Registration and contracts, in brief. Our page for Perth builders covers the rule in full: most work that needs a building permit and is worth $20,000 or more has to be done by a registered building contractor, and home indemnity insurance is required where permit work is worth more than $20,000, and whether a particular bathroom needs a permit is a question for the local government. Our Perth tilers page explains the Home Building Contracts Act's 6.5 per cent deposit cap for fixed-price home building work between $7,500 and $500,000. One case shows why owners look for this on a renovator's website. In July 2024 Gregory Hall, trading as Longhorn Building Company and Down South Bathroom Renovations, was ordered by a Bunbury magistrate to pay $6,100 in fines and costs over a renovation that took in a kitchen, bathroom and laundry. He had been paid $37,635 for work he never finished, took a 69.4 per cent deposit and has never been registered.
Heritage-listed houses. Under WA's planning regulations, internal work that doesn't materially change a building's outside appearance is generally exempt from development approval, but heritage-protected places are treated differently. The City of Fremantle's Local Planning Policy 1.7, revised in 2026, shows how one council handles it. Interior works to a building on its Heritage List don't need development approval where they're confined to things such as an existing kitchen, bathroom or laundry fit-out with no structural alterations, retiling, light fittings, and electrical and plumbing work, unless the place is Level 1A or 1B on the local list, on the State Register of Heritage Places, or under a heritage order or agreement. The same policy says works to a heritage-protected place otherwise need approval unless the table exempts them, and that an exemption from planning approval doesn't remove the need for a building permit or strata approval. Other councils, Subiaco and Claremont among them, keep heritage lists and policies of their own. The state's inHerit database holds State Register entries alongside local government heritage lists, searchable by the public, so a quote form that links to it can flag the job before you price it.
Scheme water that varies by suburb. Perth's drinking water is a blend of groundwater, desalinated seawater and dam water, and the mix changes across the city. Water Corporation's drinking water quality report for July 2024 to June 2025 gives average hardness of 228 mg/L for Two Rocks, the only Perth locality carrying the note that elevated hardness is characteristic of its source, with Yanchep at 198, Neerabup at 190, Wanneroo at 125, Mirrabooka at 124, Whitfords at 113 and Mount Hawthorn at 106. At the other end, Dwellingup averaged 29, the Hills Direct locality 48, Bold Park 49, Mandurah 50 and Melville 54. A renovator working mainly in the northern growth suburbs will hear about scale on glass and tapware far more than one working around Fremantle or Mandurah. If that shapes what you recommend, a paragraph on it, in your words and pointing to Water Corporation's tables, belongs on the site.
Electrical and plumbing sign-off. WA requires all electrical work to be done by licensed people, and licensed electrical contractors must show their licence number, which starts with EC, in all advertising. Building and Energy's consumer brochure says the contractor must give the customer an electrical safety certificate within 28 days of finishing any installing work other than maintenance and like-for-like replacement, and that an owner who doesn't receive one should ask the contractor and, failing that, tell the network operator, which across Perth is Western Power. Our Perth electricians page covers those rules and the RCD requirements for homes being sold or rented. Plumbing has a matching system run by the Plumbers Licensing Board, with a notice of intention before major plumbing work and a certificate of compliance afterwards, which our Perth plumbers page explains. Older homes add one more step: the City of Cockburn lists asbestos cement sheeting in bathroom walls, ceilings and floors among the places asbestos turns up, and limits what residents may remove themselves, so say who checks and who removes it.
Where you work, and how we work with you. Perth owners describe where they live by corridor and river as often as by council: north or south of the river, the northern coastal suburbs, the eastern hills around Kalamunda and Mundaring, the Fremantle area, the south-west corridor out to Rockingham, and Mandurah, which sits in the Peel region rather than the metropolitan one. List the suburbs you'll quote in under headings like those. WebCraft Studio is an Adelaide team at Ste 3/110 Hutt St, and Perth renovators deal with us by phone and email; Adelaide runs an hour and a half ahead of Perth, two and a half during South Australian daylight saving. Our clients so far are in SA, NSW, VIC and QLD, and we haven't built a WA site yet, so your pages are built from the registration details, photos, suburb list and words you send us.
