A whole-house renovation on the Sunshine Coast runs in a fixed order, and the order is what controls both the cost and the calendar: brief and budget test, measured survey, design development, engineering and consultants, planning assessment if the site triggers one, building approval through a certifier, contract and pre-start, strip-out and demolition, structure, lock-up, services rough-in, fit-out, external works, then certification and handover. You cannot reorder those stages. Every attempt to start one early — pricing before the design is finished, demolishing before the approval is issued, choosing tiles after the waterproofer has left — is paid for later in variations and lost weeks. This guide sets out the full sequence, the statutory clocks attached to each stage, and what actually drives cost on Coolum, Noosa and Maroochydore blocks.
What counts as a whole-house renovation in Queensland contract terms
There is no legal category called “whole-house renovation”. What matters is how the Queensland Building and Construction Commission classifies the contract. The QBCC requires a written contract for any domestic building work priced over $3,300 including labour, materials and GST. Above that, it splits renovation work into a Level 1 Renovation, Extension and Repair Contract for work priced at $3,301 to $19,999, and a Level 2 contract for work priced at $20,000 and over. Any genuine whole-house job is a Level 2 contract, which brings the stricter deposit, disclosure and insurance rules set out further down.
The second question worth settling before you spend money on drawings is whether you should be renovating at all. If the existing structure is compromised, the floor levels fight the way you want to live, or the retained fabric will cost more to make good than to replace, a rebuild may be the better answer. We work through that comparison in renovate or knock down and rebuild. Decide it once, early, and stop revisiting it.
The whole-house renovation sequence, stage by stage
This is the sequence we work to on Sunshine Coast and Noosa Shire renovations. The fourth column lists the statutory or contractual clock that attaches to that stage, so you can see which delays are yours to control and which belong to a regulator.
| # | Stage | Must be finished first | The clock that applies | Where it stalls on the Coast |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brief, scope and budget test | Nothing — this is where renovate versus rebuild is decided | No statutory clock | Scope creep before a line is drawn |
| 2 | Measured survey, service locates, hazardous materials check | Access to the house | No statutory clock | Undocumented past work found behind linings |
| 3 | Design development | Survey and site analysis complete | No statutory clock | Owner decisions left open |
| 4 | Engineering and consultants | Design frozen enough to engineer | No statutory clock | Footing design on sloping or reactive sites |
| 5 | Planning assessment, if triggered | Design plus consultant reports | Council assessment under Noosa Plan 2020 or Sunshine Coast Planning Scheme 2014 | Height, setback, character and overlay triggers |
| 6 | Building approval | Stamped plans, engineering, any planning approval | Noosa Shire Council states you can obtain a development approval from a private building certifier, and that certifiers are not authorised to approve building work contrary to the local planning scheme or the Queensland Development Code | Certifier information requests |
| 7 | Contract and pre-start | Approved plans and a closed scope | QBCC: written contract over $3,300; maximum 5% deposit on a Level 2 contract; five business days cooling-off | Pricing a scope that is not finished |
| 8 | Site set-up, protection, strip-out and demolition | Signed contract, approvals on site, insurance in place | QBCC: contractors must take out home warranty insurance on the owner’s behalf before starting residential construction work | Access, neighbours, wind and sea spray |
| 9 | Structure: footings, underpinning, framing, roof | Demolition complete and the retained structure inspected | Engineer inspections and the certifier’s mandatory inspection stages | Weather, and the true condition of what you kept |
| 10 | Lock-up and weatherproofing | Roof on, windows and external doors in | Wet-area waterproofing to AS 3740; termite management to AS 3660.1 | Custom glazing and door lead times |
| 11 | Services rough-in | Frame inspection passed | QBCC: notifiable plumbing work must be registered within 10 business days of issuing an invoice for the work | Sequencing trades through one wet-area zone |
| 12 | Linings, wet areas, tiling and joinery | Rough-in signed off | QBCC: variations in writing and agreed in writing, with a copy to you before the variation work starts or within five business days of agreement, whichever occurs first | Late selections |
| 13 | External works: pool, decks, driveway, landscaping | Structure complete and plant access available | Sunshine Coast Council requires building approval to construct, alter or add to a swimming pool and to construct or alter a pool safety barrier; the QBCC recommends you engage a licensed pool safety inspector to inspect the pool and confirm it is compliant | Wet weather and crane or excavator access |
| 14 | Certification, handover and defects | All works complete | QBCC: for a non-structural defect you must become aware within six months of the work being substantially complete and claim within seven months of that day; for a structural defect you must become aware within six years and six months of the cover commencement day | Loose defect-list discipline |
Note what is not in that table: week counts. We do not publish generic durations, because the same scope on a beachfront block at Yaroomba and a sloping block at Ninderry will not run to the same program. What we do publish is the order, and the order does not change.
The real project this sequence is drawn from: Grandview Drive, Coolum Beach
Grandview Drive at Coolum Beach is the project this sequence is written against. It won three awards at the Master Builders Queensland 2025 Sunshine Coast Housing & Construction Awards, presented on 15 August 2025 at The Events Centre, Caloundra: Home Renovation/Remodelling Project over $1 million, Best Residential Swimming Pool, and Best Use of Innovation.
The table below maps that project onto the sequence above. It carries only what is publicly verifiable. We do not publish stage durations or contract values for our own jobs, so where a fact is not public the table says so rather than filling the gap with an average.
| Sequence stage | What Grandview Drive, Coolum Beach shows | How that is verifiable |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3: brief, survey and design | An existing house was remodelled rather than removed, so the retained fabric set the scope | Master Builders Queensland award category: Home Renovation/Remodelling Project over $1 million |
| 7: contract and pre-start | A job at this scale sits well inside Level 2 contract territory, with the 5% deposit cap and Consumer Building Guide obligations that go with it | QBCC sets the Level 2 threshold at $20,000 and over; the award category is over $1 million |
| 9: structure | Structural scope on a retained house is governed by what the survey and strip-out expose, which is why stages 2 and 9 carry the risk | Follows from the project being a remodel of an existing dwelling rather than a new build |
| 13: external works | A new pool formed part of the external works stage, after the structure was complete | Master Builders Queensland award: Best Residential Swimming Pool |
| Across the program | Innovation was applied and independently judged across the build | Master Builders Queensland award: Best Use of Innovation |
| After handover | The work later continued as a separate contract | Grandview Drive Extension, Coolum Beach |
| Stage durations | Not published | Program length is site and scope specific, so we do not publish generic week counts |
The pool sitting at stage 13, after the structure was complete, is the only sensible place for it on a constrained coastal block: you do not want an excavator working hard up against a finished house. You can see the job in full at Grandview Drive, Coolum Beach.
What drives the cost of a whole-house renovation
Renovation is not priced like a new build, because you are buying the unknown as well as the known. The Australian Bureau of Statistics put the seasonally adjusted value of alterations and additions to residential buildings at $1,288 million nationally in July 2026, a fall of 3.9% on the month — a large and volatile market, and one where published averages tell you almost nothing about your house. These are the drivers that actually move the number:
- The condition of what you keep. Retained framing, roof structure and slabs have to be made good and brought up to current requirements where the new work meets them. None of that can be priced with certainty until the linings are off, which is why it generates variations.
- Level changes and the block. Sloping sites at Ninderry, Marcus Beach or Pelican Waters need retaining, deeper footings and more temporary works. Sunshine Coast Council requires building approval for retaining walls over 1m in height, or within 1.5m of a building or another retaining wall.
- Coastal exposure. Near-beach sites at Coolum, Yaroomba and Noosa need corrosion-appropriate fixings, hardware and finishes, and a site wind classification determined under AS 4055. Both add cost an inland job never sees.
- Wet areas and joinery. Bathrooms and kitchens concentrate waterproofing to AS 3740, tiling, cabinetry, tapware and services into small floor areas, so their cost per square metre runs well above a bedroom or a hallway.
- Services capacity. Old switchboards, undersized water services and drainage that does not suit the new layout are routinely discovered at stage 11, not stage 3.
- Access. Narrow streets at Cotton Tree and Noosa, tight setbacks and no lay-down area all slow trades and add plant hire.
To sanity-check a figure someone has given you, work from area and specification rather than a headline number. We cover that in renovation cost per square metre in Queensland.
Approvals: Sunshine Coast Council and Noosa Shire Council
More of a whole-house renovation is assessable building work than the drawings suggest. Sunshine Coast Council lists building approval as required for new construction, alterations and additions to existing buildings, re-roofing, and replacement of or alteration to any cladding forming part of an external wall. For dwellings, apartments and secondary dwellings it also lists internal alterations, bathroom renovations and replacement of windows and glazed doors, plus converting existing garages, sheds or storage spaces into habitable areas. Decks, pergolas, verandahs, patios and balconies need approval if they exceed 10m² in area, exceed a mean height of 2.1m and a maximum height of 2.4m, exceed 5m in length on any side, or are 1.0m or higher above the surface level below. Fences over 2m in height above natural ground level, fences that act as a swimming pool safety barrier, and the construction of, or alteration or addition to, a swimming pool or spa pool all need approval too.
Noosa Shire Council takes the same position in plainer terms: most types of building work require a development approval, and it gives new buildings, renovations, alterations or additions, construction of retaining walls, carports, sheds and swimming pools as its examples. Council also states that private building certifiers are not authorised to approve any building work that is contrary to the local planning scheme or the Queensland Development Code, and that a building application requiring a variation to either must be submitted to Council before the building certifier grants approval. That is a common reason a Noosa renovation program slips at stage 5. The detail is set out in building approvals on the Sunshine Coast and in Noosa.
The paperwork that protects you
For a Level 2 renovation contract, the QBCC caps the deposit at 5% of the contract price. For a Level 1 contract of $3,301 to $19,999 the cap is 10%, and for work valued at $3,300 or less it is 20%. The QBCC notes one exception: a deposit of up to 20% may apply where customised off-site work such as cabinetry or windows represents more than 50% of the total contract price. You also get a cooling-off period of five business days, which begins the day after you receive a signed copy of the entire contract including any plans and specifications and, for contracts valued at $20,000 or more, a copy of the QBCC Consumer Building Guide. If you withdraw in that window, the QBCC says the contractor may keep $100 plus an amount equal to any out-of-pocket expenses reasonably incurred before you withdrew.
Home warranty insurance under the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme applies to most residential building work valued at more than $3,300 including materials, labour and GST, and the QBCC lists extensions, additions, alterations and renovations, replacing or refitting fixtures or fittings in a kitchen or bathroom, work on a home’s deck or verandah, and constructing or installing swimming pools among the insurable work. Note the QBCC’s exclusion there: constructing or installing a pool is insurable, but renovating an existing pool is not. The QBCC requires contractors to take out home warranty insurance on the owner’s behalf before starting residential construction work, and the premium is built into the contract price. Your builder should be able to show you the policy, and you can confirm the licence sitting behind it — see how to check a QBCC licence.
Variations are where renovation contracts come unstuck. The QBCC requires the variation to be presented to you in writing and agreed by you in writing, with a description of the variation, the date of the request, a reasonable estimate of any time delay, and the change to the contract price or the method of calculating it. A copy must reach you before the variation work starts or within five business days of the day both parties agree to it, whichever occurs first, and the QBCC is explicit that a contractor cannot require payment for a variation before the variation work is started. A builder running variations verbally is not being relaxed about paperwork — they are in breach.
Who should hold the job together
A whole-house renovation is one continuous program with fourteen dependent stages, not a series of trades booked in turn. It needs a single licensed builder holding the contract, the approvals, the insurance and the program, and answering for the lot. Roebuck Concepts is a QBCC-licensed builder, licence 15280811, based at Unit 1/18 Lomandra Place, Coolum Beach, working across the Sunshine Coast and Noosa Shire, and a member of Master Builders Queensland. Director Tom Roebuck has more than 20 years in residential construction and holds individual QBCC licence 15015060. You can see how we run renovation programs on our Sunshine Coast renovation builders page, or call 0477 333 386.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a building approval for internal alterations only?
On the Sunshine Coast, usually yes. Sunshine Coast Council lists internal alterations, bathroom renovations and replacement of windows and glazed doors among the building work that needs approval for dwellings, apartments and secondary dwellings. A private building certifier can confirm what your specific scope requires before you commit to it.
Can I live in the house during a whole-house renovation?
Rarely, and not through stages 8 to 11. Once demolition, structural work and services rough-in start, the house has no reliable power, water, weatherproofing or safe access. Staging a job so you can occupy part of the house is possible, but it adds temporary works, separate service isolations and program time, all of which cost money.
How much deposit can a builder ask for on a renovation?
The QBCC caps the deposit at 5% of the contract price for a Level 2 renovation, extension and repair contract, which is work priced at $20,000 and over. Below that, the cap is 10% for a Level 1 contract of $3,301 to $19,999, and 20% for work valued at $3,300 or less. The QBCC allows a deposit of up to 20% where customised off-site work such as cabinetry or windows represents more than 50% of the total contract price.
What happens if we find something unexpected behind the walls?
It becomes a variation. The QBCC requires it to be presented in writing and agreed by you in writing, with the change to the contract price and a reasonable estimate of any time delay stated, and a copy given to you before the variation work starts or within five business days of agreement, whichever occurs first. The way to reduce these is to survey and investigate hard at stage 2, so fewer surprises arrive at stage 9 when the program is under load.
How long am I covered after handover?
Under the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme, you must first become aware of a structural defect within six years and six months after the cover commencement day, and make the claim within three months after the day you first become aware of it. For a non-structural defect, you must first become aware within six months after the day the work is substantially complete, and make the claim within seven months after that same day.