Every home design project involves more than just plans. This document explains how our consultant coordination service works, who is involved, and what you can expect at each stage of your project.
To get your project from design to approval and into a builder's hands, a team of specialised consultants is required alongside our design work. Their reports, certificates, and drawings form part of your final documentation set and are essential for building approval.
Coordinating that team is what our coordination service covers. This means identifying who is needed and when, briefing them on your project, managing their deliverables, and integrating their work into your documentation.
It is a document control and project management service that runs alongside your design and documentation stages. It does not extend to construction administration, which is a separate service available through our Deliver phase.
Every project is different. The consultants your project requires will depend on your site, your council area, and the nature of your design. Your design proposal sets out the specific consultants identified for your project and how coordination fees apply.
This document is a guide to help you understand the process and the people involved. Your design proposal and agreement are the definitive reference for what applies to your specific project.
At the start of your project we identify which consultants are required based on your site conditions, council requirements, and the scope of your design. We will always tell you who is needed and why before any engagement begins.
For each consultant required, we obtain a quote and present it to you for approval before any work is commissioned. You will always know the cost before it is committed. No consultant is engaged without your written approval.
Coordination fees vary by project. For most projects, coordination is incorporated into your overall design fee and is not shown as a separate line item. For some projects it may be quoted as a fixed sum, an hourly rate, or a combination of both. Your design proposal will make clear how it applies to your specific project.
We coordinate the consultant team on your behalf and you pay each consultant directly when their fee is due. The consultant invoice comes to you and you settle it with them directly.
We engage and pay the consultants on your behalf and invoice you for the total consultant costs. This model attracts a 15% administration fee on top of consultant costs, which covers the additional financial management, invoicing, and liability involved. This fee is disclosed in your design proposal.
Consultant fees must be paid in full before we book their services. Consultants will not be engaged until payment has been received.
These are the consultants required on the vast majority of residential design and documentation projects. While every project is different and your proposal will confirm what applies to yours, you can expect most of these to be part of your project.
Before design work can begin in earnest, we need accurate site information. A surveyor measures and records your property in detail, giving us the foundation data we need to design accurately and compliantly.
Required on almost every project. Produces a detailed site plan showing ground levels, existing structures, trees, boundary locations, services infrastructure, and frontage information. We cannot begin detailed design without this information in place.
Locates your exact legal property boundaries using historical records from the Land Titles Office. More detailed and more expensive than a contour survey. Typically arranged by your builder prior to construction beginning rather than during the design phase.
A soil report tells us what is under your site. Geotechnical engineers take samples from your property and analyse the soil type, density, moisture content, load-bearing capacity, and the presence of any groundwater or contaminants.
This information is essential for your structural engineer to design an appropriate foundation system. The type and depth of your footings depends directly on what the soil report finds. Without it, structural engineering cannot be completed.
In most urban and developed areas, underground utilities run beneath your property. Water, sewage, gas, and telecommunications lines all need to be identified and mapped before design is finalised.
A pipe location survey gives us and your structural engineer accurate information about what sits below the surface, so the design can be planned around it. Finding a conflict between a proposed structure and an existing service after construction has started is costly and avoidable. Getting this done early is always the right call.
Your structural engineer translates the design into a structure that is safe, compliant, and buildable. Working from our plans and your soil report, they design the framework of your home. This includes the footings, beams, columns, floors, and roof structure, specifying the right materials and sizing everything to meet the loads it needs to carry.
Their drawings and specifications form part of your final documentation set and are required for building approval. Builders also rely on structural drawings to price and construct your home accurately.
All new homes and most significant renovations in Queensland are required to achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating under the National House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS). An energy assessor models your home using approved software, assessing orientation, insulation, glazing, and ventilation to calculate a star rating.
If the initial assessment falls short of the required rating, the assessor will recommend adjustments we can incorporate into the design before documentation is finalised. Getting this done at the right stage avoids costly late changes.
A hydraulic engineer designs your home's water management systems. This covers stormwater drainage, gutter and downpipe sizing, and the layout of pipes that supply water to and remove waste from your home.
Their work ensures your home handles rainfall effectively, protects the structure from water damage, and meets council drainage requirements. For larger sites or properties with complex drainage conditions, hydraulic design becomes especially important.
Your building certifier is the independent professional responsible for assessing your documentation against the Building Code of Australia and local regulations, and issuing the approvals that allow construction to proceed and conclude legally.
At the design and documentation stage, they assess your plans and consultant reports and issue the building approval. During construction, they conduct inspections at critical stages. At completion, they issue the final certificate confirming your home is compliant and safe for occupancy.
Where a project involves elements that require a formal decision from council, such as a boundary setback or height variation, your certifier can manage the relaxation process with the relevant authority. Whether this sits with the certifier or the town planner depends on the nature of the non-compliance, and we will advise you clearly when it arises.
These consultants are not needed on every project, but where your site, council area, or design brief triggers the requirement, their involvement becomes essential. We identify early whether any of these apply and will always explain why before any engagement begins.
If your property falls within a flood-affected area as mapped by your local council, a flood report will be required. This assessment evaluates the flood history of your site, anticipated flood levels, and the likely impact on your design and construction.
The findings directly shape how your home is designed. Floor levels may need to be raised, materials may need to meet flood-resistant standards, and certain elements of the building may need to be positioned or detailed differently. Complying with flood report recommendations is a condition of approval in flood-affected areas, and resolving this during the design stage is far preferable to redesigning after the fact.
For properties in or near bushfire-prone vegetation, a Bushfire Attack Level assessment is required. The BAL assessment evaluates surrounding vegetation, the slope of your land, and other site factors to calculate the intensity of potential bushfire exposure.
The result is a BAL rating ranging from BAL-LOW through to BAL-FZ. Each level carries specific construction requirements around materials, glazing, and ember protection that must be incorporated into your design from the outset.
Most residential projects that comply with the local planning scheme can be approved without a town planner. When a project does not comply, because of a boundary setback, site coverage, height, or another planning matter, a town planner becomes necessary to manage the approval pathway.
A town planner understands the planning framework and can advise on the most appropriate way to achieve approval, whether through a formal development application, a negotiated outcome with council, or another pathway. Where a non-compliance is identified during our design work, we will advise you promptly and clearly on what it means and what the options are.
Landscape design is not required on every project, but it is a service we like to coordinate where possible. A landscape designer works alongside the design to create outdoor spaces that feel connected to your home rather than added as an afterthought.
Gardens, paving, retaining, planting, lighting, and outdoor living areas all benefit from considered design that responds to the home and how you want to live. If you are interested in including landscape design, let us know early. The best results come when landscape thinking is part of the conversation from the beginning.
These consultants are rarely needed on residential projects, but certain sites or design briefs can trigger the requirement. If any of these apply to your project we will identify it early and explain why before any engagement begins.
An acoustic engineer may be required where a property is located near a significant noise source such as a busy road or railway line, and council requires evidence that the home has been designed to manage noise appropriately. Their assessment informs specific design decisions around wall construction, glazing, and ventilation to meet required acoustic performance levels.
A traffic engineer is occasionally required for projects that involve changes to site access, or where council needs to be satisfied that a development will not adversely affect traffic flow or safety on the adjoining road network. This is more commonly triggered on dual occupancy or subdivision projects but can arise on residential projects in certain locations.
An environmental survey may be required where a site contains, or is adjacent to, vegetation or habitat of ecological significance. The survey assesses what is present on or near the site and informs conditions that may be placed on development approval. This is most commonly triggered by sites near bushland, waterways, or protected vegetation corridors.
Our coordination service works on an all-in basis. We either coordinate the full consultant team for your project or we do not coordinate at all. This is how we protect the quality and efficiency of the process. When we manage the full team we can ensure everything is briefed correctly, delivered on time, and integrated properly into your documentation. A fragmented approach creates gaps that slow projects down and compromise outcomes. If you have existing consultant relationships you would like to use, we recommend you or your builder take responsibility for coordinating the full team independently.
No. Our coordination service is all-in or all-out. We do not split the consultant team. If you would prefer to manage your own consultants, we are happy to discuss what that means for your project and adjust our scope accordingly.
We work with a consistent team of consultants chosen for their expertise, reliability, and experience with our projects. We provide one quote per consultant. This keeps the process moving efficiently and ensures you are working with people we trust and have a strong working history with.
No. We use our preferred consultants because they do good work and we know how to work with them well. There is no referral arrangement or financial incentive involved.
If additional work is required from a consultant beyond their original scope, we will obtain a revised quote and seek your approval before any additional cost is committed. No variations are progressed without your written agreement.
The coordination process can feel complex from the outside, and that is exactly why we manage it. Our job is to make sure the right people are involved at the right time, that nothing falls through the gaps, and that you are never surprised by a cost or a requirement you did not know was coming.
If anything in this document raises a question, or if you want to talk through what applies specifically to your project, reach out to us directly.