Do I need council approval to renovate in Winston Hills?

Internal renovations that do not alter the structure or footprint often fall under Exempt Development and need no approval. Structural changes usually qualify for a Complying Development Certificate through a private certifier, since most Winston Hills homes sit outside heritage overlays. We confirm which pathway applies to your property before quoting.

How long does a full renovation take in Winston Hills?

Most full internal renovations run 16 to 30 weeks on site. Design and any approvals happen before that: a CDC takes about 4 to 8 weeks, and a DA can take up to 6 months, depending on council. We give you a programme with the quote, not after you have signed.

Can I live in the house during the renovation?

Sometimes, if the work is staged and at least one bathroom and kitchen stay operational. For a full internal renovation we generally recommend moving out. It is faster, cheaper and safer, and the cost of six months of rent is often less than the cost of the delays that come from working around an occupied home.

Is renovating my Winston Hills home cheaper than knocking down and rebuilding?

Almost always. Winston Hills brick homes are solidly built estate stock, which is exactly the profile where renovating runs 30 to 40 per cent cheaper than a knockdown rebuild. If you want a substantially different footprint the maths can change, and we will tell you honestly which one your house is.

What kind of building contract do you use?

We use a fixed price (lump sum) building contract, agreed before signing. The scope is documented, the inclusions and exclusions are itemised, and any provisional allowances for items that genuinely cannot be priced until walls are opened are listed openly rather than hidden in the total.

What happens after I enquire?

We review your enquiry and call you within 24 to 48 business hours to arrange a consultation at your Winston Hills home. A builder walks the property with you, then prepares a written, itemised estimate. There is no cost and no obligation at any point before you choose to proceed.

How will I know what is happening during my renovation?

Two ways. You get a weekly update from the builder running your job, whether or not there is good news in it. And you get access to our client portal, where you can log in any time to see your documents, selections, variations and job status. No chasing, no phone tag, no wondering.

Are you licensed and insured?

Yes. Strava Group holds NSW Builder's Licence 487370C and carries public liability insurance and Home Building Compensation Fund cover on all residential work over the statutory threshold. You can verify the licence directly through Verify NSW at verify.licence.nsw.gov.au.

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Home Renovations · Winston Hills

Home renovations in Winston Hills, done properly.

Complete home renovations for Winston Hills homeowners by a licensed builder. A typical full transformation runs $180,000 to $450,000, itemised quote, honest programme, one builder from concept to handover.

Get Your Renovation Assessed Call 0450 605 080

NSW Licensed Builder
487370C

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Hills District localNSW Builder’s Licence 487370CItemised quotesClear inclusions & exclusions0450 605 080

Complete transformations

More than cosmetic updates.

A home renovation is an opportunity to completely redefine how you live. Strava Group delivers high end home renovations across Winston Hills and the Hills and Parramatta districts, transforming established homes into refined, contemporary residences, managed as complete projects from concept through to completion.

Rather than renovating room by room, we approach each Winston Hills project as a unified transformation: layout reconfigurations, designer kitchens, luxury bathrooms, flooring, lighting, windows and street presence, all working together. The result is a home that feels intentional, balanced and built to a higher standard.

Winston Hills was one of the original planned estates of the district, built solid in the late sixties and seventies. The houses are honest, the blocks are generous, and the interiors are fifty years overdue.

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Quick Answer

Ground floor renovation work runs $2,500 to $4,500 per square metre, with roughly $30,000 in preliminaries (design, engineering and council approvals, plus site set-up) on top. A full internal renovation of a typical Winston Hills home generally falls between $180,000 and $450,000, with structural wall removals, wet areas and the age of the existing services moving the figure most.

Renovating in Winston Hills

What shapes a renovation in Winston Hills.

Winston Hills is late 1960s and 70s brick on curving estate streets, family held for decades and due its second life. Here is what shapes a renovation locally.

Council

City of Parramatta

Winston Hills sits within the City of Parramatta Council. Internal renovations that keep the structure and footprint often need no approval at all under Exempt Development, and where structural changes are involved, most Winston Hills homes sit outside heritage overlays, so the faster Complying Development pathway through a private certifier is usually available.

Housing

Estate brick, built to last

Predominantly brick veneer and full brick single storey homes from the late 1960s and 70s, many of them well built, with split levels on the sloping streets. Galley kitchens, separate dining rooms, one bathroom and a patio the plan never connected to. Exactly the stock where a complete renovation transforms the whole house.

Structure

Honest frames, familiar surprises

Brick veneer of this era is structurally straightforward, with timber frames that take new openings well once engineered, and the split levels need their transitions resolved rather than patched. Fifty years of settlement and partial renovations leave their marks behind the linings. We check and rectify the structure before anything goes back on.

Layout

Separate rooms, disconnected yards

The Winston Hills plan is separate rooms with the kitchen at the back and no relationship to the yard. The renovation gain is in the flow: opening kitchen, dining and living into one space, adding a second bathroom, and connecting the living to the backyard the estate blocks all have. Most of those walls are structural, and we engineer them out properly.

Services

Original services approaching their limit

Homes of this vintage often carry original switchboards, aging wiring and galvanised plumbing. A full renovation is the one moment these can be replaced without ripping open finished rooms, and we assess them up front rather than mid build.

Value

A family estate worth reinvesting in

Winston Hills is tightly held, with the schools, the parks and the quiet holding demand between Parramatta and the Hills. A solid home with a properly renovated interior is exactly what buyers here pay for, and the transformation costs far less than trading up once stamp duty and agent fees are counted.

Thinking bigger than a renovation? We also build second storey additions and home extensions in Winston Hills, and staging them alongside a renovation costs less than doing them years apart.

Start here

Tell us about your Winston Hills home.

No sales pitch, no obligation. Here is exactly what happens when you enquire:

One at a time, takes about two minutes, so the first conversation is about your project rather than the basics.

Start Your Enquiry Call 0450 605 080

The Strava standard

How we build differently.

We build for longevity. That sounds like a slogan until you see where it costs us money. On every Winston Hills renovation we run:

The existing structure gets rectified, not covered

Plenty of renovations put new gyprock over old problems and hope for the best. We do a full screw off and re-brace the whole house, tying new and existing structure together so the frame moves as one and future cracking is designed out, not painted over.

Furring channels for a dead flat finish

We install furring channels throughout, creating a perfectly level plane for the new linings regardless of what the old frame is doing behind them. Flat on handover day, still flat in raking afternoon light years later.

Waterproofing is a documented hold point

Wet areas are inspected and photographed before a single tile goes on, to AS 3740.

Blocking installed at frame stage

Extra noggins and fixings go in where vanities, TVs, handrails and shower screens will hang later, not chased in afterwards.

Every new-to-existing junction properly detailed

This is where most renovations crack. It is almost always a detailing shortcut, not settlement. Ours get a proper flashing and movement detail.

Everything photographed before it is covered

You receive the record at handover, so in ten years you know exactly what is behind your walls.

Honest numbers

What a renovation costs in Winston Hills.

Most builders will not put numbers on a website. We will, because the alternative is wasting your time and ours across three meetings before anyone mentions a figure.

Item	Typical range
Full internal renovation, typical Winston Hills home	$180k–$450k
Ground floor renovation work	$2,500–$4,500 /m²
Work at first floor level	$3,500–$5,500 /m²
Preliminaries, on top of build cost	approx. $30,000

Winston Hills projects usually sit in the middle of the range: the structure is sound, which keeps surprises down, while the split levels and older services add their share.

How many of the walls you want gone are structural is usually the largest single factor, followed by the number of wet areas, since a bathroom carries more trades per square metre than any other room in the house. Homes of this era frequently need switchboard and plumbing upgrades, priced up front rather than discovered mid build.

Every project is quoted properly after a site inspection. These ranges are here so you can decide whether it is worth a conversation.

Good to know

Winston Hills renovation questions.

From our clients

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We had Strava Group complete major renovation works on our property and were blown away with the quality. The attention to detail and overall finish were amazing.

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Renovate your Winston Hills home properly.

Ready to transform how your home works?

Tell us about your property and what you want to change. We respond within 24 to 48 business hours with honest advice and real numbers, no cost, no obligation.

Get Your Renovation Assessed Call 0450 605 080