Owner Builders and Building Consultants

As an owner builder, there are a number of different building consultants that you may need to engage both prior to the commencement of your project, as well as during different stages of your project. The types of consultants you may need to engage will depend on the complexity of your project, as well as any difficulties that arise prior to and during your project.

Architect / Draftsman - All proposed residential building work that requires Development Approval will require plans to be drawn, and such will almost always be carried out by an Architect or Draftsman. Such a consultant is able to convert design idea into plans, drawings and specifications that can be approved by the relevant authority.

Surveyor - These types of consultants may be engaged in the following circumstances:

(a) Boundary survey - upon the purchase of the property, to ascertain the location of site boundaries and possible encroachments. This survey may be widened to include:

a tree location survey
a contour (ground levels) survey
services survey

(b) Building set out survey - this is a survey to position the building alignments and boundaries. This survey can be a benefit for steep or awkward sites in locating critical corners.

(c) Check survey - this survey is only required to ensure side boundary and frontage setbacks have not been accidentally encroached upon during construction.

Structural Engineer - This type of consultant is engaged to design, document and possibly supervise particularly critical structural components. The two most common areas are:

(a) the design of steel and concrete beams, particularly over large spans or openings; and

(b) the design of suspended reinforced concrete floor and roof slabs, particularly those on upper floors and with critical design details such as cantilevered balconies and upper floor spa tubs.

It should be noted that some localities authorities may require engineering details for structural work other than what is listed here.

Accredited Certifier - If your development needs to be certified, you need to choose whether to appoint the local council or an accredited certifier to do this work. Accredited certifiers can:

Issue construction certificates, certifying (among other things) that the proposed work will comply with the Building Code of Australia (BCA)
Issue compliance certificates specifying that conditions of development consent have been satisfied or that the building work complies with the plans and specifications, or nominating the classification of a building under the BCA
Issue complying development certificates, certifying that nominated development proposals comply with standards and criteria in the council's Local Environmental Plan and Development Control Plan
Issue strata certificates to enable the registration of strata plans
Conduct inspections of building works during their construction
Act as a Principal Certifying Authority (PCA) responsible for, among other things, issuing occupation certificates specifying that buildings are safe to occupy.

Geo-technical Engineers - This type of consultant conducts test holes into the substrata of land to be developed. They ascertain significant information about bearing capacities, stability and subsurface water tables which is often required before the design of structures on difficult sites can commence. The geo-technical engineer is usually engaged under instruction from the structural engineer or architect.