Carpenter Hills District | Framing For New Homes & Additions
The Hills District splits neatly into new and established. On one side there are estates still being built out, where houses go up in runs and the frame has a date attached to it. On the other there are large established homes that owners are extending rather than leaving.
Jirah Carpentry frames both. New house frames from the ground up, and the structural carpentry behind additions to homes people have already lived in for twenty years. The constraint changes, the standard does not.
For the Sydney-wide picture of how we work, read our Sydney carpenter page, or see every area we cover on service areas.
What we're asked to build in the Hills
The mix here is distinct from the rest of Western Sydney. New house framing is still a large part of it, and a genuine share of our Hills work is additions to homes that are already finished — second storeys and rear extensions.
The project types we take on here, in priority order:
New Builds — Houses
Double-storey house framing on the newer Hills estates, framed to the engineer's drawings and delivered on the program date.
Duplex Framing
Dual-occupancy framing where a block has been subdivided, with both dwellings framed in one sequence.
Granny Flat Framing
Secondary dwellings on the deeper blocks, framed and sequenced so following trades are not waiting on us.
Renovations & Extensions
Second storeys and ground-floor additions on established homes, with existing levels surveyed before anything is cut.
Large homes, large footprints, established gardens
Hills District housing tends to be bigger than the Sydney average, on blocks that were generous when they were subdivided. That has two practical effects on framing carpentry.
The first is that additions here are usually substantial. A Hills extension is often a whole extra wing or a full upper floor rather than a small bump-out, which means real structural work: new beams into existing walls, roof structure removed and re-framed, floor framing set to match a level that was poured decades ago. The survey work before the carpentry matters more than the carpentry itself.
The second is that established gardens, pools and paving are usually already in place around the work area. Access and set-down space have to be planned before the first delivery, and new framing generally has to tie back into an existing roofline rather than stand on its own.
Framing on the newer Hills estates
On the release-area side of the region, we frame houses the way volume work needs to be framed: set out from the plans, stood, braced and tied down to the engineering, and finished on the date the builder gave the client. Most of these houses come with prefabricated trusses, which we set out, stand and brace.
What we do not do is treat a repeated design as an excuse to stop checking. Two houses on the same plan can sit on slabs that are not identical, and the frame is where that gets found — or where it gets buried until the plasterer finds it instead.
If you are running a program of houses rather than one, the work with us page explains how we take on repeat framing work.
Hills suburbs with their own page
Three areas under this hub have their own local page. They go into the specific building pattern of each — the estate stage, the block sizes, the type of enquiries we get — rather than repeating what is on this page.
How a Hills job usually runs
You send the plans. We read the architectural and engineering sets together, price the framing scope, and come back with a quote and an honest start window. On additions we will usually ask for photos of the existing structure as well, because a drawing of an extension tells us what is intended, not what is actually there.
Scope-wise we are a framing and structural carpentry crew. Floor, wall and roof framing, beams, posts and lintels, bracing and tie-down, plus deck, pergola and alfresco structure. We do not take on joinery, cabinetry or finishing carpentry, and we do not run the build — on most Hills additions there is a builder coordinating the trades and our part is to hand over a frame the rest of the program can be built off accurately.
One thing worth saying plainly about Hills additions: the drawings almost never match the existing house exactly. That is not a criticism of the designer, it is what happens when a house has been standing for thirty years. The work of resolving it belongs at the setout stage, and it is the reason we measure before we cut rather than after.
On site we check setout against the drawings before frames are stood, and again for square and plumb before final fixing. Bracing and tie-down go in to the engineer's detail. When the frame is up, we walk it with you.
Nearby regions we also cover include Western Sydney and the North Shore. For the Sydney-wide framing detail, read timber framing Sydney or residential carpentry, and see every area we cover on service areas.
Extending Or Building In The Hills?
Send the plans through and we'll price the framing scope and give you a start window.