Documentation review, trade pricing, procurement and program. We find the gaps in the drawings, price the work properly with the subcontractors who'll do it, and lock in long-lead items before they hold the job up. Most cost blowouts trace back to this stage being rushed.

Scope changes on every renovation - the question is whether you hear about it at the time or at the end. We price a variation when it comes up and put it in front of you and your architect together, before the work happens.

Yes - most of our work comes to us that way. We'll also read a set at concept or DA stage and give you a budget position while there's still room to change something, which is usually more useful than a tender on drawings that are already finished.

For the kind of work we do, usually yes. We're builders, not designers, and the projects that go well are the ones with someone holding the design. If you're at the start and don't have one, tell us what you're trying to do and we'll suggest practices that suit the project.

Sydney wide.

Yes - hospitality and retail fit-outs alongside the residential work. Tell us your lease dates when you get in touch and we'll be honest about whether the program works.

The same people, job after job. North House runs the project, and our carpenters, electricians, plumbers, joiners and waterproofers don't change between builds. Subcontractor continuity is usually what decides whether a job runs to program.

Yes. NSW Builder Licence #351728C, with home warranty insurance, public liability and contract works cover in place on every project.

Yes, and it's the best time to talk to us.

The common way a renovation goes wrong is quiet: the design develops, documentation finishes, the drawings go out to tender, and every price comes back well over what the owners had in mind. Now everyone's stuck. The architect has done months of work that has to be partly undone, the owners have lost time and confidence, and the scope gets cut under pressure rather than by choice.

None of that is anyone's fault. It happens because nobody put a real number against the drawings while they were still easy to change.

So we'll read concept or pre-DA drawings and give you a budget position on them based on what the work actually costs to build right now, not a rate per square metre. If the number works, keep designing. If it doesn't, you've found out at the stage where moving a wall costs an afternoon instead of a redesign.

From there we can stay involved through design development, pricing the significant decisions as they come up - the structural approach, the glazing, the finishes schedule - so the budget is something the three of us hold together rather than something you find out about at tender. Architects tend to design better when they know what things cost, and owners make better calls when the trade-offs are in front of them early.

It doesn't commit you to using us to build it. Plenty of the drawings we look at this way go out to tender and we price them alongside everyone else. We'd rather be in the conversation early and lose the tender than arrive at the end and be the bad news.

Send us whatever you have - a full tender set, DA drawings, or just an address and a rough idea. We'll come back within two business days and tell you honestly whether we're the right builder for it.