Tallowwood Building Company
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Rear elevation of a renovated three-storey weatherboard home with balconies above a pool

Services

Renovations & additions

Our strongest work, and the reason there are two 2025 HIA Northern NSW awards on the shelf. Opening up a tired plan, adding a storey, or replacing the bad bones of a house that deserves better.

Where a renovation actually gets hard

Anyone can price a kitchen. The difficulty in a renovation is everything you cannot see until the linings come off — framing that was never right, a level that runs away from you, services that have to move. That is the part we are good at, and the part we price honestly rather than optimistically.

Additions that don’t read as additions

The test of an addition is whether a stranger can tell where the old house stopped. That is a detailing problem: matching the roof pitch and the cladding module, carrying ceiling heights through, and resolving the junction where new meets old. We set that out before a single stud goes up.

Living in it while we build

Most of our clients stay in the house for at least part of the job. That changes how we stage the work, where we set up, and how we seal the site each night. Tell us at the first visit — it affects both the programme and the price.

What’s included

On every renovation
you get all of this

  • Structural engineering co-ordination
  • Council and certifier documentation support
  • Staged programme if you are living on site
  • Site protection and daily clean-down
  • Our regular trades, co-ordinated by us
  • Defects closed out before handover
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The completed renovation at dusk with warm light behind every window

From our work

Recent renovations & additions

Vaulted ceiling with exposed beams and a timber-lined mezzanine
Front elevation of the completed renovation in daylight
Stairwell and blonde timber floors beside a large round window
All projects Read a case study

Good questions

Questions about renovations and additions

Do you work on older homes?
Yes, and it’s some of our favourite work. The house that won us two HIA awards had bad bones and a long list of unknowns behind the linings, and several other builders had already turned it down. Older homes need a builder who prices the unknowns honestly rather than discovering them later.
Can we keep living in the house while you renovate?
Usually, for at least part of it. It changes how we stage the work, where we set up and how we seal the site each night, so tell us at the first visit — it affects both the programme and the price. Some stages, particularly structural work and wet areas, are easier on everyone if you move out for a fortnight.
How long does a renovation or addition take?
It depends entirely on scope. A deck might be a couple of weeks; a full addition with new services and a second storey is measured in months. Our award-winning Emerald Beach project ran about 14 months from start to handover. We give you a realistic programme up front rather than an optimistic one.
How do you price a job?
We come and look at it first, always. From there you get a written, itemised quote that separates the build cost from provisional sums and prime cost items, so you can see exactly what is fixed and what still needs a decision from you. No lump-sum guesswork.

Also worth a look

Other things we build

New homesCustom homes built from your designer’s drawings or ours, detailed for coastal conditions rather than for the render.Decks & outdoor livingWhere a Coffs Coast house actually lives. Hardwood decks, screens, pergolas and the level changes that connect a house to its yard.Carpentry & joineryThe trade we started in. Staircases, stair voids, built-in joinery and hardwood flooring — the details people run their hand along.

Start a conversation

Planning a renovation
or an addition?

Tell us roughly what you’re thinking and we’ll come and look at it. You’ll get a straight answer on whether we’re the right builder for it.

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