Build

Before the first cut: where materials land, where waste goes, how machinery gets in, what gets protected, and the safety basics that matter when you are working alone with a plate compactor and a hot day.

Getting rid of what the audit condemned, sorting waste so you are not paying mixed-waste tip rates, and dealing with perennial weeds like couch and kikuyu before you build over them — because they will come back through.

Transferring the setting-out plan onto the ground with profiles and string lines, excavating to the right depth, and compacting fill in layers. Sand does not behave like clay, and uncompacted fill will find you out later.

What each machine is for, what it costs in Perth, what access it needs, and the honest calculation of whether to learn to drive one or pay someone who already can.

Digging in soakwells, connecting downpipes and surface drains, getting falls right, and the subsoil drainage that stops a low corner staying wet all winter. Do this before anything gets built on top of it.

Footings, the first course, drainage behind the wall, backfill material, geofabric and the reason most failed walls failed. Plus the honest point at which you stop and call an engineer.

Ninety per cent of paving failures are base failures. Sub-grade, sub-base material, depth for the loading, compaction in layers, and screeding the bedding layer to a consistent thickness.

Setting out the pattern so the cuts fall where they are least visible, laying to line and level, cutting safely, restraining the edges so it does not creep, and jointing so sand does not wash out on the first winter storm.

Formwork and falls, mesh and cover, ordering the right mix, and the finishes common in Perth — exposed aggregate, honed, and liquid limestone. Plus the reality that a concrete pour has no undo button.

Footings and bearer spans, joist spacing for your board, ventilation under the deck, jarrah versus composite in WA conditions, and the termite management that stops your deck becoming a bridge into the house.

Posts and footings that survive a Perth storm, span tables, screening that gives privacy without becoming a wall, and the services planning that has to happen before an outdoor kitchen is built.

The physics that decides how many sprinklers you can run at once. Flow rate, static and dynamic pressure, friction loss through pipe and fittings, and why the last sprinkler on a long run barely turns.

Everything downstream depends on how much water you actually have. Measure your available flow and pressure properly, and understand what a bore changes — including that the roster still applies.

Never mix lawn and garden beds, or sun and shade, on one station. Divide the garden by water need, plant type and aspect, then check each station fits inside your available flow and your legal watering window.

What each type does well, what it wastes, and where drip beats everything. In Perth sand, matched precipitation and low application rates are not a refinement — they are the difference between watering the plant and watering the aquifer.

How to calculate how long a station must run to deliver a given depth of water, how to measure whether it lands evenly, and how to set run times that suit sand — which holds almost nothing and drains almost instantly.

Pipe sizing and material, the mainline route, valve boxes you can actually get to, solenoid wiring and the common wire, and backflow prevention — which is a legal requirement, not an optional extra.

Programming a controller to water on your rostered days, inside the legal windows, and shutting down for the winter ban. Whether a smart or weather-based controller earns its money in Perth, and what a rain sensor is worth.

Trenching depths, laying and joining pipe, flushing before you fit heads, setting arcs, and the audit that tells you whether the system you just built does what you designed. Then how to re-audit it every year.

Running low-voltage cable, positioning fixtures, transformer sizing and voltage drop over long runs — and the clear line in WA between what you may wire yourself and what requires a licensed electrical contractor.

Bassendean and Spearwood sands hold almost no water and almost no nutrient, and turn hydrophobic in summer. Clay for water and nutrient holding, organic matter for structure and biology, wetting agents to get water in at all — how much, how deep, and in what order.

Where to buy at what size, planting technique that actually works in sand, why autumn is the right season in Perth, staking only when necessary, and the establishment watering that decides whether your plant budget survives its first February.

The four species that dominate Perth lawns, what each is genuinely good and bad at — shade, wear, water, thatch, invasiveness — and how to prepare, lay and establish turf on sand.

Mulch type and depth for Perth conditions, crisp edges that hold their line, clean transitions between materials, and the small details that make a garden read as finished rather than merely planted.

The last day of a professional job: everything swept, adjusted, tested, straightened and photographed. It is the cheapest quality improvement available and the one amateurs skip because they are tired.