Award winning renovation

This home was recently awarded Best Alternative Construction Home for its modular construction at the 2021 Master Builder Bankwest Housing Excellence Awards as well as being finalist in the Best Alterations & Additions in its price category.

Approached by a Mount Lawley family wanting to create more space, a bespoke design was created that offered an upstairs retreat featuring a master bedroom, ensuite, walk-in-robe and lounge area with kitchenette.

Most importantly, due to its location in a Character Retention Area, the federation architecture had to be respected and strict council guidelines adhered to.

The family couldn’t be happier with the result.

Tell us about your home and your experience with Summit.

We have lived in the property for about ten years and extended the rear living area and patio eight years ago.

Now that our children are in high school, we wanted to create separate living and sleeping zones to accommodate our different lifestyles going forward – assuming they will live with us for some time as young adults.

We did not want to move as we love the Mount Lawley area, our neighbours and our federation home which we have already put so much work into.

So, we decided to add a second storey. The most attractive feature of using a modular extension method was the fast turnaround – only two months to build in the factory and three months on site.

Plus, we did not need to relocate during the renovation.

What was the most important thing that you wanted to achieve through this renovation? 

Separate living and sleeping zones for parents. And the addition of an ensuite and walk-in-robe which we did not have downstairs.

How was your experience with Summit Renovations during the design stage?

Fantastic! Ashley came up with a design that perfectly suited our requirements that tied in visually with our federation home.

We found Ashley to be professional and full of good advice, and he was most accommodating with meeting times, including meeting after-hours so it didn’t interrupt our work day.

Ashley was sympathetic to our needs to have the extension meld in with the federation building style of the house, and helped us to meet strict council requirements while still achieving our objectives.

And how about your experience with Summit during the construction stage?

Summit went to great lengths to protect our existing home from any danger or damage during the on-site construction phase.

We were able to continue living in our home and function fairly normally even though the staircase was to be installed in the centre of the home in our living/kitchen area.

The project manager, Irina, was brilliant to deal with. Her attention to detail in all correspondence was outstanding and she handled the many contract variations we had with patience.

The building manager, Russell, was also great to work with – always friendly and approachable.

The house was completed on time and on budget, and the builders cleaned up well once they finished.

How do you feel about your new home?

We just love it. It feels spacious, solid and comfortable.

We have had many comments from people saying that it looks like it has always been there, rather than like a new addition and this is the result we were hoping for.

Any additional comments or observations you would like to make about Summit Renovations?

I would encourage anyone looking to add a second storey to at least explore the modular extension option as they may be surprised at the ease of the process compared to a traditional build and the quality of the result.

The modular extension was created in the Summit factory and installed within one day, enabling the clients to stay within their strict renovation timeline.

“The biggest advantage of having Summit involved in our renovation was the technology of the factory-manufactured pods.

“The manufacture of the pods in the factory all the while modifications were being made to the existing building meant a big time save within the schedule. I don’t believe that we could have achieved our renovation timeline and completed result if we had used conventional building methods.” Helen and George said.