When you are building or renovating a home, you’ll see lots of different people on your site at various times, so much so you might begin to wonder who is who. It is a common question with an easy answer. Let’s take a look at all the different professionals you may see on your building site.

Who Is Who On Your Building Site

While your building site should never look as busy as they do on TV shows like the Block, there will be a number of professionals visiting over the lifetime of your project. There are a couple of important ones you should know, but otherwise, they are all there doing their job and are best left undisturbed.

Builder

All jobs will have a builder responsible for the job at hand. You will typically have met this person if you are building with a custom builder, but may not if you are building with a project builder. They will be responsible for overseeing the entire project, coordinating staff and trades and being your contact. Depending on the structure of the company you are working with, they may be onsite daily, weekly or at milestone points in your build. Some builders still work on the tools, others do not. Builders will usually have 2-3 jobs on at one time, but this is not always the case.

Project Manager

Some jobs, although not too many in the residential field, will have a project manager. Like the builder, their role is to oversee what is happening. It would be expected regardless of the company structure, that they would be onsite for all milestone inspections as well as regular inspections and meetings along the way. Project Managers will usually be overseeing several jobs at one time. Project Managers will also work with you the client.

Site Supervisor

Site supervisors are used by builders who are working on several jobs at one time. They are responsible for the day to day work on the job, and work in a supervisory role for the trades on site and will work as a client liaison in most cases. They will be on your job almost full time. You can expect them to be present at meetings with you and the Builder.

Trades People

There will be many different tradies that will be working on your site over the lifetime of your job. You can expect to see the carpenters more than other trades. The trade list for working on a new home or renovation is long: Surveyor, concretor, electrician, plumber, bricklayer, roofer, tiler, plasterer, painter and cabinet maker are just a few. Generally, you will have the same tradies for all parts of your job, but in the case of a long job, you might find that the carpenters are swapped out for a new team to keep them fresh. Other trades like plasterers have 2 different groups of tradies to get the job done.

Certifier Or Council Inspector

At various points through your job, the certifier will be called in to make inspections. These inspections will form part of the final paperwork to essentially ensure compliance to building codes and standards. Their visits will be brief and not frequent.

Engineer

Engineers will come to site before the foundations are poured to inspect the preparation is as per the engineer’s drawings and design. They may also do the frame inspection, however this is usually done by the certifier or council inspector.  Again their visits are brief and not frequent.

Architect

Some architects play an active role in the build of your project and will liaise with the builder to do periodic inspections. This has happened in only 10% of our jobs, but it does happen. Generally, their inspection will come at the milestone points in your job.

As you can see, there are lots of different people with many different roles who will be on your job site from time to time. As a client, you will typically be asked to take any concerns you have to the builder, project manager or site supervisor only, as the tradies are there to do a specific job and have no view of the whole project.

How many tradies have you observed on your building site? Want to know why it’s not like the Block? Read here