Building Design
Bega Valley, NSW
davidgdesigns.com.au
TESTIMONIALS
We highly recommend David Girardeau Designs to manage the development approval process and assist with designing a new house or additions.
We worked with David designing our home extension and found him to be highly professional, efficient and courteous in the way he approached his work.
David has an extensive knowledge of building construction regulations and design aesthetics and was able to provide many helpful design suggestions that improved floor layout and functionality, as well as offered suggestions on how to minimise construction costs.
One of the most valuable inputs from David was his extensive knowledge of the requirements to meet the local and state government building construction regulatory requirements.
He was able to assist us in assessing the properties bushfire attack level and provide a BAL rating, as well as assess whether the proposed development met environmental and biodiversity requirements.
His knowledge of energy and solar passive design for house construction was most useful.
David was able to manage the complex task of producing the required documentation to meet council DA requirements.
He was able to produce high quality and well specified plans that covered all aspects of the building design and construction methods.
Overall, we found it was a pleasure to work with David and we consider him invaluable in terms of navigating the complex design and approval process.
We would highly recommend David Girardeau Designs services to anyone seeking development approval for a building construction.
Jan and Brian, Tanja
David Girardeau created the plans for our first build and has been incredible to work with.
At each step of the process, he's been consistently clear about timeframes, expectations and pricing and delivers all this with warmth and humor.
We were unsure about many aspects of the design process, but with David's help, we made it through to the DA being approved.
We had some hiccups at our end with some issues with the council, and David stepped up and smoothed everything over and took a huge amount of pressure off.
We'd highly recommend David; he gets all the technical stuff sorted so you can focus on other elements of the design and building process.
The Atkinsons, Coolagolite
David Girardeau was a pleasure to work with on our project.
He provided a balance of practical and technical advice and expertise.
His approach was flexible and responsive to our needs. David has a true appreciation of what we were trying to achieve in our design and accommodated our specific requirements (solar passive, stand alone solar powered off-grid).
He has a great understanding of the design and build process and draws on a large knowledge base.
We are very pleased with our finished design, made possible thanks to David's input and experience. The result was a fantastic design, granted a speedy approval with minimum fuss, on a challenging site (sloping block, bushfire prone araea, watercourse and other environmental constraints).
If I ever choose to go through the design process again, David will be my first call.
Matt, Wallagoot
We worked with Dave to design a small and functional house. The aim being to owner build on a small budget using environmentally conscious materials and methods. Dave listened and genuinely considered all our ideas, whilst also taking time to explain why he thought our original concepts should be altered to produce a better design.
Dave not only produced our house design but also guided us through engineering and council approvals. This meant that by the end of our time working with Dave there was nothing left to do besides start the build. We have no doubt that Dave’s familiarity with engineers and local council procedures saved us a lot of money and stress.
Dave has an extensive knowledge of solar passive design, engineering requirements, building codes, construction method, environmental materials, and bushfire requirements. Further, he is very patient when explaining these concepts. Because of this, the final drawings provided to us are comprehensive and we are confident that we can understand the drawings when building our own house.
Dave is a pleasure to work with, meaning the design procedure was fun, exciting, and rewarding.
Kai and Abbey,Tanja, NSW
We would recommend David's services if you are looking for someone that can listen to your requirements and come up with a bespoke house design that suits your budget and is optimised for passive all year comfort.
Another aspect we found invaluable was David's familiarity with BVSC's DA process - leaving us to focus on the fun stuff!
David's initial approach to home design is based on optimising for the solar passive performance of your house based on the specifics of your home site.
In our case, David's can do approach also allowed us to explore and incorporate design features such as service cavities to maintain the integrity of the insulation layers of the structure and the utilisation of different types of building wraps.
- Louise and Des, Bald Hills/Canberra
Solar Passive design was an important factor in our house design and David has helped us achieve a beautiful result.
We found David easy to work with, open and flexible to our ideas and he always made the time to answer our questions and explain the reasoning.
Due to David's many years of experience, the entire process ran very smoothly right through to council submission and construction.
- The Rochas, Tathra
David Girardeau was recommended to us by a structural engineer, who was certifying the integrity of an existing structure we were renovating. The building was in a state of ruin and had no roof or floor and had been built over 20 years ago. The building had curves, angles and varying elevations.
Because the renovation was not standard, we needed a building designer who could think out of the box. Dave proved to be this and more.
Dave covered all aspects of the development application process including drawing up of plans, lodgement of plans and all required paperwork, liaising with council, the engineer, tradesmen and preparing BASIX and bushfire reports.
As owner builders we found Dave's input to be invaluable. We found him to be professional, approachable and accessable for any issue or questions we had during the build.
We are very happy with our completed home, it is unique, very energy efficient and will be, we believe, fire resistant.
We would have no hesitation in recommending David Girardeau Designs to anyone who is looking to construct any sort of building
Phil and Roni, Cobargo
To Whom it may concern
David Girardeau helped design our new home after the old one was destroyed in the Tathra fires of 2018.
It is a modern airy home with a large paved sunny deck upstairs designed to withstand climate events and fires with double glazing throughout and externally built to BAL-40 standards.
We are very pleased with our new home, the interior is lovely with hardwood timber flooring and benches beautifully finished to the smallest detail.
David was very thorough and profesional in his approach, was always willing to listen, and had an impressive array of computer screens and programs that showed every aspect of the proposed dwelling through the various stages of design and the effects of seasonal changes in angle of sunlight etc.
David is also very competent and up to date with the engineering aspects, council/fire/safety regulations and modern trade practices.
I have no hesitation in recommending David as a very competent designer and friendly advisor to any client who is looking to build a new home and would like it to be a pleasant and enriching experience.
Sincerly
Anneke Paijmans