Draftee

Brian and team run a tight ship. The service is professional and great value. I would recommend. Response is usually very prompt. They use a platform called wimi for most communication but once you get used to this it has benefits as everything is recorded. Most importantly the drawings are good.

We would like to thank Brian and the team at Draftee for producing our extension and existing home renovation plans.

We are very pleased with our full set of drawings and the level of details included. We’ve been complemented on this from a few builders!

Brian and the team were always happy for us to make amendments and each time we received quick correspondence and action.

The full set of drawings were a great price and we’ve no hesitation recommending Draftee to future clientele.

Best, Lisha + Jeremy

The team were prompt, helpful, competitively priced, and responsive to our very custom design that we had in mind.

Will certainly be recommending this company to all Owner Builders I meet in the future.

Excellent service provided by Brian Hooper. It was my first time working with a draftee and he made the full process so easy and smooth. Brian provided great advice and always replied within a couple of hours. Brian organised a land survey and did the drawings. Everything was online from having a chat to attaching supporting documentation. I would highly recommend Brian

I engaged Draftee to prepare drawings for my house back in 2019. I made it very clear that the drawings needed to be townplanning approval as soon as they were ready. If you look at their website (under projects) it says that they've provided townplanning drawings for several developments. So I was expecting them to be well versed with the Victorian planning regulations (rescode) as well as the specific requirements for Maroondah council.

To start with I asked them to provide a sketch of the conceptual design, which they did. But I wasn't really happy with the layout, so I drew up an alternative layout and sent it to them. I asked them to check all the regulations and then prepare the drawings accordingly. They came back with some recommendations to make the design compliant with the NCC, which I accepted.

Brian was okay to deal with, but it still took over 4 months to get all the drawings completed. If I count the time it took to add in revisions requested by me, it would come up to a total of around 7 months.

When the drawings were finally complete, I submitted them for townplanning approval. After 6 weeks the response that I received from the council almost threw me off my chair. As it turns out, the entire design, including basic things like setbacks etc was completely and entirely non-compliant with the Victorian planning regulations.

When I sent the review to Brian he said that I should have hired a townplanning consultant. As it turns out the jobs listed on the Draftee website were ones where a proper architect/consultant had already worked out the design. Draftee had only produced the drawings.

I wish I had known this before I had engaged them.

As the client, the sketch I had provided, was only meant to convey my preferences. If I was an architect myself, why would I be engaging someone else?

It's worth noting here that the original sketch that they had sent me, would have been completely non-compliant as well. Therefore even if I had proceeded with their design, the review would have been no different.

So essentially it was "one blind man leading another. "

In the end, Draftee said that they could make amendments to the design to address the comments provided by the council. But I decided that I was better off starting again from scratch. Needless to say, I went with a qualified architect the next time around.

This is just a summary of my own experience. I'm sure if someone provided townplanning drawings to Draftee and asked them to produce working drawings, they would be up to the task. But they clearly aren't qualified to design a house from scratch.

We have used Draftee for a number of projects now and they have always delivered on budget and on time. Very professional to deal with, I would recommend Draftee 100%.

I have been dealing with these guys for over a year now and I’m always changing my building plans and Nothing is too hard for this company they are very polite helpful people it’s been a pleasure dealing with them

Brian and his team have been great to work with. They are quick and clear in their communication, accurate in their documentation (only needed a couple of really minor amends to satisfy our building surveyor), and really accommodating (we had to make a few design revisions due to revised consultant advice through the process and they were only too happy to make the amends to our design plans, of which, they captured in only one rev of the plans).
Their delivery timeframes were good, and overall, I think their service represents good value for money in the market. We’d certainly recommend them.
Keep up the good work Draftee team, and look forward to working with you a again in future.
Cheers, Matt and Shell

As a small construction company in southern Tasmania we have used Draftee for Multiple builds.where a client has engaged us as the builder and have not yet acquired plans we have then contacted Draftee and Engaged them as the Designer, The process was with the was very professional and easy to work with, And their designs easy for us as a construction company to follow,
I am Happy to send through any photos of their designs if requested.

Thanks Draftee,
Ash Brooks
Director - Ashmark constructions

Simple, quick and easy. Would have no hesitations in engaging the services of Draftee again in the future. Great value for money.

Cost effective plans, having to deall completely online has its challenges but we got a great result at the end

Thank you Brian for all you great work and helping with my dual occupancy project.
I can only highly recommend Brian for your next project.

Great service provided by Brian Hooper. It was my first time working with a draftee and he made the full process so easy and smooth. Brian provided great advice and always replied within a couple of hours. Brian organised a land survey, did the drawings and then assisted to engage a engineer for the structural design. Everything was online from having a chat to attaching supporting documentation. I highly recommend Brian.

Draftee, led by Brian Hooper, is excellent to work with. Draftee is knowledgeable, professional, organised and well-established in the field. Brian adapted his work pace to meet my timeline (my project is now underway), and there was no task he could not do among the numerous revisions that needed to be made from initial design to Building Permit approval. I highly recommend Brian and the team at Draftee for all your building design needs. Thanks Draftee!

Brian and Adrian were extremely professional with their service and applicability to assist me in my plans for building a new home. We highly recommend Draftee for anyone looking for draftsmen to assist with design and ultimately obtaining required permits. Nothing was too difficult for Brian to address and time frame was excellent.

Brian and his team were extremely helpful in working with us to get our plans from an informal design to a final, Council-approved set for our renovation.

They were always available to be contacted and very helpful through the entire process, and worked to incorporate additional information required by council after the final plans were produced.

Brian also suggested a number of improvements in the early stages to make the proposed plans more cost-effective and better aesthetically.

I have recommended Brian to a colleague and would certainly recommend his team to anyone else looking to have plans produced!

Draftee converted my preliminary hand drawn sketches of a multi-level car park into excellent presentation drawings. The team at Draftee exceeded my expectation - fast, efficient service at a very fair price. I'm looking forward to working with them again.
Tim Irwin

The professionals at Draftee exceeded my expectations by far. There were never any surprises and everything was delivered exactly when promised and even before on many occasions. Things were explained meticulously at the onset and Brian was never too busy to take the time to discuss things with me. The drawings are of a very high standard; with the addition of amazing 3D images.
Regarding the 'product' the 'service' and the 'wonderful professional staff' I recommend them all very highly indeed, with confidence.
Thanks Draftee!