The stages of a build

Stage names vary between contracts and states, but the sequence is consistent because the trades have to follow each other in order. Your progress payment schedule is usually tied to these stages — see progress payments explained.

Before site start

Design, engineering, soil classification, approvals, and the contract itself. This phase is where the whole project is actually decided and it is the phase homeowners are most tempted to rush. Changes here are cheap; the same changes after approval are not.

Site works and base

Clearing, cut and fill, service trenching, then the footing system and slab. This is where an optimistic site-costs allowance meets the actual ground. Rock, fill and groundwater surface here or not at all.

Frame

The structure goes up and the house becomes legible for the first time. A frame inspection is normally required. This is the last comfortable moment to change anything structural, and the first time you can properly feel room sizes.

Lock-up or enclosed

Roof, external cladding or brickwork, windows and external doors. The building becomes weathertight. Rough-in for plumbing and electrical happens around this point, inside the walls, before they are closed.

Fixing

Internal linings, cornices, doors, skirting, architraves, cabinetry. The longest-feeling stage, because a great deal of work happens with little visible change from outside.

Practical completion

Final fit-off, finishes, clean and the defects inspection. Practical completion does not mean flawless; it means the house is reasonably suitable to occupy with only minor items outstanding. Those items go on a defects list and there is normally a defects liability period afterwards.

Where delays actually come from

In rough order: decisions not made in time by the homeowner, variations, weather at the wrong stage, inspection and certification scheduling, and material or trade availability. Only two of those are inside the builder's control, and only one is inside yours — but that one is the most common.

What to ask for

A written programme with stage dates at the start, and an updated one when a variation is approved. See how long a build takes.

What you should be doing at each stage

Before site start: finish every selection you can. This is the single biggest lever you have on both cost and programme.

At base: check the set-out against the plan before the pour — the position of the building on the block, the orientation, the floor level relative to the street and the neighbours. A slab in the wrong place is not economically fixable.

At frame: walk it with the plan. Confirm room dimensions, window and door positions, and the location of power and data before the walls are lined. Changes here are still relatively cheap; after lining they are not.

At lock-up: check the rough-in positions for plumbing and electrical against how you will actually use each room.

At fixing: check that what has been installed matches the specification schedule item by item, not by impression.

At practical completion: inspect methodically and in daylight, with a list. Consider an independent inspector.

Independent inspections

An independent building inspector at the key stages is a modest cost against a build and is not the same thing as the mandatory certifier inspections, which check compliance rather than quality or your interests. A builder who objects to independent inspection is giving you information.