Why should I choose Gum Building?
About Our Director, Ewan
Ewan, our Director, is a Registered Building Practitioner, Carpenter, and Horticulturist. He holds a Diploma in Building and Construction as well as a Certificate in Business Management. In addition, Ewan has held a Victorian Liquor License since 2015 and brings a wealth of experience across various business sectors.
Before founding Gum Building, Ewan served as a director of two companies specialising in the development and construction of commercial properties across Melbourne and the Northern Rivers of NSW. With over 18 years in the building industry, Ewan has continually advanced his professional expertise, ensuring a comprehensive and forward-thinking approach to every project.
This diverse background equips Ewan with strong leadership and advisory skills, which he applies throughout your project to ensure the best possible outcomes.
What kind of clients do you work with?
Our Approach at Gum Building
At Gum Building, we focus on working with clients who share our commitment to high standards and strong values throughout the home building process. We partner with those who appreciate the importance of a high-quality home—one that performs well, impresses, and creates lasting value. This alignment allows us to explore and implement intelligent, informed building practices that deliver exceptional results.
Our clients understand that their investment in a home isn’t just about the initial build; it’s a long-term commitment that leads to increased comfort, reduced running costs, longevity, and the enjoyment of an environmentally conscious space.
By embracing these principles, we consistently achieve success and positive outcomes throughout the entire building journey. We build strong foundations of understanding, trust, and mutual respect, all while continuously learning and growing along the way.
Together, we harness the beauty of the home building process, creating a team-oriented environment where every individual’s values and contributions are recognized and valued.
We prioritise building lasting relationships with our clients and treat each project with the utmost care and respect. Our goal is to create homes that stand the test of time.
Our Team and Trade Network
Gum Building implements the advantages of having an established in-house carpentry team. This is our way of ensuring consistency and quality from the moment we start your project, until the end.
Our team are experienced and trained to national standards which enable us to commit to outstanding management of each project with integrity achieving excellence.
Gum Building’s established trade network allows us to stand behind our word as we execute each project within the allocated time frame, on budget and to the highest standard. We take pride on our ability to open our job site to anyone at anytime as a safe and welcoming space. This means we have a Zero tolerance policy on stigmatised behaviour that the building industry is subjected to. We do not allow offensive or negative behaviour on our sites. We want our job sites to speak for the people that we are. We are kind, compassionate and professional. It is our duty to uphold our own ethics and values and we stand by that.
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One of our most significant value adds is engaging with your project early on to provide education, consultation, and ensure the outcomes that matter most to you are achieved.
Surprisingly, 90% of architectural designs never come to fruition. To help you make well-informed decisions and minimise stress, we deliver detailed information on costs, construction, aesthetics, scope, data, and specifications—empowering both you and your designer to bring your vision to life.
Our PAC & Project Feasibility Assessment service is a great for clients needing XYZ
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Gum Building generally specialises in Home Renovations and Extensions within the Inner suburbs of Melbourne. This scale of building works generally tends to take anywhere from 6 - 18 months depending on scope of work.
Typically a small renovation project that includes multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, living spaces and kitchens take 4-6 months. This allows us the appropriate time to ensure all of your design details are executed to a high standard and we can run the project without unnecessary time restrictions.
It is extremely important to make sure you are set-up comfortably for the duration of the building phase and you allow the right amount of time for the project to be executed well. Time pressure can create all kinds of issues. If you want to get it right from the start, we’re here to help you do just that.
Medium-sized projects like Home Extensions, including the renovation of your existing home, can take anywhere from 6-18 months. These jobs can be complex in varying ways and we often have to be creative to avoid the limitations of working amongst existing site restrictions. These things collectively, make extensions of living spaces take more time than a new build per se. Without clear access and ample room to store materials on site, the planning and management of an existing site requires more lead times and longer construction periods.
At Gum Building, we will always strive to make sure you're aware of the building program and we are here to assist you and your family with ways to ensure you're always prepared for your next building project with us!
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The age old question questions..
"How much will it cost to build my home?" and "How long will it take?"
Can you name a more iconic duo?
The reality is, we cannot know for certain without doing extensive investigation and research. For this to happen accurately, the design and planning stages must be thoroughly completed and accurate documentation to be provided before we can price your project.
There are a myriad of factors that can change the cost of your home before we've even gotten out of the ground. Varying factors can be where you're building, site restrictions, soil types and the list goes on..
So whats the next step?
This is where trust is built, we start to look at the vitals of your project and begin developing our initial pricing presentation and intimate understanding of your project. Gum Building consults with you and the designers involved to produce accurate and transparent snapshots on pricing prior to a contract price being locked in. We do not sign a project unless we know that the finish line can be crossed and everyone is standing there beside each other at the end.
This is where we ask for your budget. Prior to pricing your project, we can easily determine whether or not your project budget is going to allow the project to be feasible. We see current trends in the past 5 years making building affordability tough. Labour rates have increased to the builder by more than 30% in 2024. It is almost impossible to build high quality homes without high quality trades. So now these trades are costing us more, it makes sense that the building process is much more costly to the consumer.
The average home renovation project that includes multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, living spaces and kitchens without major structural works are costing the consumer anywhere from 300k to 450k. Once you begin to extend the building envelope and include structural works, you can expect to start increasing the budgets towards the 650-750k mark. These are estimates based on trends in the last 12 months that have been designed by Architects.
Its important to understand here what you're paying for. Please keep in mind that Gum Building does not construct baseline, run of the mill homes with generic details and finishes. So, for this money you can expect a high performing, quality home with all the jazzy bits and pieces included!
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Yes, as a part of our PAC services, Ewan is happy to offer assistance in the design and development of your project. Having been an integral part of the design phase within many projects over his career, Ewan offers a world of knowledge when it comes to design functionality, selections of finishes and various products to suit your needs.
We have an established network of draftsman, interior designers, landscape designers and other design consultants that we can recommend for you. Please get in touch if you require assistance on your project.