Banksia 2216 · Bayside Council
Home Renovations in Banksia: Renovating in Stages, Properly
Renovate in stages, but only ever pay to do each job once.
Most Banksia owners can't renovate an inter-war or post-war house in one hit, and they shouldn't have to. The trick is a plan that puts the jobs in the right order, so the new bathroom isn't ripped up two years later for a pipe that should have gone in first.
Short answer
How do I renovate a Banksia home in stages without wasting money?
Start with a whole-house plan, then work from the inside of the building outward: structure, roof, wiring and plumbing first, wet areas next, kitchen after that, finishes last. One approval can cover every stage, though NSW consents lapse after five years unless work has physically started. On Rawlinsons Sydney rates, a kitchen costs $19,500 to $22,000 and a bathroom $23,500 to $26,500.
Written and reviewed by Oliver Alameri
Licensed builder, NSW Contractor Licence 487805C · Founder, Buildana
Fact-checked
The master plan comes before stage one
Before anyone picks a tile, draw the finished house. Every room, every wet area, the final kitchen position, the extension you might add in five years. It doesn't have to be built that way tomorrow. It has to exist on paper so every stage works toward it.
Why bother? Because the expensive mistakes in staged work are nearly always sequencing mistakes. A new floor laid where a future wall needs a footing. A rewired kitchen that moves in stage three. A bathroom finished before the roof above it gets replaced and the ceiling comes down.
- Final floor plan drawn up front, even if built later
- Services sized for the finished house, not today's
- Each stage checked against what comes after it
- Budget set per stage, with a contingency each time
Staging is cheap. Re-doing is what costs you.
The order that works
Structure and roof first. If the house needs restumping, new lintels, a roof or gutters, that goes early, because everything else sits under or on top of it.
Then services. A 1950s switchboard won't carry a modern kitchen, and old galvanised pipes don't improve with age. Running new wiring and plumbing while walls are open, sized for the final house, saves opening them again.
Wet areas next, kitchen after. Finishes, floors and paint go last, once the dusty trades are done. Tedious to wait. Worth it.
Want a staged plan for your house?
Tell me about your Banksia home and what you'd change if money were no object. I'll turn it into a sensible order of works and a cost for each stage.
0476 300 300Approvals across several years
Internal work that doesn't touch structure is often exempt. Anything that does, or that changes the outside, goes through complying development or a Bayside Council DA, which typically takes 11 to 15 weeks.
You can apply once for the whole scheme. A development consent in NSW generally lapses after five years unless the work has physically commenced, so starting stage one inside that window keeps the rest alive. Conditions may still need meeting stage by stage.
Banksia sits under the airport's flight paths, and some lots fall inside mapped aircraft-noise contours. Where they do, new habitable rooms may need acoustic treatment, which is easier to plan into stage one than retrofit.
What each stage costs
Rawlinsons' Sydney schedule prices a kitchen at mid-range spec, plumbing and power in, at $19,500 to $22,000, and each bathroom at $23,500 to $26,500. Bayside's cost index sits a little under the Sydney baseline.
Structural and services stages vary too much to rate by the square metre. They're priced from an inspection, and they're the ones that decide whether the pretty stages happen at all.
Before stage one starts
What I'd want settled on any staged Banksia renovation.
- 01
Is the finished floor plan drawn, even roughly?
- 02
Are the switchboard and plumbing sized for the final house?
- 03
Does the roof need work before anything inside?
- 04
Will one approval cover all stages?
- 05
Is the lot inside an aircraft-noise contour?
- 06
What's the budget and contingency for each stage?
Staged renovations in Banksia
Can one DA cover a renovation done over several years?
Yes. A consent can approve the whole scheme; it generally stays valid as long as physical work starts within five years.
What should I renovate first in an old house?
Anything structural, then the roof, then wiring and plumbing. Kitchens, bathrooms and finishes come after the work that sits behind them.
Is it more expensive to renovate in stages?
A little, because each stage has its own setup and supervision. It's far cheaper than redoing finished work because the order was wrong.
Do you also build in Arncliffe and Rockdale?
Yes. We work across Bayside, including Banksia's neighbours along the T4 line.
Sources and references
Costs are from the Rawlinsons handbook with the local cost index applied; rules and timeframes are checked against the sources below.
The whole house, one stage at a time.
A Banksia renovation planned so every dollar stays spent.