Renovating First Home / Recommendations & Tips

Hi Everyone,

Just posted an introduction thread.

I was hoping to hear from the community about reputable renovators/builders in the Sydney, Inner West region. Any recommendations along with tips would be fantastic.

I'm hoping to do a new kitchen, bathroom, add an additional room and extend the rear. I'm thinking it's probably best to select a few builders and then have them visit the place and provide some feedback and draft ideas?

Hope to hear from you!

 

Hi Chee

Good luck in the next step of your property journey!

I am also in the Inner West and will PM you with the name and number of a great builder that we have used on our 1880s house.

As for tips well my biggest tip with builders is you must compare apples with apples. You need to know what you want and articulate it clearly. Otherwise there's no way to actually compare prices.

My next biggest tip is that you should never work with a builder that says no or that something you are trying to achieve in your renovation is impossible. Everything should be yes - it's just how much money you want to throw at it to make it happen. The people in your renovation that should be saying no are councils, government agencies and yourself/spouse. The builder is not in that list (unless he's your spouse!). They can provide suggestions or ideas and it's important to take on their feedback but don't get pushed into doing something that you really don't like or want.

Also plan for the unplanned. Have a contingency budget and only use it as a contingency, not for upgrading the taps to those diamond encrusted ones that you absolutely MUST have.

I'm sure others on here will provide some wonderful pearls of wisdom.

vtt

 

Thanks vtt.

Fantastic advice. I would be keen to receive your contact for your builder. RIght now, I'm just doing a google search and finding builders in the area.

So the more recommendations the better.

Also, I'm assuming you would get a builder to coordinate the entire process rather than getting individual contractors come up one by one?

 

Can anyone from Sydney share their builder (preferably Inner West and have a website).

Thanks.