Consultants appointed as the project requires and coordinated into one picture.
The budget in your head has two people in it: a builder and an architect. It does not have a structural engineer, a land surveyor, a building certifier, an energy assessor and possibly a town planner in it. Almost nobody's does, and that is a large part of why a budget starts feeling breached before a single thing is built.
On a typical renovation, consultants account for roughly four dollars in every hundred you spend, and authority fees, certification and insurances another three. That is not a rounding error. It is a line you should be able to see from the beginning, with names against it.
The other thing worth knowing early is who employs them. Under the standard Client Architect Agreement you engage and pay most consultants directly, on my recommendation. Their invoices come to you and their advice is theirs. My job is to brief them, coordinate them, and check the parts still agree with each other.
These are the costs nobody warned you about, and they are the main reason a budget starts to feel breached.
Someone has to hold the whole picture and check each part still agrees with the others. That coordination is the quiet half of the job. Under the CAA the client engages consultants directly, on the architect's recommendation, which keeps liability and fees transparent.
Not having to become a project manager. Clients have jobs. The prospect of chasing five specialists who each speak a different language, and adjudicating between them, is genuinely frightening — and the fear is well founded.
The client appoints consultants piecemeal, or the builder does, and nobody reconciles the outputs. The engineer's slab doesn't suit the surveyor's levels; the energy report requires glazing the design can't take. The clashes surface during construction as variations.
Consultants take roughly $4 of every $100 spent on a typical renovation. You engage them directly, on my recommendation, so you can see what each one costs and who is accountable for what. The part you never see is the coordination — checking that the engineer's slab still suits the surveyor's levels, that the energy report does not require glazing the design cannot take. That is the quiet half of the job, and it is real hours rather than an afterthought.
For a Brisbane house renovation the usual list is short. A land surveyor for a contour and detail survey, so everything else is drawn on real levels. A structural engineer for footings, beams and any new floor framing. A building certifier for the Building Approval and the site inspections. An energy assessor for the compliance report. Then, depending on the site: a town planner, hydraulic engineer, geotechnical engineer, arborist, bushfire or flood consultant, heritage advice, or a certified plumbing drawing. Not every project needs the full list, and I would rather you paid for only what your site actually triggers.
For anything structural, yes, and the two roles are genuinely different. I decide where the wall goes and why the room works. The engineer determines what holds it up and signs off on that as their own professional responsibility. A certifier will require engineering documentation for the Building Approval on almost any structural work — new beams, footings, a raise, a second storey, removing load-bearing walls. On a renovation the structural engineer is usually the largest single consultant fee, and the cheapest way to keep it down is to give them a resolved design rather than a moving one.
Often not. For a straightforward house application assessed against the City Plan codes, I prepare and lodge the Development Application myself and there is no separate planning fee. A planner earns their money when the application is genuinely contested — an impact-assessable proposal going to public notification, a performance-based argument against an overlay, a difficult character or demolition question, or a site where the numbers don't comply and someone needs to build the case. Where one is genuinely needed the fee earns its keep, but it can add several thousand dollars on top — so be clear early about whether yours needs one.
For a typical house renovation the certifier's fee commonly sits somewhere between about $1,600 and $2,600, plus council lodgement charges, which are separate and set by council. That buys the Building Approval assessment and the inspections at set points through construction, ending in the final certificate. It is worth understanding what the certifier is not: they check the work against the building code, not against your drawings or your taste. Fees vary with the size and complexity of the job, so get a written quote and check what inspections are included.
Under the standard Client Architect Agreement, the agreement lists each consultant and ticks whether you engage them or the architect does. Most commonly on house projects you engage and pay them directly. That looks like more admin, but it is the honest structure: you see the actual fee with nothing added, the consultant's professional duty runs to you, and the architect isn't responsible for services they didn't perform. What the architect is responsible for is coordinating them — briefing them, and checking their outputs agree with the design and with each other.
If you would rather start small, the First Sketch Session is two hours at your place. You keep the sketches, and there is no obligation afterwards.