen) before the first design meeting.
- Establish a realistic budget: Research recent build costs in Newcastle / Lake Macquarie and factor in a 10–15% contingency for unforeseen issues.
- Site survey and sewer diagrams: You need to know where your boundaries are and if Hunter Water sewer lines restrict where you can build.
- Architectural plans: Professional plans should be tailored to your budget (and we often are engaged by clients early enough to be involved along the design process, meaning we can collaborate with your designer to direct the build within your budget).
- Engineering and specialist reports: Building on steep blocks in Newcastle & Lake Macquarie generally require a structural engineer; bushside blocks require a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) assessment.
- The approval pathway: Determine if your project is a Development Application (DA) through Council or a Complying Development Certificate (CDC) for a faster turnaround.
Local considerations: Newcastle & Lake Macquarie Councils
Wherever you are, we are experienced in operating across both LGAs.
For example, Newcastle City Council often involves navigating Heritage Conservation issues, as experienced in our Hamilton project, where we maintained the character of the heritage home while adding a modern above-garage kids’ retreat.
In the Lake Macquarie City Council area on the other hand, we deal with environmental constraints like the bushfire requirements that were addressed in our Belmont North project. This involved a full reclad in Innova Montage and Duragroove cladding, suitable for up to a BAL 40 fire rating, ensuring the home was safe in its environment and also beautiful.
Why choose Jenkins Residential?
We are a local Builder with a long record of successfully delivering a wide range of projects in the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie areas.
By involving us to work alongside your architect when your plans are in the draft stage, we can provide ‘value engineering’ – identifying ways to achieve your goals while not unnecessarily increasing construction costs. Our goal is to ensure that when we break ground, every detail has been considered and you have a smooth process right through to handover.