Before you brief an architect.
Twelve decisions that quietly set your budget long before a single trade quotes — and what each one costs you to change later.
- Why site conditions beat floor area, every time
- Where Adelaide heritage and council overlays actually bite
- The five specification choices that move the number most
- How to read a builder's quote — and what's missing from it
- The three questions to ask before you sign a design agreement
Written for people planning a significant home project in Adelaide.
Who wrote it
Jordan Templeton is a third-generation Adelaide builder and a qualified carpenter. Templeton Built designs and builds custom homes, extensions and renovations across metropolitan Adelaide and the Hills, and prices every project open-book — the full costing schedule, including our margin.
This guide exists because most of the expensive mistakes we see were made months before anyone contacted a builder.
Every line.
Including ours.
Most builders hand you a single number and ask you to trust it. We bring you into the office and take you through the costing schedule line by line — every trade, every allowance, every supplier quote, and our margin stated plainly.
It means you can see exactly where the money is going, question any line in the room, and make the trade-offs yourself instead of finding out about them at handover.
How we price →