I won't be able to help you on recommendations for Brisbane, i can however put my 2 cents in on narrowing down a good builder, especially for custom homes. The first good thing if you're getting a custom home built is you get to pick the budget, customisation the material quality and more. I'd say the first thing is you want a trustworthy company, so looking at their reviews and feedback is always good, plus it's something you can do yourself. Another point to take in consideration is how they communicate, is it clear and streamlined ? you want to make sure there's no information they're hiding from you, so make sure you ask as many questions as you can so that you get the whole picture. A good reputable company will give it to you straight. They should be your only point of communication, if they're telling you to talk to their architects and all that then there's your first red flag. You're essentially paying them to do the job, you shouldn't have to do it for them. You tell the builder what you want, then they separate things into tasks, and delegate it to the right sector, so there's less room for error. Another good sign that you're in the right hands is how many custom homes they've built. You always want to go for a well known company as they will have good connections with suppliers, which means they will most likely be able to get what you need for a discounted price as they would buy things in bulk if they build plenty of houses, which means savings for you. A reputable custom home building company will have access to good subcontractors in your area, so there should be no messing around and time wasted on that matter, which will also help on the time management of the project. In your case you already have a block of land but otherwise a good custom builder would also help you narrow down a location for your budget if you're unsure, and then they'd determine the good and the bad of the desired location. Once all of that is done, they would then get all of the permits sorted to make sure it's all done legally and the whole project flows. One other thing, a good builder knows what they have inventory-wise. they should never go on and then tell you half way through that they ran out of something or that they thought they had it. Once the project is completed, they should give you a tour and not just hand you the keys and call it a day! As i said, they have to be a well established company, because with that comes experience. The above is just some of the key points, but hopefully this article will help the next person!

I forgot to mention, we did mark out certain elements to have prefab-ed in lieu of a fully prefabbed contract, simply because ours is an addition that would also be difficult to have entirely pre made. The time to manufacture was an issue for both the Pryda frame we considered, and the Surefoot footings (alternatives to traditional piers). Neither could produce on time or rather - it depended on us front loading our decision making on a number of things in order to allow enough manufacturing time... And risk was an issue. If one element was wrong for any reason in the case of the frame, there's no easy recourse whereas our carpenter built the frame in 3 days on site. All plumb and could make changes if needed. Transport is definitely another consideration.

If you "change" anything that involves a building approval then the floor area on the plans relevant will count towards the overall amount. If it amounts to beyond 50% of the existing conditions then the whole building becomes applicable to energy calculations and so you enter into up spec'ing existing areas. And yes it can often be a good thing to be doing anyway, but of course it costs money. If the total area being changes is below 50% then only the areas of new work are applicable. I'm honestly not a specialist in this area, but I have to deal with the issues naturally in the course of the design and resolution of project solutions I provide, and hence I use an energy consultant regularly and we have a way/system of working through together how best to achieve the requirements for permit. As far as I understand it's a case by case/project specific exercise and also there's various ways of negotiating/achieving the necessary performance requirements - e.g. you can play around with different levels of insulation together with a particular glazing/window spec, and depending upon circumstances you can save money one way or another. Sometimes I'll squeeze windows overall down to get it under a certain amount to not trigger requirement for expensive glass...also timber windows rate better, but if you are in a bushfire area you'll be caught out or require very expensive timber windows...it's a real juggling act in particular contexts...which is why you really need to be working collaboratively with an energy consultant/specialist to work out the best solution in this regard, as well as the other aspects of design, structure and bushfire etc. It's a true team effort ;) If you're really up for some technical reading you there is some further energy info here NCC Volume One Energy Efficiency Provisions 2016 - Australian ... but it may get confusing........Coming back to the core of it, my advice: 1. define your budget 2. list and prioritise your requirements 3. seek some preliminary advice/assistance from a seasoned designer doing this type of work to test whether or not the general concept of what your endeavouring to achieve is viable, and this depends upon the relevant context/existing conditions etc (and bushfire rating is yet another layer on top of all this), and then refine the concept from there. If you are just doing a bathroom or kitchen isolated then you can arguably do it yourself, but if you're re-jigging the whole house like it appears you are heading towards, and on a very tight budget then I'd highly recommend (to save yourself headaches and frustration going around in never-ending circles) to invest some of your available budget into front-end design, to get to a solution that works to your nominated priorities so you achieve a viable and professionally advised outcome. Trust me it will be money well spent. Have a great Christmas, and best of luck with continuing to work through it all :)

Pay all progress payments in full on the day they are due, ( Immediate transfer on the day ) The builder has trades that must be paid. Be proactive with payments, ask the builder when next payment is due.