Free tools
Check it before you build it.
Free tools built from the authorised texts — the Building Regulations 2018 as authorised, and the published NCC 2025 — with the provision cited on every result. No sign-up, no email gate; they work with scripting off, and every one ends at a person you can actually ask.
The tools
Homeowners, shed buyers and shed suppliers
Shed permit checker
Walks the Schedule 3 shed exemption one question at a time — floor area, height, boundaries, position on the lot, masonry — and shows which conditions your answers turned on. Built from the authorised Building Regulations 2018.
Homeowners, landscapers and wall contractors
Retaining wall permit checker
The three-condition retaining wall exemption, question by question: the strict 1 m line, walls tied to other building work, and walls protecting a neighbour's property — with repairs, demolition and terraced walls routed to the right answer.
Homeowners, pergola and verandah installers
Pergola permit checker
The one exemption on the brochure page — the defined pergola, inside item 16's size and position limits — with roofed verandahs, carports, decks and gazebos each routed to where their answer actually lives.
Draftspeople, architects and designers
Part 5 siting calculator
Side and rear setbacks (reg 79), walls and carports on boundaries (reg 80) and overlooking (reg 84), calculated with the working shown and the provision cited on every result — plus the rest of Part 5 as a reference table.
Draftspeople, designers and builders
Roof space ventilation calculator
Condensation management to NCC 2025 Housing Provisions Part 10.8: enter each roof section's pitch and plan dimension, get the required ventilation openings — and a notation block ready to paste onto the drawings. Includes what changed from NCC 2022.
Each tool states what the Regulations or the NCC say, read against the figures you enter. None of them is a determination under the Building Act 1993 — whether particular work needs a permit, or a design complies, is determined by the relevant building surveyor on the documents. Every tool records the authorised version it was built from, and anything sitting close to a line routes to us rather than guessing.
Suppliers, installers and drafting firms: you are welcome to link your customers to any of these — or send the drawings to us directly. How referring works. Questions the tools can't answer: (03) 9802 9459. Mon–Fri, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm. We reply as soon as we can — typically within two business days.
Get a quote
The tool said 'ask the surveyor'? Ask.
Send the drawings, the heights or just the address, and we tell you where the job lands — at no charge. Where a permit is needed, one fixed fee, quoted before you commit.