Builders in Glendale

Glendale is a working suburb with two halves. On one side is the retail and light industrial precinct around the shopping centre and the sports complex, on the other is a residential area that mostly went up in the post-war decades, much of it originally built as Housing Commission housing. That residential stock is fibro and weatherboard cottages on modest blocks, with hardwood frames, timber floors and small kitchens and bathrooms designed for a very different way of living. Later infill added 1970s brick veneer, and there are pockets of newer townhouses and villas where larger blocks have been split.

Because so many of these houses are the same age and the same construction, the jobs repeat. A cottage with three small bedrooms and one bathroom becomes a home with a proper ensuite, an open kitchen and living space and a covered area out the back. The fibro comes off and is replaced with a cladding that does not need painting every few years. Floors that have dropped at the piers get re-levelled before anything new is attached, and bathrooms go back in with a proper membrane where the original had none. Done in the right order, that turns a cheap house into a very liveable one for a fraction of the cost of rebuilding.

The ground around Glendale needs a closer look than the houses do. Cockle Creek runs close by, and the low flats near it can carry a flood constraint. Much of Lake Macquarie sits inside a Mine Subsidence District, so that check is routine here too. Glendale is also close to Argenton and Boolaroo, where the former smelter left lead in the soil, and properties on that side of the suburb may fall within the area covered by the council lead abatement strategy. Each of those changes how excavation, footings and approvals are handled, so they are confirmed on the planning certificate before we quote rather than discovered on site.

The commercial side of Glendale is a different kind of work. Shop fitouts, mezzanines and office space in the trade units all need the same structural care as a house, with the added pressure of a tenant who wants to be trading. If you own or lease in the precinct, we can handle the carpentry, partitioning and finishes and coordinate the licensed trades around your opening date. For homeowners, Glendale is a short run from our base in Edgeworth, and that closeness shows in how quickly a question on site gets answered.

What we build in Glendale

We offer every one of our building services in Glendale.

Local conditions that affect your build

Housing Commission era construction

The post-war estates were built quickly and to a pattern, so once you have opened one you have a good idea of the next. Expect hardwood frames that are still sound, fibro sheeting that is treated as asbestos until tested, undersized lintels over later window changes and wiring that has been added to rather than replaced. We allow for licensed asbestos removal and an electrical upgrade in the quote rather than treating either as a surprise.

Flood prone flats near Cockle Creek

Low-lying lots between the residential streets and the creek may be mapped as flood prone. Where a lot is flagged, the floor level of any new habitable room is set from the flood planning level, which on a low block can mean a suspended floor rather than a slab and a step up from the existing house. We design that junction so it does not read as an afterthought.

Lead abatement area

Properties nearest the former Boolaroo smelter may sit within the lead abatement strategy area that Lake Macquarie City Council applies to land around it. In that area, disturbing the soil for footings, drainage or landscaping can bring requirements for how spoil is tested, handled and disposed of, and for capping exposed ground afterwards. It can add cost to any job with excavation, so it is worth knowing before you plan a pool or a slab extension.

Undermined ground

Mine Subsidence Districts cover a large part of Lake Macquarie, and a Glendale lot may be inside one. If it is, Subsidence Advisory NSW approval sits alongside the council or certifier approval, and the design has to show that the structure can cope with ground movement. Brick veneer extensions generally need articulation joints and footings detailed to suit.

Small blocks and shared boundaries

Blocks in the older estates tend to be on the narrow side, and the houses often sit close to a side boundary. That tightens setbacks for an extension under complying development, limits where a carport can go and can put a new deck within the distance from a boundary that triggers privacy screening. It also affects access, because a bobcat that fits down one side may not fit down the other.