Making alterations to character houses or buildings can help you preserve their integrity for years to come. However, some alterations take away from the original characteristic properties. To combat this, Brisbane City Council enacted some regulations to guide renovations and extensions to character buildings. Let’s take a look at what you need to know.
Why Might You Have to Alter a Character House?
Since character houses were built long ago, they reflect the building materials and machinery available at that time. In other words, character houses might not have enough room for modern living. Many character homeowners want to create more space with ground-level extensions, building underneath, or raising and building a new lower level.
For this article, we’re focusing on regulations for raising a character house in Brisbane because that’s what Meier House Removals does best.
Rules for Raising a Character House in Brisbane
When altering a character house, it’s critical to retain the building’s original appearance, proportions and features as best as you can. Raising a house changes its scale, so following these rules ensures you maintain all the other design features:
Retaining the Original Stumps
When Meier House Removals raises any other house, we typically replace the timber stumps with concrete or steel stumps, which last longer and provide better protection against water damage. For character houses, you are only allowed to replace the old timber stumps with matching treated timber stumps. To allow space for reinstating the external stumps, the building in work must be set back by at least one row of supports from the front of the building.
Maintaining Original Building Materials
To maintain the original aesthetic of your character house, you must not use unsympathetic building materials. For instance, you cannot use aluminium-framed windows and must use timber-framed windows instead. Moreover, you must ensure that all new external work matches the old wall material.
Renovate Your Heritage Property the Right Way
At Meier House Removals, we specialise in lawfully, safely and beautifully raising character houses in Brisbane. We’ll ensure that you obtain the proper planning permits and approvals to renovate your character house to fit your current lifestyle and find contractors who are also familiar with the rules to carry out other aspects of your renovation.
To learn more about the rules regarding raising your character house, call the house raising specialists in Brisbane on 07 3849 1122.
