Licensing and contracts, in short. The building work contractor's licence, the supervisor registration behind it and the rule that advertising shows your licensed name and number are covered on our page for Adelaide builders, and plumbing and gas licensing on our Adelaide plumbers page. For bathroom work, the details that change what your site says are the November 2025 thresholds. The Law Handbook explains that for contracts over $20,000, the Building Work Contractors Regulations 2026 cap the deposit at 5 per cent of the work's value, with a fixed small deposit allowed below that, and that building indemnity insurance is required only where domestic work over $20,000 also needs development approval. When it applies, the cover is up to $250,000. Whether a given bathroom needs approval is a question for PlanSA or the council, so on your site we'd link the Handbook's pages on building contracts and minor domestic work rather than give owners a rule of thumb.
Houses in the north, apartments in the city. Greater Adelaide had 536,048 occupied private dwellings at the 2021 Census: 75 per cent separate houses, 16.3 per cent semis, row houses and townhouses, and 8.2 per cent flats or apartments. The spread is uneven. In the City of Playford, 84 per cent were separate houses and under 1 per cent flats, while in the City of Adelaide 56.9 per cent were flats or apartments and 59.5 per cent of homes were rented. For units, South Australia's Strata Titles Act says that "prescribed work", defined to include altering or demolishing a building or structure and changing its external appearance, needs a special resolution of the strata corporation, with a narrower path for some two-unit schemes. Owners of older walk-up units ask about this, and a line telling them to check with their strata manager before booking a start date saves a stalled job.
Heritage areas and older homes. Colonel Light Gardens and Port Adelaide are both State Heritage Areas. The Department for Environment and Water says proposed changes to any property in one need development approval from the local council, which refers them to the heritage minister for advice, and its definition of development takes in non-structural alterations. A renovator who regularly works in Colonel Light Gardens or Port Adelaide has good reason to give those suburbs a paragraph of their own. Age matters inside the walls as well: the state's asbestos guidance says the 10 square metre limit for unlicensed removal applies to the whole project and can't be split into smaller lots, and that friable asbestos always needs a licensed removalist.
Rentals and agents. About 28 per cent of Greater Adelaide's occupied homes were rented at the 2021 Census. The Housing Safety Authority's minimum housing standards ask for a toilet, a bath or shower and a hand basin, adequate waterproofing in walls and floor, hot and cold plumbed water to bathe, drainage for all wastewater, and adequate ventilation and light. Since 1 July 2024, landlords and agents have had to meet those standards at the start of a tenancy. That makes a page for property managers worth having if rental refits are part of your week: how you arrange access, how long the room is out of use and what you leave on file.
Working with us. WebCraft Studio is at Ste 3/110 Hutt St in the city. Most of our projects run by phone and email, which suits renovators who spend the day in someone else's bathroom, and if you'd rather sit down before we start, that can be arranged. You send your licence details, your own words about how a job runs, before-and-after photos and the suburbs you cover; we arrange them into pages, link the official guidance, and leave licensing, approval and contract questions to you, CBS and your advisers.