Most builders glance at a White Card, see the right colours and a photo that matches the face in front of them, and let the worker through. That's about as useful as checking if a $50 note is pink. A card can look completely normal and still be fake, copied, or issued...
More than 4.2 million rooftop solar systems have been installed across Australia. Another 478,176 home batteries went in between 1 July 2025 and 30 June 2026 alone, adding 13.58 gigawatt hours of storage in twelve months. Almost none of that work happens during...
The new general manager of the Sunshine Coast surface protection business has spent a career in hardware, paint and building products. His first read on the market is that builders skipping protection are not cutting costs. They are taking a bet. A $5,000 bathtub gets...
The glass going into Australian homes is more expensive, more technical and harder to replace than it was five years ago. Site practice has not caught up. For most of the past decade, a scratched window on a residential site was a nuisance with a known price. The...
Winter on the tools is more than a miserable morning. Across a season it slows the work, wears down the crew, and quietly eats into the margin. Here is what the cold really costs, and why The Good Builder and Milwaukee are giving something back to the builders who cop...
Why more builders are moving procurement out of the inbox and into the system they already run their jobs from. There is a moment most builders know well. The job is mapped out, the costs are still moving, and the plan for the week is clear enough. Then you open your...
A chipped benchtop or a scratched pane of glass rarely stops a job. But across a build, that kind of damage quietly costs both the builder and the trades real time and real money. Here is why it happens, and how Goop Guys' surface protection removes the cost before it...
Of every tool a builder can put in their business, a customer experience program is one of the most critical. It is not the flashiest. It is one of the most important, and here is what it actually does. Ask most builders where their next job comes from and they will...
The current state of Australia’s housing market is pressured, to say the least. New apartments and built-to-rent developments still lag behind demand, and although some states show promising growth in stock, forecasts from the National Housing Supply and Affordability...
Mud, moisture, and heavy boots are part of every winter build. For builders who have already paid for premium flooring, the question is not whether conditions will cause damage. It is whether anything is protecting against them. Winter on an Australian construction...
Eighty per cent of building businesses that went all-in on AI have since walked it back. What that reversal tells us about how AI actually fits in a building business. There was a moment, not long ago, when AI felt like it was going to solve everything. Estimating....
Australia is building up. Not just in the capital cities, but in regional centres, coastal corridors, and the middle-ring suburbs that state governments are targeting with density policies and infrastructure investment. The shift toward multi-residential construction...
If your business advertises on Facebook or Instagram, something changed on 1 April 2026 that is worth understanding. Meta has quietly moved higher-spend advertisers off credit card payments and onto monthly invoicing. Instead of charging your card at point of...
The integration of MyConstruct and BuiltGrid means Australian builders can now manage their entire procurement and supply chain from a single platform. It is a practical step forward for an industry that has been held back by fragmented tools, email chaos, and a...
Builders invest months delivering a home. A single damaged surface at handover can define what a client remembers. Most residential builds are won or lost long before anyone unlocks the front door. The tender is priced carefully. The slab is poured on time. Frames go...
A shift is happening in how quality-focused Australian builders approach product selection. And drainage is a useful lens for understanding what that shift actually looks like in practice. There was a time when most product specification decisions came down to one...
For many builders, Continuing Professional Development appears on the calendar once a year. A reminder arrives. A few modules are completed. Certificates are downloaded. Points are logged. Licence renewal secured. Job done. But reducing CPD to a compliance exercise...
In a construction market where risk has become a daily conversation, a quieter story is unfolding. While some builders are navigating margin pressure, compliance shifts and tighter finance conditions, a different category of operator is scaling steadily: the...
Anyone who has spent time on a jobsite knows the scene. A tradie opens the back of the van looking for one specific tool, only to spend ten minutes digging through stacked boxes, tangled gear, and half-organised shelves. Tools shift during transit, equipment gets...
If you ask most residential builders what the biggest problem is right now, many will tell you the same thing: there’s plenty of work, but not enough hands, hours, or headspace to deliver it cleanly. Wages have climbed to levels that can make even established...
A Sunshine Coast builder and a construction software founder say the difference between surviving and scaling is not more leads, it is cost control, clear processes, and systems that reduce mistakes before they repeat. When builders talk about growth, the conversation...
Australian drainage manufacturer Lauxes Grates has expanded its finish options across two of its most widely specified product lines, with Gold and Brushed Nickel now available in both its Standard and Tile Insert Plus grates. The move responds to a growing demand...
A new year in construction does not simply mean fresh contracts and new site starts. It also brings tighter programs, higher material costs, increased scrutiny from clients, and very little room for avoidable error. Across residential and commercial projects alike,...
There is a line many builders repeat when the market tightens: “Online leads are rubbish.” Sometimes that is true. But often, it is a story that hides a more uncomfortable reality: the lead was not rubbish, the response was slow. In residential construction, buyers...
A familiar pattern kept popping up in today’s Good Builder Podcast chat with ScaleUp Smart founders Nayan and Anisha; residential builders across Australia are busy, but many are still behind. Not behind because they cannot build. Behind because the business is...
For most builders, payments are just part of the job. Wages go out. Tax gets paid. Suppliers get settled. End of story. But a growing number of construction businesses are starting to ask a smarter question: what if those same payments could actually work for...
Australian cladding manufacturer Weathertex has released its Sustainable Design Trends 2026 magazine, offering a forward-looking snapshot of how homes are being designed, specified and built as the industry moves deeper into a sustainability-led era. More than a...
As building and trade businesses mature, the conversation around finance often changes. What may have worked for a builder or trade completing their first few projects does not always translate seamlessly as volumes increase, project complexity grows, or business...
For many builders, insurance sits quietly in the background of the business. It is renewed once a year, filed away, and only thought about again if something goes wrong. But among the most professional, well-run building businesses, insurance plays a very different...
How hands-on learning at Kurri Kurri TAFE is shaping better landscape outcomes At a time when the construction industry is grappling with skills shortages and an ageing workforce, one thing remains clear: the future of the trades depends on how well today’s students...
The construction industry has long been associated with traditional trade pathways. Yet the workforce supporting modern building sites is changing rapidly, and Goop Guys is one business leading that shift. Rather than drawing only from the trades, the company is...
When you spend your working life outdoors, you get a very clear view of what does and does not hold up on a job. You also get a front row seat to the small mistakes that turn into big, expensive fixes. That is the lens Rick brings to this Good Builder Podcast episode....
Builders Are Losing Thousands In Wasted Hours Each Month Walk onto any residential building site in Australia and it does not take long to see where the time goes. A supervisor takes a call from a trade who is late. A supplier needs an email re-sent. A client messages...
When Margins Are Tight, Bad Data Is Expensive Mark Corky has seen one pattern repeat across construction for decades. Most margin blowouts start at the beginning. Not because builders lack skill, but because they were working from incomplete or inaccurate information....
A successful franchise network is rarely built on enthusiasm alone. It is built on standards, structure and the courage to say no. Goop Guys has become one of the most reliable names in surface protection across Australia, and much of that success comes down to a...
For builders, delayed payments can cause more damage than a difficult build. Cashflow pressure leads to staff stress, project delays, and in the worst cases, insolvency. Yet many builders still wait until a payment dispute has dragged on for months before seeking...
Why the move toward cleaner, smarter and more accessible bathrooms is reshaping how the industry thinks about water management Australian bathrooms have undergone a major transformation over the last decade. What was once a purely functional corner of the home has...
Most builders can point to the pressures they face. Time blowouts. Trade shortages. Rising expectations. Margins that feel tighter every year. But very few stop to ask the harder question that Dan Urquhart from Thousand Feet Deep believes sits at the core of every...
Beyond the Bucket: How Goop Guys Built a Business on Trust, Not Just Product In an industry where materials, labour, and timelines are constantly changing, there’s one factor that holds everything together, trust. Builders rely on it. Trades rely on it....
When a builder hits legal trouble, it usually happens fast; a frustrated client, a missing variation, a delayed payment, a misused clause. But in Damon’s world, most of those fires don’t need to burn at all. On today’s episode of The Good Builder Podcast, Az sat down...
When asked how she would spend $1,000 on marketing, most people in construction would immediately think of social media ads or a quick Google campaign. But for Makayla from Lauxes Grates, the answer is very different. Rather than chasing clicks, she would spend it on...
If there is one pressure point almost every builder talks about in 2025, it is people. Not just finding people. Finding the right people. Keeping them. And building systems so the whole thing does not fall over the moment more work comes in. On The Good Builder...
When wildfires swept through California earlier this year, destroying more than 15,000 homes, the recovery task looked overwhelming. Entire communities were flattened across the Palisades, Eaton, Malibu and Altadena regions. For thousands of families, the question was...
The new centrepiece of Australian homes Not long ago, the bathroom was a purely functional space. Today, it’s a showroom, a statement of design and craftsmanship. Freestanding stone baths, matte-finish tubs and imported designer pieces now sit proudly in mid-range...
Built by Builders, for Builders In the latest episode of The Good Builder Podcast, host Az sat down with Glenn Leet and Tim Martin, the duo behind iGyro, a powerful, homegrown software platform helping Australian builders run smoother, smarter operations. For Leet,...
When you think of rugby league legends like Todd Carney and Mitchell Pearce, you picture talent, intensity, and success under the bright lights. But in their conversation on The Good Builder Podcast, what emerged wasn’t a sports story, it was a lesson in life,...
If you only remember one thing from this piece, let it be this: numbers are the language of business. When you can read them fluently, you stop chasing jobs to “feed the boys” and start choosing projects that fund your life. In a recent conversation on The Good...
Two of rugby league’s most talked about names, Todd Carney and Mitchell Pearce, are taking their hardest won lessons and turning them into something much bigger than sport. Together, they have launched Reboot Mindset Academy, a movement designed to help people rebuild...
When James Stroud boarded a plane from Calgary, Canada to Sydney with nothing but a trade and a ticket, he had no idea he’d one day lead one of Australia’s most recognisable home building brands. No family ties. No financial backers. Just grit, craft, and a belief...
On this week’s episode of The Good Builder Podcast, HazardCo commercial general manager Craig O’Leary makes a simple case: safety isn’t a folder in a ute or a compliance form on a clipboard. It’s a daily communication habit that shapes behaviour, protects people and,...
Building Quality You Can Prove In an era where builders are judged by every detail not just structure and style but also finish and presentation, quality assurance (QA) has become the make-or-break stage of a project. But while most builders have digital QA systems...
Why builders need a game plan, not just grit I’ve always loved sport. Played plenty of it growing up, still watch it religiously, and reckon it teaches you more about life and leadership than any business book ever could. So when Marti Amos from The Professional...
A day of gratitude, growth, and collaboration It was a morning filled with gratitude, as Ryse Construction officially handed over the newly completed Happy Hearts Childcare Centre to its operator in Burpengary East, marking not just the delivery of a stunning new...
How Reece, Resilience and Real Relationships Shaped One of the Industry’s Rising Marketing Stars If you ever doubt that starting small can lead to something big, just ask Makayla from Lauxes Grates or Mak, as most people know her. She didn’t begin her career with a...
The construction industry has never been more demanding. Margins are tight, client expectations are high, and skilled labour is harder to find than ever. For many builders, the struggle isn’t just on-site, it’s buried in the mountain of admin work, estimating,...
For many builders, Lightning McQueen is a familiar name thanks to the kids, the merch, or the rewatch loop on the family iPad. But this weekend, that red and yellow icon isn’t just on screens. He’s back on track. The MyConstruct.com Porsche, styled in a Lightning...
The Reality Check No One Can Ignore If you feel like every build is a battle to hold on to margin, you’re not alone. Over the past five years, Australian builders have faced an unprecedented squeeze. Material prices have surged by 30–40%, according to CoreLogic’s...
LATEST NEWS
Most builders glance at a White Card, see the right colours and a photo that matches the face in front of them, and let the worker through. That's about as useful as checking if a $50 note is pink. A card can look completely normal and still be fake, copied, or issued...
APRA’s 2026 results put one default superannuation product below the line. It belongs to the fund built for Queensland’s building and construction workforce, and it missed by a margin most readers will not have seen reported. One superannuation product out of the 50...
The federal battery discount can be claimed once at a given address. Not once a year. Not once per battery. Once. That single rule sits underneath a decision plenty of builders are now making on behalf of their clients. Fit a modest battery to round out an energy...
An independent capability assessment released with the appointment of a new Housing Australia chair puts dates on when the largest HAFF funding round clears approval, and when construction has to start. Treasury has released an independent capability assessment of...