Have your say…
The Good Builder is a media platform dedicated to sharing stories of success, innovation and raising the bar in the Australian home building industry. Our vision is to build a community of builders, trades, suppliers and professional services that has the tough conversations, tells it how it is, and offers solutions that raise the bar.
Let us know what you think.
Thanks for visiting The Good Builder! Now it’s time to share your thoughts for your chance to win 1 of 3 $50 Sunshine Mitre 10 Gift Cards and help our Community raise the bar. Have your say and complete the quick survey below for your name to be entered to win a gift card.
Don’t miss out – entries close 6pm (AEST) Sunday, 23 February 2025. Competition winners drawn Monday 24 February, 10am (AEST).
building better.
NatHERS Rates the Plans. Home Energy Disclosure Will Rate the House.
A seven star certificate is a design score, and very little checks the finished home against it. The national disclosure framework moves the measurement to the point of sale, and NSW has started. Every new home in Australia is approved on a promise. The NatHERS...
James Hardie Moves Into AAC as WA Runs Short of Brick. The Switch Starts With a Frame
AAC is a new category for James Hardie, and the company says WA builders need a masonry option while brick is on allocation. Its own installation guide shows what moving off double brick involves: a frame, a fresh energy rating and different trades. James Hardie has...
She Built a Career in Colombia. Now She Is Helping Build Sydney’s Hospitals.
Andrea Ramirez Pertuz arrived in Australia with a civil engineering degree and a plan. Her path to working on some of Sydney's biggest hospital redevelopments offers a practical lesson in how the industry absorbs skilled migrants when the system works properly. Andrea...
Clients Keep Paying for Designs They Can’t Build. One Melbourne Builder Now Sits In on the Design
Melbourne renovation builder Alex Palazzolo kept pricing architect plans his clients could never afford. His answer is to join the design from the first meeting and hold the fixed price back until the drawings are finished. Victorian contract law shows why that order...
More Queensland Home Warranty Claims Were Declined Than Approved. Missed Deadlines Are Part of Why
The QBCC turned down 776 home warranty claims and approved 676 in the year to June. The scheme has never been bigger, and its time limits are tripping up home owners while defect payouts keep climbing. More home warranty claims were turned down than paid in Queensland...
Victoria’s Top Apprentice Started With a Job Ad for Antarctica
Hannah Dillimore didn't take the conventional path into the trades. She saw an ad for welders in Antarctica and thought, that's interesting. She wasn't ready for the South Pole, but the spark was lit. The 27-year-old from Melbourne's South East is now Victoria's 2026...
A Blower Door, a Rammed Earth Build and Why Healthy Home Builders Are Meeting in Person
Builders who learned healthy building online spent a day on a Northern Rivers site and an evening in Sydney together. What happened in the room says a lot about how practice actually changes. The blower door was meant to be a demonstration. Within minutes it had...
Construction Is Australia’s Most Exposed Industry in the New National Survey. Silica Tops the List.
The 2026 Australian Worker Exposure Survey puts construction at the top of the national table for cumulative exposure, for silica and for lead. It also shows the industry running the country’s highest rate of high level exposure to three agents that rarely make the...