Will an architect take a small Melbourne renovation seriously?

Answering: Will a fixed-fee Melbourne architect still take a smaller renovation or rear extension seriously, and what should the first conversation settle before you sign anything?

Estimated reading time: 11 min read

Yes. Barbara Yerondais, a fixed-fee renovation and extension architect and the principal of BY Projects Architecture, starts a smaller renovation or rear extension exactly where she starts a large one, with a free, no-obligation call in which she rings you herself. That first conversation should settle five things before you sign anything: what kind of job you really have, whether a fixed fee makes sense against it, which permits your address triggers, what the written agreement will say, and what your next step is.

You are not renovating a Toorak mansion. You want the back wall pushed out so homework can leave the kitchen bench, and every architect’s website you open looks built for someone with a bigger block and a bigger budget. So you almost do not ring. You assume a fixed-fee practice only wants the large jobs, and you would rather not be told you are wasting anyone’s time.

Skipping that call rarely saves money. More often it buys a template plan that ignores how your family actually lives, a fee you only understood when the invoice arrived, or a planning surprise found after the drawings were paid for. Work planned this year builds next year, so a year spent on the wrong path is a year the house keeps not working.

Key Insights

• Smaller jobs are welcome at BY Projects Architecture. Our booking form lists “Smaller renovation or alteration” as a project type and “Under $500k” as a budget band, and the first step is a free, no-obligation call with Barbara.
• Under Victoria’s Architects Code of Professional Conduct, an architect may not provide concept designs, sketches or reports without a written, signed client agreement, so a useful first conversation is about scope and fit rather than free drawings.
• The Architects Registration Board of Victoria names advice on the viability of a small-scale residential extension as work a simple short-form agreement can cover.
• A fixed fee can look large beside a small build. Barbara Yerondais says so before you sign, and the scope decides whether the fee still earns its keep.

Table of Contents

• Most smaller jobs rule themselves out before anyone has heard the brief.
• Start by asking whether you need one more room or a house that works differently.
• A fixed fee has to make sense against the size of the job, and you should hear how.
• Your address decides the permits, and someone has to be named to obtain them.
• The written agreement sets out the fee, the scope and who will actually do the work.
• Builders, designers, surveyors and architects each do a different job on a smaller project.
• A good first conversation ends with a next step, even if that step is to wait.

Why smaller jobs talk themselves out of the call

Most owners with a modest brief never find out whether a practice would take them on, because they rule themselves out first. Portfolios lead with the big houses, and a rear extension or a kitchen-and-living rework starts to feel too small to mention. We would rather you asked. Smaller jobs are welcome here, and the booking form for a Feasibility Session has a place to say so.

The first step is built for exactly this doubt: a free, no-obligation call with Barbara to talk it through. If the job is a fit, the next step is the one-hour Feasibility Session. If something else would serve you better, you will hear that early, and straight.

Size is also a poor measure of difficulty. Our Dudley Street project in West Melbourne was an apartment interior retrofit and thermal upgrade inside a fixed multi-residential structure. A tight lot, an old frame or a plan that fights the family can make a modest job demanding.

Check one: is it a room, or a replan?

One more room on a forgiving block is a different purchase from a house replanned around how your household lives now, and the two deserve different answers.

Our Altona renovation and extension is the published example of the second kind on a modest budget. The house was a 1960s triple-fronted brick veneer that nobody had touched in 60 years, and a growing young family needed more bedrooms and bathrooms without paying for a full demolition. Barbara Yerondais’s team enclosed an underused rear patio as the new living and dining room, lit from the north by clerestory windows, and that freed the original lounge to become a fourth bedroom with an ensuite. Three bedrooms and one bathroom became four and two, mostly inside the footprint the family already owned.

Bring these to the first call and the answer comes faster:

• a list of what fails in the house now: where you cook, eat, work, sleep and retreat;
• photos of the rooms you want to change, and the ones you think you do not;
• how long you plan to stay, since a ten-year house and a forever house justify different spending;
• any quote or plan you already hold.

If the honest answer is one room on an easy block, a builder’s plan may be enough, and our guide to whether an architect is worth it for a non-heritage extension sets out when that is true.

Check two: does a fixed fee make sense against the job?

Barbara Yerondais works as a fixed-fee renovation and extension architect: the fee is agreed before design begins and staged so you commit one step at a time. In her staged fixed-fee method, schematic design comes first. Then two pictures sit side by side, what your budget achieves and what the full wish list would cost, with a shopping list between them so you decide the scope rather than discovering it at tender.

Here is the part most practices leave unsaid. A fixed fee is not always the cheaper fee, and on a small job it can look large against the build. Barbara Yerondais says that in the first conversation, before you sign, because a fee you understand is worth more than a fee that merely looks low. On a modest job the fee earns its keep through the replan, decisions settled on paper rather than on site, and one number for the architecture that moves only if the scope does.

Ask these before you compare any architect’s fee with anyone else’s:

• Which stages does the fee cover, and where does it stop?
• What sits outside it, such as an engineer, a building surveyor or authority fees? Victoria’s Code asks architects to give reasonable estimates of disbursements where possible.
• What would change the fee, and how is a change to the scope approved and priced?

Our article on what fixed-fee certainty really buys covers how the three fee models behave once a project is underway.

Check three: which permits does your address trigger, and who gets them?

A small job can still carry a big permit question, and the obligation sits with you. Consumer Affairs Victoria says the home owner must find out whether the work needs planning and building permits and make sure they are obtained, whether you apply yourself or authorise someone such as your builder.

• Structural work changes the rules regardless of price. The builder or tradesperson must be registered whatever it costs, and you will need a building permit.
• Over $10,000 means a major domestic building contract, even if the work is split into several smaller contracts.
• Somebody has to be named. Your building contract should say who obtains the permits: your architect, your builder or you.
• Watch who owns the drawings. If a builder’s pre-construction contract includes developing the design, copyright may stop you using those plans with a different builder.

The planning side depends on your zone and any overlays on the address, which is why the first conversation should name them before anyone designs around them. Our guide to extending out or adding a second storey walks through how the block decides. BY Projects Architecture, the practice Barbara Yerondais leads, has lodged more than 200 permit applications, and that is a record of the process, never a promise about your council’s decision.

Check four: what will the agreement say, and who will do the work?

Victoria tightened the rules in 2026, and they work in your favour. Under the Architects Code of Professional Conduct, an architect must not provide architectural services, including concept designs, sketches or reports, without a written, signed client agreement, whether or not a fee is charged. Before then, the Architects Registration Board of Victoria says an architect may show past work, discuss capabilities and fees, and hold preliminary scoping conversations, which is precisely what a first call and a Feasibility Session are for.

For agreements entered into from 26 April 2026, you must receive the proposed agreement at least 7 business days before you are asked to sign. It has to set out the scope and timeframes, how the fees are calculated and when they could escalate, who owns copyright in the drawings, and the architect’s professional indemnity insurance and complaints process. Smaller jobs are not left out: the Board says a simple short-form agreement could suit a very small engagement, and its example is advice on the viability of a small-scale residential extension.

The Code also requires the architect to name everyone who will work on your project, with their role and registration status. Ours are on our team page: Barbara Yerondais as principal, project architect Howard Siow, registered since 2017, Judit Solerdelcoll, who joined in 2021, and Ioanna Petropoulou, a graduate of architecture. A smaller job deserves to know who is holding the pencil as much as a larger one does.

Where Barbara fits beside your builder, designer and surveyor

A smaller job still has several people on it, and each does a different job. Consumer Affairs Victoria notes that your builder may supply the plans and specifications, or you may engage an architect, designer or draftsperson to prepare them. Here is who does what:

• Your builder prices and builds the work. A registered builder obtains the soil report and foundation data that set the footings and the cost estimate, and you compare written quotes on the same plans.
• A building designer or draftsperson prepares plans and specifications. On one room on an easy block, that may be all you need.
• Your building surveyor checks the work against the building regulations. By law your builder cannot appoint one for you, so the surveyor stays independent.
• Barbara Yerondais, a fixed-fee renovation and extension architect, works out what the block, the budget and the planning path will hold before anyone draws, then designs in stages against a fixed fee.

Barbara is not your builder or your building surveyor, and the job runs better when each role stays clear. Consumer Affairs Victoria even suggests asking your architect to recommend builders whose work they know.

Check five: leave knowing your next step

In the one-hour Feasibility Session you talk through your site, budget and planning timelines with Barbara Yerondais, FRAIA, in person or on Zoom, and you leave knowing what is realistic and what your next step is, with no obligation to go further.

For a smaller job, the next step usually takes one of five shapes:

1. Go ahead. The brief is clear enough to fix a fee against, and you receive a proposed agreement to read at your own pace.
2. Reshape the brief. Once the real problem is named, the rooms change, and often the cost.
3. Stage it. Stage one is what the budget carries now, with stage two named as a later decision rather than a hidden cost.
4. Wait. Some jobs are better started after the next pay rise, sale or school change.
5. Take it elsewhere. If a builder’s plan genuinely suits the job, you leave knowing why.

Our article on what one hour settles before a renovation design contract goes deeper into the session itself.

Closing

A smaller renovation is still your house and your budget, and it deserves a serious first conversation. See how we work on our pages for renovation architects in Melbourne and home extension architects. Then talk to Barbara: the call is free, and the worst outcome is a clear answer.

Frequently asked questions about smaller jobs

Q: Do Melbourne architects take on small renovations and rear extensions?

A: Many do, and BY Projects Architecture welcomes them. With Barbara Yerondais, a fixed-fee renovation and extension architect, the first step is a free, no-obligation call, and she rings you herself. Our booking form includes “Smaller renovation or alteration” as a project type and “Under $500k” as a budget band. We would rather tell you early if a small renovation in Melbourne does not need an architect at all, because one more room on a forgiving block sometimes does not.

Q: Is the first call with Barbara really free?

A: Yes. The first call is free and carries no obligation. Barbara talks through what you are hoping to do and whether the job is a fit. If it is, the next step is the one-hour Feasibility Session, in person or on Zoom, where you talk through your site, budget and planning timelines and leave knowing what is realistic and what your next step is.

Q: Can an architect sketch some ideas for me before I sign anything?

A: Not in Victoria. Under the Architects Code of Professional Conduct, an architect must not provide concept designs, sketches or reports without a written, signed client agreement, even when no fee is charged. Before that, an architect can show past work, discuss capabilities and fees, and hold scoping conversations. You must receive the proposed agreement at least 7 business days before you are asked to sign it, although you may choose to sign sooner.

Q: What should I bring to the first conversation?

A: Bring the budget you are genuinely prepared to spend, a list of what fails in the house now, photos of the rooms involved, how long you plan to stay, and any plan or quote you already hold. If you know your zone or any overlays on the address, bring those too. The more honest the inputs, the more useful the answer about what is realistic for your house.

Who is giving this advice

Barbara Yerondais, FRAIA, is a fixed-fee renovation and extension architect with more than 35 years in practice, and BY Projects Architecture has delivered more than 400 projects across Victoria, from apartment retrofits to whole-house replans. Smaller jobs get the same honest read as larger ones.

Citations

• Client agreements, Architects Registration Board of Victoria (Guide to the Victorian Architects Code of Professional Conduct). A written, signed client agreement must be in place before an architect provides architectural services, including concept designs, sketches or reports, regardless of whether a fee is charged; before then an architect may show past work, discuss capabilities and fees and hold preliminary scoping conversations; a short-form agreement could suit advice on the viability of a small-scale residential extension; architects must disclose the personnel on a project, their roles and registration status. https://www.arbv.vic.gov.au/guide-victorian-architects-code-professional-conduct/client-agreements
• Clause 6: Use clear and unambiguous client agreements, Architects Registration Board of Victoria. For agreements entered into on or after 26 April 2026 the agreement must set out scope, timeframes, how fees are calculated, when they may escalate, reasonable estimates of disbursements where possible, copyright and licence terms, professional indemnity insurance and complaints processes; the proposed agreement must be given at least 7 business days before the client is asked to sign. https://www.arbv.vic.gov.au/guide-victorian-architects-code-professional-conduct/clause-6-use-clear-and-unambiguous-client-agreements
• Extensions and renovations costing more than $10,000, Consumer Affairs Victoria. It is the home owner’s obligation to find out whether planning and building permits are needed and to make sure they are obtained; structural work requires a registered builder and a building permit regardless of cost; projects over $10,000 need a major domestic building contract even when split; the contract should identify who obtains the permits; plans developed under a builder’s pre-construction contract may not be usable with a different builder because of copyright; the builder may supply plans and specifications or the owner may engage an architect, designer or draftsperson; the builder must obtain a soil report and foundation data to design the footings and estimate the cost; the builder cannot appoint the building surveyor, who checks work against the building regulations; owners can ask their architect to recommend builders whose work they know. https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/housing/building-and-renovating/checklists/extensions-and-renovations-costing-more-than-10000
• Registering as an architect, Architects Registration Board of Victoria. Only people registered with the Board may represent themselves as architects in Victoria; graduates of an architectural qualification use the title “graduate of architecture”. https://www.arbv.vic.gov.au/registering-architect

Related Reading before you start a smaller job

• What does one hour settle before a renovation design contract?
• Is an architect worth it for a non-heritage Melbourne extension?
• Fixed-fee architecture: what cost certainty really buys you
• Should you extend out or add a second storey in Melbourne?

About the Author

Barbara Yerondais, FRAIA, is the founder of BY Projects Architecture. With 35+ years of experience, she specializes in sustainable, community-focused design and heritage restoration. A dedicated mentor and rower, Barbara balances her high-impact Melbourne practice with a passion for social inclusion and passive, energy-saving design.