Home renovations and extensions in Bentleigh and Bentleigh East
A Bentleigh house often has one thing newer suburbs cannot match: the block. Decent width, real depth, and a backyard you can actually use. The house sitting on it is usually the problem. Plenty of these homes were built small, closed off and facing away from their own garden.
Most of the work we do here is about opening up the back of the house and using the block properly, rather than adding rooms in the wrong place.
We work across Bentleigh, Bentleigh East and the surrounding Glen Eira pocket.
What we take on
- Rear extensions that open the kitchen, dining and living areas to the backyard
- Second-storey additions where you would rather keep the yard
- Whole-house renovations, staged where you need to stay in part of the home
- Kitchens, bathrooms and laundries, including moving them to where they should have been
- New structure, roof work, decks and carports that tie an extension back into the house
What these houses are like to work on
The housing stock here is largely post-war and 1950s and 60s brick veneer, with weatherboard and interwar homes mixed through. They share a lot, and the same handful of things comes up on nearly every job.
The brickwork is usually a skin rather than the structure. That matters when an opening is cut or a wall comes out: the load has to be carried somewhere else, and that is worked out before anything is knocked down.
The back of the house has often been added to already. A lean-to or a covered area was converted to a kitchen or a second living room somewhere along the way, usually with a low ceiling, a step down, and services run wherever there was space. Working out what is original and what was added later is part of the first site visit.
The blocks are deep, which cuts both ways. There is room to extend properly at the rear, but it also means long carry distances for materials, and the side access is often narrow or blocked by a shed, a tree or a fence.
A second storey runs into the same question every time: whether the existing footings and subfloor will carry the new load. Sometimes they will, sometimes they need work. It has to be established before the design is locked in, not discovered during the build.
Planning in Glen Eira
Whether you need a planning permit depends on the property and the proposal, not on the suburb. Glen Eira City Council lists what it takes into account: the type of works, the zone, the size of the property, whether the site is affected by a special building overlay, whether the property is next to a major road, and whether you plan to run a business from home. The council's own page is the place to confirm it for your address, and it also points you to VicPlan to check the zone and overlays that apply.
If a planning permit is needed, the council aims to decide within 60 days of receiving an application, with that period starting from the date any further information it asks for comes in. Where advertising is required, it runs for at least 14 days. Straightforward applications may be eligible for VicSmart, which usually takes around 10 days.
A building permit is separate from planning, and there can be other approvals as well, including an asset protection permit before work starts and a vehicle crossing permit if the driveway is changed.
How the job runs
- Initial enquiry. Brad answers directly. He asks what you are planning, where the house is, and what you want it to do.
- Site visit. Brad comes out himself and looks at levels, access, what is behind the walls, and what the block will realistically allow.
- Scope. The work is set out in writing and agreed before anything starts, so you and Brad are building from the same document.
- Construction. Brad is on site and on the tools, as your one point of contact from start to finish.
- Handover. We walk through the finished work together and sort anything outstanding.
Where you are staying in the house, the work is staged so you keep a working kitchen or bathroom for as long as possible.
A job in the suburb
You can see how this comes together on a Bentleigh East renovation and rear extension, where the back of the house was opened to the garden and the outdoor areas tied back into the home. It traces the job from the original rooms through demolition and framing to the finished deck and carport.
Start a conversation
BOS Construction has 20 years of experience, is a Master Builders Victoria member, and is registered with the Building and Plumbing Commission, BPC DB-U 38574. Brad O'Shea is the owner and builder, and he stays directly involved on site and on the tools.
If you are thinking about a renovation or an extension in Bentleigh or Bentleigh East, call 0425 808 840 or email info@bosconstruction.com.au. Bring whatever you have, even if it is only a rough idea of what you want the back of the house to do.