Renovations and alterations
Changing a house that already exists.
Renovation asks different questions than a new build. The building is already there, it already has its own logic, and some of what it is hiding you will not find until you open it up.
We design alterations and additions to existing homes, and we produce the drawings and documentation to get that work consented and built. Sometimes that runs alongside a whole reworking of how the house is used. Sometimes it is one well-placed change that fixes something that has annoyed the owners for a decade.
The same principle applies as on our new builds. The budget is real, the existing house is what it is, and the job is to spend the money where it will actually change how the place feels to live in.
The kind of work we take on
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Extensions and additions
Adding to the footprint, whether that is another bedroom, a bigger living space, a second bathroom or a self-contained sleepout. The design problem is usually how the new part meets the old one without the join looking like an apology.
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Reworking a layout
Plenty of houses have all the space they need in the wrong arrangement. Opening up a closed-in kitchen, moving the living space to the sun, turning a dark hallway into something useful. Often the cheapest way to get a better house.
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Warmer and drier
Insulation, glazing, ventilation and heating, usually alongside other work. New Zealand has a lot of housing stock that was never built for the way we expect to live now, and this is the work people notice most once it is done.
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Recladding and weathertightness
Where the outside of the building has failed or is coming to the end of its life, and the wall build-up needs reworking rather than patching.
Will it need a building consent?
Usually, yes. Most building work in New Zealand needs a building consent, and structural change almost always does. If you are taking out or altering a load-bearing wall, adding to the footprint, changing the roof structure, or altering how the building is used, you should assume consent is required.
There are exemptions. Schedule 1 of the Building Act covers work that can be done without a consent, and some genuinely minor alterations fall inside it. The boundaries are narrower than most people expect, though, and getting it wrong is expensive to unwind. Your council is the one who decides, and we would rather ask them early than assume.
A renovation can also trigger a resource consent, separately from the building consent, where it affects things like height, boundary setbacks, site coverage or a heritage listing. We check for that early rather than late.
What an existing building brings with it
We start by measuring up what is actually there, because the original plans, if they exist at all, are often not what got built. From there we can work out what is worth keeping, what is doing structural work, and what is in the way.
Older houses carry their own considerations. Homes built before 2000 may contain asbestos in linings, soffits, textured ceilings or flooring, and older paint systems can contain lead. Neither is a reason not to renovate, but both need identifying before work starts, and testing and removal is specialist work we would bring someone in for.
The honest part of renovation work is that some things stay unknown until the linings come off. We design so that the drawings can absorb a surprise without the whole scheme falling over.
Where we do this work
We are based in Otago and work face to face across the South Island, with Otago and Canterbury our main focus. Renovation work benefits from us being on site more than a new build does, because so much of the design is a response to what is already standing.
Thinking about changing your house?
Tell us what is not working about it. The first conversation is free and it commits you to nothing.
Get in touch