Archive for category: General

Most people need a carpenter in Brisbane at one time or another, but did you know that there are different types of carpenters, who do different things? Some carpenters specialise in framing, formwork, roofing and other structural work, others lay floor joists and yet others specialise in trims and mouldings. Knowing which type of carpenter you need for the job is only the first step in finding a good carpenter. 

 

Brisbane builders always have a few different carpenters on their work teams, and Jeb Built is no different. We have carpenters that work as a team on our building and renovation projects, but who can also be hired for individual jobs by clients. If you are searching for a carpenter for your small project, here are five questions you need to ask before finalising your selection.

 1. Are they qualified?

You always want to hire a qualified carpenter, rather than a handyman, because you can be sure of a professional outcome. Carpenters spend years honing their craft to become a specialist woodworker and can turn their hand to almost any job that requires their type of expertise. Every qualified carpenter needs a license to practice their craft, but there are different classes of licences: general carpentry, formwork, framing, lattice, and joinery. You can check whether or not a carpenter has the appropriate licence on the Licenced Trades website.

 2. Do they have the right type of experience?

There’s no point in hiring a friend to build new kitchen cupboards, if they specialise in structural carpentry, even if they are a qualified carpenter. They might do a good job, but because it’s not their area of expertise and they have no experience making cabinetry, you can’t be sure of a good result. There may also be different design styles to factor in, so for example a carpenter in Brisbane may have worked on styles which are quite different to projects in Melbourne or Sydney. So always ask about their experience, so that you can select the best carpenter for the job.

 3. Are they insured?

All tradies need some form of insurance if they operate on their own, these can include Public Liability, Property and Tools, Personal Accident, Worker’s Compensation, and Professional Indemnity. You always need to ask for evidence of these insurance policies, because for example, if they bring along an apprentice and they are injured on your property, you might be up for Worker’s Compensation, if the carpenter doesn’t have this insurance.

 4. Do they provide detailed quotes?

You should expect any professional carpenter in Brisbane to give you a detailed quote covering all the work involved in the project. If they just give you a verbal quote, you won’t have anything to support a complaint, if they ask for more money before the job is completed. The written quote should include all labour and materials to complete the work.

 5. What guarantees do they provide?

Any professional tradesperson will guarantee their work and depending on the materials that are used, the lifetime of the materials as well. You should ask about these guarantees, because if something goes wrong during the warranty period, you may well be able to make a claim against the carpenter or firm that supplied the materials.

If you want a fully qualified and experienced carpenter in Brisbane to work on your project, why not call the team at JEB Built on 0431 065 019 or shoot us an email today.

Given that an office fit out is an expensive investment and you don’t want to have to do it very often, you need to plan it well and then work the plan! To help you make a start on these renovations, we have put together a checklist of the most salient points you need to cover.

1. Plan for the future

Why do you want to renovate your office? Do you need more space? Do you want to improve the flexibility of your office space? Include new technology, impress your customers, enhance the working environment to increase productivity, grow your business? There are many reasons why a renovation is important, but for a successful renovation, you need to know why it’s important and then plan for the future, as well as for your current needs.

2. Consider innovative office fit out designs

Do your own research and find out what’s trending in the world of office renovations. This will give you ideas that might work with your space, particularly if you are thinking of your future needs. For example, hot desks are a great option to increase the flexibility of your office, as well as desks that can move on wheels! Then there are standing desks that can be lowered and raised, and multipurpose shared spaces that massively ramp up the flexibility in your office.

3. Do you want to use cloud technology?

If you move to the cloud, this can have two significant impacts on your office fit out renovations. First of all, you won’t need to keep updating and maintaining a bank of servers, which can save you a lot of money in both the short and long term and free up much needed space. Second, cloud computing gives you the option of allowing some of your employees to work remotely. This not only frees up more space in the office, but also brings your company up to date with what employees want from their employer. If you are organising an office renovation, now’s the time to set this in motion. 

4. Do you want to invest in sustainable practices?

These include a paperless office, solar power, smart lighting, tinted windows and green spaces. There’s lots of ways you can include sustainable and eco-friendly practices into your office fit out, it just takes a little forethought; a renovation is the ideal time to make these changes. It’s also a wise move, because more and more customers are turning to companies that support sustainable practices and employees also appreciate an employer who is environmentally friendly.

5. Organise a budget & quotes

Once you know exactly what you need to achieve with your renovations, you can put together a realistic budget and start asking for quotes. It’s a good idea to select a builder who has experience with commercial renovations and a good reputation within the local community. Another big factor in your decision is that the builder is easy to talk to and pays attention to your requirements. You also want the quote to include everything from the design brief, technical plans, delivery of materials and construction time frames.

If you want a highly experienced commercial builder with a reputation for quality office fit out, call Jeb Built on 0431 065 019 or shoot us an email. 

Finding the right commercial construction companies in Brisbane for your project is the first step to a successful completion, so it pays to take your time and do it right. Obviously, your budget and time frame will be a big part of your decision making process, but there are other factors to consider when choosing commercial construction companies. Let’s take a look at some of the questions you need to ask before making your final decision.

Do they have the right experience for the job?

You not only want to investigate commercial construction companies in Brisbane, but you want to identify the companies with the right type of experience. For example, if you are building a 25 story office block, you don’t want someone who has never built anything over three stories, because they won’t have the right type of experience. When problems occur (they always do!), contractors without prior knowledge and experience may have no idea how to pull everything together and keep the build moving forward. 

Can you work with these contractors?

Personalities clash and sometimes you just can’t work with a particular company or a specific project manager. To circumvent this problem you need to meet face-to-face with the project manager who will manage your construction project and who should be the person you will deal with on a day-to-day basis. Communication is vital in commercial construction, so it pays to spend the time and interview a few commercial construction companies in Brisbane, to make sure that you select the one with the best communication skills.

Are they an established company?

For a commercial project, you want a company that has a brick and mortar address and a good reputation within the building community – you don’t want any problems with building warranties and follow-up work after your project is completed. An established company with a good reputation has a lot to lose if anything goes wrong, so they will go out of their way to ensure that your project is completed on time, on budget and with a quality finish.

Do they have good references?

When investigating commercial construction companies in Brisbane, never take someone’s word for their reputation. Always ask for and check their references – speak to the people involved and ask about their experience with the contractors. Forewarned is forearmed, and if previous clients had any problems with the contractor, they are unlikely to hold back and pretend everything was fine during construction. Even if they had a great experience, it can still give you an idea of what to expect as your project moves forward.

How does their quote compare with other commercial construction companies in Brisbane?

Whilst cost is an important factor in your decision, it’s isn’t the only factor that you will consider, because you want an established construction company that has a good reputation and good communication skills. Their quotes however, should be compared, but sometimes it’s better to pay a little extra for quality work and additional services, as the right contractor can make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful project. 

Call us on 0431 065 019 or send us an email to discuss your commercial project.

Starting your own small business is the dream of many Aussies and a boutique cafe is a great way to dip your toe in the water. If you are considering opening your own small bespoke cafe, one of your first steps is to organise the decor and furnishings, as well as a kitchen fit out. 

For people with a limited budget however, the thought of a cafe and kitchen fit out can seem a little daunting. However, there are lots of simple ways to create the ambiance you want in your cafe, without breaking the budget. Let’s take a look at some of the more affordable ways you can bring life back into a small cafe and reap the benefits for years to come!

1. Bigger isn’t always better: You don’t need to lease a massive space with room for thirty customers to turn a cafe into a going concern. Some of the most profitable cafes are really small, in fact some are smaller than 10 metres square. It all comes down to design, layout and how you organise your kitchen fit out. 
2. Limit seating to less than ten: One of the best ways to make a profit with a small cafe is to limit the seating to no more than ten customers. This means that you need less staff to serve customers, less furniture, floor space and less time spent cleaning at the end of the day. There’s nothing wrong focussing on a takeaway service with just a few seats for waiting customers or a few who want to sit and relax over brunch.
3. Focus on vintage or industrial decor: These types of decor never go out of fashion, because there seems to be something warm and welcoming about them. They are also very easy and affordable to fit out, often taking advantage of the existing walls with just a lick of paint, and recycled metals and timber (as these materials are easy to repurpose). 
4. Use recycled materials: Opting for second-hand furniture, old industrial lighting and recycled materials for the bench tops is a cost-cutting way to be trendy and save money on the front end fit out. Open metal shelving used in commercial kitchens is also a good way to utilise wall space, but still keep an open feel to the cafe. If you need a kitchen fit out as well, you can search for second hand commercial fridge/freezers, ovens, stoves, coffee machines and other appliances, all of which can save you a lot of money. 
5. Do as little as possible: Instead of installing a dropped ceiling to hide all the pipes and wires, leave them exposed and go for an industrial look. Don’t spend money on fitting an expensive wood floor, instead polish the concrete and go for an organic, raw ambiance. Paint brick walls instead of adding drywall, and use as much of the existing structure or furnishings as you can, simply adding your own touch here and there.

Even with a limited budget, if you dream of owning your own small cafe, it can be achieved! Call the team at JEB Built on 0431 065 019 or shoot us an email for a free quote on your small cafe and kitchen fit out – we will have you up and running in no time at all!

Whether you need to update your store because of your lease agreement or you want to modernise it so that it’s more appealing to your customers, a commercial refurbishment is a necessary part of doing business.

The problem is that often these refurbishments come with a specific set of challenges, particularly if you need to renovate a building with other occupants. There is also the issue of including some aspect of sustainability in your commercial refurbishment, partly to reduce your ongoing overheads, but also so that you can promote your business as environmentally friendly.

Designing your floor plan

It’s fair to say that you can only go so far with your designs, because you will be limited by the actual structure of the building, so basically, you will have to work your renovations around these limitations. For example, natural light is something that can be very important in a commercial refurbishment, but it can be augmented by careful placement of interior lighting.

Also, to make your renovations as cost effective as possible, it’s sensible to work around existing services, such as plumbing and air-conditioning. Checking the building plans will help you to locate theses services, which can then be incorporated into your commercial refurbishment.

Addressing sustainability issues

Older buildings in particular, often don’t include materials or services that are environmentally friendly, so a refurbishment is the ideal time for updates. Consider the types of materials that will be used in your renovations, any appliances and equipment, but more specifically, the heating and cooling systems.

These latter systems are where you can seriously reduce your operating costs and since many older systems are not very energy efficient, it’s sensible to replace them with alternatives that will reduce your carbon footprint and your energy bills

Even something quite small, such as using LED lighting, can make a significant reduction to your energy bills. Environmentally friendly insulation is another feature that is often lacking in older buildings and is another way for you to reduce your carbon footprint and power bills.

Finally, if your commercial refurbishment will affect other occupants of the building, it’s best to discuss your schedule of works with these businesses At JEB Built, we make sure that we keep ll noise and disruptions to a minimum, whilst performing major works during off-peak times.

Call us on 0431 065 019 or ask us for a free quote.

Unless you are a renovation expert, you are unlikely to have the costs of renovating or extending your home at your fingertips. Without some idea of these costs however, budgeting for your renovations can be difficult and if you underestimate these costs, your renovations are unlikely to be completed on time or to your satisfaction.

If you ask any renovation expert they will tell you that your budget needs to be composed of four sub-budgets: excavation and foundations, building materials, labour costs, and finishing costs.

Excavation and foundations: The best way to minimise these costs is to have a nice level block, because if you have a rocky or sloping block of land, these costs can skyrocket. How often have you seen a developer build on the side of a hill? That’s because they want to reduce their excavation costs down to an absolute minimum and they know that flat and level blocks ticks all the boxes. So if you have a sloping block, you will need to put more money aside for the initial building works.

Building materials: These costs depend on numerous factors and can be quite difficult to estimate. The best way to approach these costs however, is to understand that a full brick home will cost a lot more than a timber framed home, and cut your cloth accordingly. As a renovation expert, we can give you a close estimate of these costs, making it much easier to plan your budget.

Labour costs: The smaller and simpler the renovations or extensions, the lower the costs of labour. More extensive and complicated designs will cost you more in labour, as will a double story extension, compared to a single story addition.

Finishing costs: Whilst many of the above costs are out of your hands, the finishing costs are totally within your domain! If you want high end fixtures and fittings, you will need to have a much bigger budget than if you were to opt for more standard options.

The best way to estimate all of these costs is to contact us at JEB Built and we can visit your property and give you a realistic estimate based on your specifications. As a rough guide however, and based on the cost per metre, if you budget for at least $1700/ square metre for standard fittings and at least $3400 for higher quality fittings and fixtures, you won’t be far off the mark.

Call your local renovation expert about office fit out costs at JEB Built on 0431 065 019 or send us an email to request a free quote.

One of the most important factors in a commercial fit out companies in Brisbane is cost, but since reducing your carbon footprint is also becoming important in Australia, how do business owners manage these two competing goals?

You might be surprised to learn that there are many ways that a business can keep both their costs down and create an environmentally friendly environment for their staff and customers. Let’s take a look at some of the options that will help you to reduce your carbon footprint for your next commercial office fit out companies in Brisbane.

Reducing your energy bills with clever options

With power bills continuing to spiral upwards, any strategies that keep your costs down are worthwhile considering and if they are environmentally friendly, all the better! For example. letting in as much natural light as possible into your building will cut down on daytime lighting costs, so consider installing large tinted windows and even skylights during your commercial fit out companies in Brisbane.

When you need to keep the lights on inside, consider energy efficient bulbs, timers that turn the lights off at the end of the day and even motion detectors that only switch the lights on if a room is being used. Automated air conditioning and heating is also another good option, as this can be set to a specific temperature that ensures both comfort and reduced energy bills.

Insulation is another great way to cut down on your power bills, as this helps to reduce your A/C and heating bills. There are some very good thermal insulation products on the market that are also environmentally friendly and can be installed into the walls and roof spaces, for example cotton, cellulose or sheep wool.

Using sustainable and recycled materials

Sustainable materials have a very low carbon footprint, because they are created using non-toxic processes with as little waste as possible and can be easily recycled. Including as many of these sustainable materials as possible in your commercial fit out in Brisbane is a great way to reduce your business’s carbon footprint. So consider recycled timbers, bamboo or cork floors, environmentally friendly concrete, eco wallpaper and toxic-free paint in your designs.

For a quality environmentally friendly commercial fit out companies in Brisbane, call us on 0431 065 019 or send us an email.

Most people have a good idea of the right questions to ask their residential or commercial builders in Brisbane, but it’s fair to say that they usually forget at least one of the following four essential questions.

How late into the build can I make changes?

The more changes you make during the build, the more expensive your costs and the longer time to completion, so ideally, you don’t want to make any changes at all! If you think you might need to make changes however, it’s important to ask your commercial or residential builders for the cut-off date, because if you cross this line, be ready to open your cheque book!

When can you visit the site?

The more often you turn up on site, the more you interrupt their work, pushing out the completion date and making your residential or commercial builders cranky! Obviously you need to visit the site to make sure that everything is going to plan, so expect to visit after the slab has dried fully, after the framing is complete, at the lock up stage and of course, a final inspection before handover. Always check these inspection times however, just so you are on the same page.

How many trades people will be on site each day?

If you are renovating, rather than taking on a new build, and you will be living in your home during these renovations, it’s a good idea to find out how many people will be on-site each day. This will change over the course of the renovation, but it’s always best to ask your residential builders, so you can be prepared for the days when you have thirty tradies all working at one time on your home!

What time do they start and finish each day?

This is really only relevant if you are living through a renovation, but it’s important to know what time the trades will turn up and leave every day, for your sanity if nothing else! You won’t want the builders watching your every move at home and residential builders also like to be left alone to do their work, so it’s a win-win situation really.

If you are in the market for professional residential or commercial builders in Brisbane, call JEB Built on 0431 065 019 or send us an email.

JEB Built is a professional renovation company with a team of expert craftsmen who are extremely skilled in their work. Today, our carpenter in Brisbane who is a renovation expert is sharing some of his carpentry tips for homeowners who want to tackle their own DIY renovations.

• Perfect mitred corners: These are the bane of all DIY renovators, but the secret is to practice on some spare timber or off-cuts first before you cut into your best timber. Any renovation expert will tell you that it might take a few tries to get the perfect angle, but once you are set, the rest is a breeze.
• Designing the ideal workbench: As a professional carpenter in Brisbane, moving from job to job means carting everything that is needed for each job in the back of the truck. So when it comes to a workbench, the easiest option is to cobble something together on the spot. All you need is some spare timber and you are good to go, but the trick is ensuring that the outfeed support is the same height as the saw bench.
• The joy of nail guns: These air-powered trim guns make nailing so much faster and easier. In fact, most carpenters in Brisbane haven’t hand-nailed interior trim in years and they guard their nail guns like gold! You can usually pick one up for around $100, but make sure it shoots 5/8 to 2-inch 18-gauge nails, as this is the most versatile for DIY homeowners.
• You don’t always need to measure! How often have you measured a trim or a frame and it doesn’t fit? This has even happened to the professionals, so a trick used by most carpenters in Brisbane is to forget the tape measure and hold the trim or frame in place and mark it with a pencil. This way it’s guaranteed to fit, first time.
• Foolproof templates: Forget using string and stakes to position post holes or footings, because any renovation expert will tell you that the best solution is to tack together the construction lumber to make your marks, put it aside, then dig your holes and bring the timber frame back to set the posts.
• Framing woes: Framing is a pretty easy job until one of the studs won’t budge and all it needs to move is half a centimetre! Forget banging it with your hammer, because that won’t work. The solution is to hit a big nail through the edge of the stud at an angle, then hit the nail with your hammer and the stud will move swiftly into position.

If you are searching for an experienced renovation company or a professional carpenter in Brisbane, call JEB Built on 0431 065 019 or send us an email.

Most commercial businesses need to invest in a commercial fit out in Brisbane at some time or another, if for no other reason than to remain up to date for customers. If you are considering a shop renovation in the near future, here are 4 money saving tips from a renovation expert.

1. Invite tenders: This is one of the best ways to save money on a commercial fit out in Brisbane, because it allows you to compare costs between shopfitters. The big mistake that many people make is to remain with the same shopfitters, simply because they used them for their last shop renovation. Competition and new blood can significantly reduce the overall costs for your renovations.
2. No unexpected costs: It’s important that you read the quotes very carefully for your shop renovation from each tender, because you want everything to be covered in the quote. Some shopfitters water down their quotes to gain a tender and then start adding on variations that can massively increase your costs. They can also give you a PC quote, meaning that as a Provisional Cost quote, the costs can once again escalate during the fit out process. You will save a significant amount of money if your quote is ‘inclusive’ with no costs added later on (costs that you can’t control).
3. Liaise with your shopfitters: Once you have selected a shopfitter (who is a renovation expert), make use of their skills by including them in the planning stages, so that nothing important is forgotten. Often, your shopfitter will act as your project manager, which is a win-win situation, because it saves you time and money on your commercial fit out in Brisbane. Experienced shopfitters will ensure that your commercial fitout runs smoothly, because they have a network of suppliers and know all the permits you might need.
4. Closing for the fitout: The best way to save money during the fit out process, when your store is closed, is to schedule the renovations during a quiet sales period. There is no way that you can avoid lost sales during your shop renovation, but you can minimise these losses by being clever about when you close your store and asking staff to take holidays at the same time.

For a professional commercial fit out in Brisbane, call us at JEB Built on 0431 065 019 or get a quote online.