The short version
The build itself is fast. Most flat patios go up in two to five days on site, and occasionally a week on a large or difficult job. The whole timeline from enquiry to finish is longer, usually a couple of months, because the building permit and the material lead time sit in front of the install. A certified building permit application must be decided within 10 business days, and design, engineering and steel supply account for most of the rest.
Key highlights
- On-site install is typically two to five days once materials are on the ground.
- Enquiry to finished patio usually runs to a couple of months, not a couple of weeks.
- A certified permit application is decided in 10 business days; uncertified takes 25.
- Development approval, when needed, adds weeks on top of the building permit.
- Custom colours and insulated panels carry longer lead times than stock Colorbond.
- Winter slows footings and roof work; summer heat rarely stops a job in Perth.
That gap surprises people, and it is almost entirely permits and material supply. Neither can be rushed by working harder.
Here is the honest sequence, with the parts that typically run late flagged as we go.
Step one: enquiry and site measure
This is the fast part. We usually get to site within a few days of your call, and the measure itself takes under an hour.
What happens in that hour sets everything after it. Fascia heights at both ends, ground levels, wall construction, boundary distances, buried services and how the materials will physically get to the back of the block.
We also talk about how you want to use the space, because that changes depth, post positions and whether the western end needs shading.
There is no charge and no obligation. Call (08) 6186 7419 and we will book it.
So what is the realistic total?
On a straightforward attached patio with no planning complications, budget around eight to ten weeks from your first call to the last screw. Roughly a week of that is people on your property.
Break that down and it is a week for design, one to two for engineering, two to three for surveyor and council, and one to two for materials.
Add a month or more if development approval is needed, and add whatever the lead time is on a non-standard colour or panel.
Anyone promising a finished patio in a fortnight is either skipping the permit or has one sitting in a drawer already.
Step two: design and quote
Allow around a week for the drawing and the fixed-price quote to come back. Complicated sites take longer, and so does a design with a few options in it.
You get a plan, an elevation and a section. The section shows the roof height at the house and at the beam, which is where the proportions get agreed.
This is the cheapest stage to change your mind. Moving a post on a drawing costs nothing; moving one after the engineering is done costs a re-certification.
Nothing progresses until you sign off. Most of the delay we see at this stage is waiting for a decision, which is fair enough on a job this size.
Step three: engineering
Once the design is locked, it goes to the engineer. They size the beam, the posts, the purlins and the footings for the wind classification at your address.
Turnaround is usually one to two weeks depending on the engineer's workload. A standard attached patio moves faster than a freestanding structure with an unusual span.
What comes back is a stamped, certified set of structural details. Those are what the building surveyor and the council actually assess.
Site conditions can bounce it back. If the ground is unusual or the fascia needs bracing, that gets designed here rather than discovered on install day.
Step four: the building permit
The certified engineering goes to a registered building surveyor, who issues the certificate of design compliance. Allow a few days to a week for that.
The complete certified application then goes to your local government, which has 10 business days to decide it. Uncertified applications carry a 25 business day period, which is why we certify.
The clock only runs on a complete application. A request for further information pauses it, which is the single most common reason a permit runs over.
If development approval is also required, that comes first and it takes considerably longer. Heritage properties, character areas and boundary variations are the usual triggers.
- Certificate of design compliancea few days to a week
- Certified building permit decision10 business days statutory
- Uncertified building permit decision25 business days statutory
- Development approval, where requiredseveral weeks and sometimes longer
Step five: materials and lead time
Steel and Colorbond are ordered once the permit is issued, not before. Ordering early on a permit that might come back with conditions is a good way to own the wrong beam.
Stock colours in common profiles usually arrive within a week or two. Less common Colorbond colours and insulated panels can take longer, particularly if the panel is a non-standard thickness or length.
Custom fabrication adds time. Powder coating, unusual post sections and made-to-measure battens all sit outside the standard supply run.
We will tell you the lead time when you sign, and we will tell you again if it moves. Nobody enjoys the version where the roof arrives a fortnight after the frame.
Step six: the install, day by day
Day one is usually set-out and footings. Post positions marked against the drawing, services located, holes dug and concrete poured.
Footings then need to cure before load goes on them. On a typical job that is a short wait, and it is the reason the crew is not there every single day in sequence.
The frame goes up next. Posts stood and plumbed, front beam lifted, wall or fascia brackets fixed, purlins run back to the house.
Then the roof, the gutter, the downpipes and the flashing, followed by the drainage connection and a clean-up. Two to five days of actual work is the normal range.
Insulated panel roofs often go on faster than single skin, because there are fewer purlins to run and the ceiling arrives finished. The panels are heavier to handle, so it usually needs more hands rather than more days.
Electrical work slots in between the frame and the roof. Conduit through posts and cable along purlins has to happen before the sheeting closes it all in, so the electrician books for a specific day.
- Set-out, service location and footing excavation
- Concrete pour and cure
- Posts, beam, brackets and purlins
- Roof sheeting or panel, gutter and downpipes
- Flashing into the existing roof, stormwater connection, clean-up
Step seven: completion and paperwork
A Class 10a structure does not need an occupancy permit. What it does need is a notice of completion lodged with the local government once the work is finished.
Any electrical work is certified separately by the licensed electrician who did it. That paperwork comes to you as well.
Keep the lot together. The permit, the engineering, the certificate of design compliance and the notice of completion are what a buyer's conveyancer will ask for one day.
We hand the whole file over at handover rather than leaving you to chase documents later.
What makes a job take longer
Planning is the big one. Anything needing development approval, neighbour comment or a heritage assessment adds weeks before the building permit can even be lodged.
Design changes after engineering are the second. A moved post or a changed span means the drawings go back and, if the surveyor has already certified, so does the certificate.
Difficult ground is the third. Limestone, rubble fill or an unexpected service in the footing line stops the excavation and sometimes needs the engineer to revise a pad.
Then there is the fascia. Where the rafter or truss ends need bracing before they can take uplift, that is extra work in the roof space and it is not a half-hour job.
Weather and the Perth build calendar
Perth is a good place to build outdoors, which helps. Long dry stretches mean most of the year is workable.
Winter is the exception. Sustained rain stops footing excavation, delays pours and makes roof work unsafe, so June through August jobs carry more weather risk.
Summer heat rarely stops a patio job outright, though crews start early and the hottest afternoons slow the roof work down.
Wind is the underrated one. Handling a full length of roof sheet in a strong easterly is dangerous, and we will pull a crew off a roof rather than push through it.
How to keep your patio project moving
Decide early and decide once. The single biggest saving available to you is signing off the design without a round of late changes.
Have your paperwork ready. Owner consent from every registered owner, and strata company consent if your lot is part of a scheme, both catch people out.
Sort access before the crew arrives. A cleared side path, an unlocked gate and pets kept away turns a slow day into a productive one.
And book earlier than you think. If you want to be sitting under it by December, start the conversation in winter, not in November.
Where a patio job sits alongside other work
Sequencing matters if the patio is part of something bigger. Paving, decking, a pool or a kitchen renovation all interact with it, and the order is not always obvious.
Footings come before paving, always. Pouring pads through finished paving means cutting it, and reinstating it never looks quite the same as laying it once.
Pool work goes first too. An excavator needs a path to the pool site, and a patio roof standing in that path turns a one day dig into a much larger problem.
Electrical and irrigation are the exceptions worth coordinating rather than sequencing. Digging one trench for the footings, the power and the reticulation saves opening the yard three times.
