Westwood Conveyancing

Knockdown or Rebuild - what to do?

How to know when it’s time to knockdown and rebuild

When Carmel Perri’s husband recovered from a serious illness, the couple decided to swap their hectic lives in suburban Melbourne for the ocean-side tranquillity of Sorrento.

But Carmel knew their Sorrento holiday home – a small, 45-year-old wooden bungalow – wouldn’t work for their everyday lives.

“The house had to come down,” she says. “It was old. It was small. We wanted something a bit more luxurious.”

Though initially “daunted” by the prospect of building a new house from scratch, she loved their block of land, located in a coveted part of Sorrento. Carmel was drawn immediately to one of the architecturally designed homes from leading Melbourne builders Canny.

“When I saw it, I just knew that it was the house I was going to put on that block. I said, ‘we’re not looking any further, this is it.”

Carmel and her husband went from a small wooden bungalow to a luxury home with quality fittings

Damian Quigley, group business manager at Canny, says there are a number of factors to assess when deciding whether to rebuild. He always begins any rebuilding process by talking to clients about their individual wants and needs.

“I just listen to people,” he says. “We guide them and give them as much information as they need.”

“It also helps to talk to them about past experiences our other clients have had.”

Quigley says many of the families he works with are intimidated by the logistics of rebuilding, such as the need to move out of their existing home and to find storage for their belongings. That’s why Canny often helps clients find rental properties, demolition companies, and utility providers.

         “I love it here,” says Carmel

He encourages clients to knockdown and rebuild if the renovation required on an existing building is extensive enough to become a drain on time and revenue. Renovations can lead to unexpected discoveries, such as old wiring or plumbing, which can often add delays and extra costs to project.

“Renovations are open-ended. You find things as you rip up walls or floors,” he says. “Rebuilding is much more efficient. You can fix the cost upfront and you can also fix the time in which it’s built.”

Canny developed its award-winning collection of pre-designed homes for clients who want certainty without sacrificing choice and quality.

Designed by Canny’s in-house architecture team, the Canny range offers ultra-modern luxury homes with templates that can be customised to suit the clients’ accommodation requirements and site conditions.

“We adapt the templates so that they can be priced upfront with fixed specifications. This is displayed for clients’ clarity and confidence to show them exactly what is included,” says Quigley.

Sometimes it comes down to size and shape. You may need to rebuild if you simply want a home that suits the needs of your family, whether you want more room for entertaining, for your growing family or your elderly parents.

Carmel says she and her husband wanted a house that was big enough for entertaining and their active lifestyle. The Canny home she and her husband chose has a spacious outdoor deck and pool, large dining areas and a kitchenette near the garage for her husband’s salami-making hobby. 

   Rebuilding can be a more efficient option than renovating  

Many homeowners also opt to knock down an existing home if it is inefficient and unsustainable in the long term.

Older homes often come with high heating and cool costs due to drafts, single-glazing and lack of insulation. And the cost of retrofitting a home with double-glazing or other energy-efficient features can also be expensive and sometimes futile.

“You can have double-glazing retrofitted to an old home, but it can be quite costly. From there, you need to think about the ceiling and the walls,” says Quigley. “To keep the thermal quality of the home at a certain level, you can’t do just one item and forget about the others.”

Roger Borland, the director of Canny’s in-house architecture team, says poorly performing homes can have heating and cooling costs that accumulate over time, meaning that it may be more financially viable to start afresh.

“It can be a financial drain making a building really comfortable to live in, so you might be better off getting something new,” he says.

Canny homes are built to be sustainable and energy-efficient. They offer double-glazing, solar hot-water systems, superior insulation, low energy fixtures and fittings and carefully designed shading to control solar gain.

Carmel and her husband wanted a house that was big enough for entertaining and their active lifestyle

When deciding whether to rebuild or renovate, Borland says it’s worthwhile considering what kind of home you want to live in. How does it facilitate your tastes or interests?

“The design of the home should align with how each individual uses it, not only facilitating everyday functions but enriching each experience.”

“We want the spaces that people live in to inspire their everyday lives,” he says. “If the original home is dark and dingy and not filled with natural light, then it restricts its users and can become mentally draining and that’s not a good thing.”

For Carmel, a home that inspires her has made all the difference.

“We went from 12-square wooden house to a 51-square luxury home with quality fittings,” she says. “I love it here.”

Source  :  https://www.domain.com.au/sponsor/know-time-knockdown-rebuild/

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