Home Services Design Portfolio About Costs Estimate Areas Contact
Get a Free Quote → 0422 490 962
PracticeBMEL Design
SheetConstruction documentation — contents & scope
FormatA3 PDF, printable to scale
Sheet03 / 03
Construction Documentation

The set you build from

Stepped concrete sleeper retaining wall running the length of a side garden to a pool

Concept drawings tell you what a garden will feel like. Documentation tells a builder what to do, in what order, to what level, and in what quantity. It is also the only document that makes three quotes genuinely comparable — which is why we hand it over whether or not you build with us.

Book a design consultation → What it costs
5.0 Google & Hipages Rating
250+ Projects
Building, Design & Engineering Qualified
Fully Insured
Why It Exists

A documentation set is an exclusions document

When three quotes come back thousands apart, it is almost never because one builder is greedy. It is because each of them has made different assumptions about the things the drawings did not say: how deep the footings go, whether the spoil is carted away or spread on site, whether the paving is laid on a compacted base or a bed of sand and hope, who supplies the plants.

A proper set closes those gaps. Every element is dimensioned, specified and counted, so the only variable left between builders is their rate — which is the only thing you actually wanted to compare. It is equally protective in the other direction: once scope is written down, nobody can quietly widen it halfway through the job and call it a variation.

We produce the set to the standard we would want to receive as the builder, because in most cases we are the builder receiving it.

Contents

Sheet by sheet

A typical residential set runs eight sheets. Small courtyards compress to four; a full property with front, side and rear zones runs longer.

SheetContentsScale
L-01Site & demolition planExisting levels, structures, trees and services. What is retained, what is removed, where the spoil goes and how much of it there is.1:100
L-02Setout & levels planEvery element dimensioned from two fixed points on the building, with spot levels, step risers and falls nominated. The sheet the job is built off.1:50 / 1:100
L-03Hardscape planPaving, decks, walls, steps and edging. Paving module and coursing set out so cuts land where you want them, not where they fall.1:50
L-04Drainage & servicesAg-lines, surface drains, pits, falls and discharge points, plus irrigation zoning and lighting runs. Drawn before the paving, because it goes in first.1:100
L-05Planting plan & scheduleSpecies, pot size, quantity and spacing, keyed to the plan. Soil preparation and mulch depths specified per bed.1:100
L-06Construction detailsA section through every built element — footings, drainage, fixings, membranes, falls. Roughly a dozen details on a normal job.1:10 / 1:20
L-07Finishes & materials scheduleEvery material named, sized, finished and sourced — supplier, product code, format. No "or similar".NTS
L-08Quantity scheduleMeasured quantities per element, taken off the drawings. The build price is calculated from this sheet.NTS
Detail 01

What a detail looks like

This is the most common detail in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, and the one most often got wrong. A retaining wall does not fail because the sleepers are weak. It fails because water builds up behind it and nobody gave the water anywhere to go. Every wall we draw is detailed like this before anyone orders a post.

Section through a concrete sleeper retaining wall A cross-section showing, from the low side: stacked concrete sleepers on a galvanised post concreted into a footing at least two thirds of the retained height deep; behind the wall, a full-height zone of free-draining aggregate wrapped in geotextile with a slotted agricultural drain at its base; and compacted backfill beyond. Dimensions shown are a maximum retained height of 1000 millimetres, a minimum footing depth of 700 millimetres and a 450 millimetre diameter footing. LOW SIDE FL RETAINED FL 1000 MAX. 700 MIN. 450 DIA. 123 4567
Detail 01Concrete sleeper retaining wallSectionNot to scale

Scroll the drawing sideways to read it

KeySpecificationTrade
1Concrete sleeper, 200 × 75, stacked between postsCourse count set by retained height. Capping course finishes above the retained level so soil cannot wash over the top.BMEL
2Galvanised C-section post beyond, at 2400 maximum centresShown dashed because the section is cut between posts. Spacing is a design decision, not a supplier default.BMEL
3Concrete footing — 450 diameter, depth not less than two-thirds of the retained heightThe single most common shortcut on a residential wall, and the one that shows up three winters later as a lean.BMEL
420mm free-draining aggregate, full height of the wallFull height, not a token trench at the base. The point is to give water a path down rather than pressure sideways.BMEL
5Geotextile separation fabric, lapped 300 at jointsKeeps clay fines out of the aggregate. Without it the drainage zone silts up and becomes ordinary dirt within a few years.BMEL
6100mm slotted agricultural drain, falling 1:100 to a legal point of discharge"Legal point of discharge" is doing real work in that sentence — a pipe that ends in a garden bed is not drainage.BMEL
7Compacted backfill in 200 layers behind the drainage zoneCompacted in lifts, not tipped in and left to settle over the following two years.BMEL

Walls retaining more than a metre require a building permit and structural certification. Those are drawn and signed by an engineer and a registered building designer, and we coordinate both — see who does what below.

Quantities

The sheet that turns drawings into a price

Every set ends with a measured quantity schedule: square metres of paving by type, lineal metres of wall by height, cubic metres of excavation and fill, tonnes of aggregate, plant counts by pot size, metres of edging, metres of ag-line. It is taken off the drawings, not estimated from memory.

Two things follow from that. Your build price becomes a calculation rather than a feeling, which is why we can hold a fixed price rather than padding it with a contingency you pay for either way. And if you take the set to other builders, they are all pricing the same measured quantities — so the cheapest quote is genuinely the cheapest builder, not the one who assumed the least.

It is also the part of this that is hardest to fake. Producing an honest take-off requires knowing what a job actually consumes, which is knowledge you only get from having ordered the materials and run out of them.

Scope

Who does what

Published so that the boundary is clear before you engage anybody. Where a consultant is needed we engage and coordinate them, and their fee is quoted to you separately.

WorkResponsibility
Concept design, levels strategy, planting designBMEL Design
Paving setout, drainage design, material specificationBMEL Design
Construction details for permit-exempt workBMEL Design
Quantity take-off and build pricingBMEL Design
Feature and level surveyLicensed surveyor
Structural design and certificationSolid Structural Engineering
Plans and documentation prepared for a building permitRegistered building designer
Arborist report and tree protection planConsulting arborist
Issue of the building permitRegistered building surveyor
Qualifications & registration

Byron holds degrees in civil engineering and architecture from Monash University. He is not a registered architect or a registered landscape architect, and BMEL does not use either title. Preparing plans or documentation for a building permit requires registration as a building designer, which is why that row sits outside our column.

In practice that means a deck over a structural subfloor, a verandah, a roofed or oversized pergola, or a retaining wall over a metre — all of which generally require a building permit, and all of which we confirm with your council before you commit to anything. Everything else in a landscape package — levels, paving, drainage, planting, materials and detailing — is ours.

This Section

The rest of the set

Sheet 01Design overview → Sheet 02Fees & credits → Sheet 03What a documentation set contains
Retaining walls Paving & concreting A built project, in detail Build cost guide
FAQ

Documentation questions

What is construction documentation, and do I actually need it?
It is the set of dimensioned drawings and schedules a builder constructs from: setout, levels, drainage, details and quantities. You need it when a project has level changes, structures or more than two or three trades, because that is the point at which a concept plan stops being enough to price accurately. For a straightforward planting and turf refresh it is overkill and we will say so. For a rear garden with retaining, paving, a deck and drainage, it is the difference between a fixed price and an argument.
Can I give your drawings to another builder?
Yes, and some clients commission the documentation precisely so they can. The drawings are yours to build from on that property with whichever builder you choose. We keep copyright so the design is not rebuilt on somebody else's block, which costs you nothing practical. What you lose by building elsewhere is the design credits, not the drawings.
Does my landscape need a building permit?
As a general guide in Victoria, a building permit is usually needed once a deck has a structural subfloor — there is no size or height exemption for a deck attached to the house — and for a verandah, which counts as an extension because it has a solid roof, and for a retaining wall over a metre. A pergola is exempt only while it stays unroofed, under 20 square metres, under 3.6 metres high and within the siting rules in Schedule 3 of the Building Regulations 2018; put a roof on it and it becomes a verandah. Paving, planting, turf, irrigation, drainage, edging, most fencing and low retaining generally do not need a permit. It still depends on your site and any overlays, so we confirm with your council before you commit, and we tell you at the consultation rather than after the drawings are done.
What scale are the drawings and what format do I get?
Plans are drawn at 1:100 or 1:50 depending on the size of the property, and construction details at 1:10 and 1:20. You receive a PDF set at A3, printable to scale, plus the schedules. If your builder wants a CAD file we will talk about it — most residential landscape builders work from a printed set.
Why does the set include a quantity schedule?
Because it is what turns a drawing into a comparable quote. The schedule measures every element off the drawings — square metres of paving, lineal metres of wall, cubic metres of excavation, plant counts by pot size — and the build price is calculated from it. It means you can hand the same set to three builders and get three quotes for the same scope, and it means our own price is a calculation rather than an estimate.
Do you document decks, pergolas and pool surrounds?
We design and detail them, yes. Where a structure needs a building permit, the permit documentation is prepared by a registered building designer and the structural design certified by an engineer, both of whom we engage and coordinate on your behalf and quote to you separately. Our drawings cover the landscape resolution — how the structure sits in the levels, how water gets away from it, how it meets the paving and the planting.
Get Started

Get the drawings right before the excavator arrives

Start with a site consultation — $450–$650 inc GST, credited in full. We will tell you honestly whether your project warrants a full documentation set or whether a concept and a good quote will do.

Book a consultation →
0422 490 962