What is a Draftsman?

A draftsman, also known as a drafting technician, is a professional skilled in creating detailed technical drawings and plans. These drawings are used in the construction and manufacturing industries, among others, to guide the building or production process. In Australia, draftsmen typically use computer-aided design (CAD) software to create these drawings, ensuring precision and compliance with Australian standards.

A draftsman turns your idea into a set of scaled technical drawings that satisfy the Residential Design Codes, your local government’s planning policy and the National Construction Code, then submits those drawings to council on your behalf. In Perth, that covers everything from a front fence to a three-unit development.

What Does a Draftsman Do in Perth?

A draftsman turns your idea into a set of scaled technical drawings that satisfy the Residential Design Codes, your local government’s planning policy and the National Construction Code, then submits those drawings to council on your behalf. In Perth, that covers everything from a front fence to a three-unit development.

That is the short answer. The longer answer is where most people get caught out, so it is worth a minute.

The drawings themselves

Depending on what you are building, a residential drawing set includes a site plan showing your lot, boundaries, setbacks and levels, floor plans, elevations from every side, sections cut through the building, and the construction details and specifications a surveyor needs to assess it. Everything is drawn in CAD and BIM.

That set has two audiences with very different priorities. Council wants to know whether the proposal complies. Your builder wants to know what to order and how to build it. A drawing that satisfies one and not the other is a drawing you will be paying to have redone.

The part that is not drawing

Here is what nobody advertises. Roughly half the value in this job has nothing to do with drawing lines.

Anyone with a CAD licence can draw your patio. The work that actually gets it approved is knowing which clause you are departing from, whether that departure is defensible, and how to write the justification that makes an assessor comfortable signing it off. That is a research and writing job as much as a drafting one.

The other half of the value is that we lodge it. You never have to work out which form you need, who to email at your council, or what to say when they come back with questions. We handle it.

Where a project needs structural certification, an energy assessment or a site survey, those come from separate consultants and we coordinate them. More on that below.

How Much Does a Draftsman Cost in Perth?

Hourly rates for drafting around Perth run roughly $60 to $100. We do not work that way. We quote a fixed price before we start, which for most residential work sits between $750 and $6,990 + GST depending on what you are building and how much information already exists about your site.

These figures are a rough guide, not a price list. Every project is different. Two patios on the same street can price differently because one has a current survey and the other does not. Send us your details and we will give you a real number within 24 hours.

These price are generally Design, DA drawings and Full working construction drawings. Generally drafters can lower the pricing if they are just doing one of the three but at Perth drafting we tend to package it so you can see the full cost upfront.

Perth drafting price guide by project type

What you are building	Rough guide (+ GST)
Front fence	around $950
Retaining wall	around $950
Patio, standard	around $950
Patio, custom	around $1,500
Custom pergola	around $1,550
Shed	$750 to $1,500
Carport or garage	$1,250 to $2,500
Garage converted to a habitable room	$1,500 to $3,500
Small renovation	$1,250 to $2,500
Large renovation	$3,500 to $6,990
Granny flat	from $2,500
Granny flat, complex site	around $3,500
Single storey home	around $4,990
Single storey, large	around $6,990
Double storey home	from $6,990
Mutil unit dwellings on one lot	around $14,000

What moves your price up or down

Where you land inside a range comes down to one thing more than any other, and it is not the size of the build. It is the quality of the paperwork that already exists.

If your council holds decent existing plans and you have a current site survey, we are drawing from facts and you are at the bottom of the range. If the council file is thin and you would rather not pay for a survey, we are making assumptions about your boundaries, your levels and where your sewer runs. Those assumptions have to be written on the drawings. Council reads them, does not accept them, and writes back asking.

That is where a job gets expensive. Not in the drafting fee, in the three weeks you just lost.

We would rather tell you to spend a few hundred dollars on a survey than watch you save it and lose a month.

The other price drivers, in rough order of impact: how tight the lot is, whether the proposal needs variations argued rather than simply complying, how many design rounds you want, and whether your council runs a development application process for your type of project.

What the drafting fee does not cover

This is the single biggest source of price shock in this industry, and we have yet to see a Perth drafting website spell it out properly. Our fee is for architectural drafting. Drawings, and the submission. That is it.

Depending on what you are building, some of the following will also be required. They come from separate consultants, we get quotes once your drawings are done, and we do not mark any of it up.

Third-party cost	Typical price estimate (+ GST)
Engineering, patio with standard steel	$500
Engineering, front fence or retaining wall	$250 to $350 per detail
Engineering, granny flat	$1000 to $1,800
Engineering, single storey home	$1,000 to $2000
Engineering, double storey home	$2,750
Certificate of design compliance	$500 to $1250
Energy efficiency report, single storey	$450
Energy efficiency report, double storey	$600
Soil assessment, class A	$450
Geotechnical report, clay sites	$700
Site survey	varies by location

Those ranges are wide because we use more than one engineer and their prices differ. Quoting engineering before anyone has drawn anything is guesswork, so we do it in the right order.

Plenty of clients go and get their own quotes for this, which is completely fine. Check ours first though. On a second-storey job in Kardinya, our contacts came in under every quote the client had gathered himself.

What Councils Assess When Your Plans Are Lodged

Understanding this changes how you read your own quote, so it is worth knowing before you engage anyone.

Every residential proposal in Western Australia gets measured against the Residential Design Codes, which set lot boundary setbacks, open space, visual privacy, overshadowing and building height, among others. Sitting on top of that is your local government’s own planning policy, which can be stricter and which varies council to council. Then the National Construction Code governs how the thing is actually built. There is a full explainer on the R-Codes if you want the detail.

Satisfying all three at once, while still delivering the building you actually wanted, is the job.

The two compliance pathways

The codes give you two ways through, and knowing which one your project is on tells you almost everything about how it will go.

Deemed-to-comply. You hit the stated numbers. Setback is 1.5m, you have drawn 1.5m, it goes through. Clean and fast.

Design principles. You do not hit a number, so instead you demonstrate that what you are proposing still achieves what the rule was written to achieve. This is where the argument happens, and it is where experience shows up.

Whether a variation is approved depends on the departure. If it is justifiable, if it is reasonable, and if there is precedent on the street for something similar, councils will generally approve it. If you are simply not complying and cannot show why it still works, they will refuse it. Reasonably so. A justification letter  is the document that carries this argument.

What “council came back with questions” actually means

People hear this and assume they have been knocked back. They have not.

A request for further information is routine. It is council telling you they need one more thing before they can finish assessing. On the jobs we lodge, it happens often enough that we budget for it. We answer it as part of the job at no extra cost to you, because it was always going to be part of the job.

A refusal is a different letter entirely, and it says so.

Ten variations, one site: a Craigie case study

On a three-unit development at Beltana Road in Craigie, we lodged variations against roughly ten separate code and City of Joondalup Housing Opportunity Area policy elements at once.

Primary garden area. Dwelling size, where one unit came in 1.06m² under the 95m² minimum. A bedroom at 2.4m where 3.0m was called for. Street setback of 1.5m to the alfresco eaves against a 3m standard. Manoeuvring space of 5.9m where policy wanted 6.0m, where we pointed out that AS2890.1 Figure 5.4 only requires 5.4m to the barrier.

All of it approved.

Not because we asked nicely. Because every one of them was lodged with a written justification explaining how the design still met the intent of the clause.

How Long Does a Draftsman Take to Draw Plans?

Allow about two weeks in the queue, one week to draw the concept set, then your revision rounds, then one week for the full working drawings. Council assessment sits on top of that and runs on council’s clock, not ours. Most residential jobs are lodged four to six weeks after you engage us.

The stage that varies most is not ours. It is yours.

1. Weeks 1 to 2. You are in the queue. Generally, We start drawing about two weeks after you engage us. Although, we may be able to fast track your project if needed.
2. Week 3. We draw. One week for the concept set.
3. Week 4 onward. Your revisions. This is the only stage where the timeline genuinely sits in your hands. Two clients with identical jobs can finish a fortnight apart purely on how quickly they come back to us.
4. Then. One week for the full working drawings.
5. After that. Council assessment. Timeframes vary by council and by application type.

Should You Hire a Draftsman or an Architect?

Hire an architect for large commercial work and multi-storey buildings. For residential work, a patio, a granny flat, an extension, a subdivision, a new house, hire a draftsman. Paying architect rates for residential documentation is money you will not get back.

We will say that plainly because it also works against us sometimes. If your project genuinely needs an architect, we will tell you when you call.

The line is not about ambition or budget. It is about what the building is and what registration it requires. A draftsman produces the technical documentation that gets a residential project approved and built. An architect is registered under the Architects Act, works at a different scale, carries different professional indemnity, and charges accordingly.

There is a third option in between. A building designer sits closer to the design side than a draftsman does, useful when you know roughly what you want but not how it should be arranged. We do that work too.

Full breakdown here: architect vs draftsman

Case Study: A Second Storey in Kardinya

Billy wanted to add a second storey to his home in Kardinya, in the City of Melville. In his words afterwards, he “quickly realised there was a lot more involved than we expected.”

What he had not expected was how strict the codes are once you go up.

Two problems appeared straight away. Overlooking, because the new upper floor windows would have looked directly into the neighbours. And overshadowing, because the added height throws shadow across the lot next door. Either one on its own is enough to stop a second storey.

We could have written justifications and argued for variations. Sometimes that is the right call. Here it was not, because both problems could be designed out instead: window positions moved, orientation reworked, the upper floor massed differently.

Solving it in the drawing is always cleaner than solving it in a letter, because a design solution cannot be knocked back on judgement.

He needed the full set of extras, engineering and energy report included. We ran them through our contacts and he came in under the quotes he had collected himself. Council came back asking for extra information, which is normal, we answered it, and the job was approved.

The part we are proudest of: he paid exactly what we quoted at the start.

What We Draw

• Patios, pergolas and decks, see patio drafting
• Sheds, garages and carports
• Front fences and retaining walls
• Extensions and second storeys, see extension plans
• Garage conversions, see turning a garage into a living room
• Granny flats and ancillary dwellings
• New homes, subdivisions and multi-unit developments
• Commercial fitouts and office work
• Overflow drafting for builders, see builders’ overflow service

Building it yourself? There is a separate page on how we work with owner builders. Not sure whether your project needs approval at all? Start with do I need council approval.

Education requirements to be a Draftsman

In Perth, Western Australia, the qualifications and skills required to become a draftsman include a combination of formal education, technical skills, and practical experience. Here is an overview of the typical qualifications needed:

• Certificate or Diploma in Drafting: Most aspiring draftsmen start their careers by completing a Certificate IV or a Diploma in Building Design Drafting or a related field like Perth Draftings owner Kyle Standing. These programs are offered by TAFE (Technical and Further Education) institutions and other vocational education providers. Courses typically cover subjects such as technical drawing, computer-aided design (CAD), building codes and standards, and construction materials and methods.
• Higher Education Degrees: While a certificate or diploma is often sufficient, some draftsmen choose to pursue higher education, such as an Associate Degree or a Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture, Engineering, or Building Design. These programs provide a more in-depth understanding of design principles, advanced CAD skills, and project management.

Draftsman : Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a draftsman cost in Perth?

Hourly rates around Perth run $60 to $100. We work on fixed prices quoted before we start, roughly $750 + GST for a patio or front fence through to around $5,990 for a single storey home. Treat the table above as a rough guide, because every project is different.

How much do draftsmen charge to draw plans for a new home?

For a new single storey home, expect around $5,990 + GST. Double storey starts around $6,990 and moves with the design work involved. Renovations run roughly $1,250 to $5,990 depending on scale.

How long does a draftsman take to draw plans?

About two weeks before we start, then a week to draw. Working drawings take another week once your revisions are settled. Council assessment is on top and varies by council and application type.

Do I need a site survey?

For a granny flat, yes, always. For everything else it depends on what your council already holds. If their existing plans are poor, a survey costs a few hundred dollars and saves you weeks of back and forth. We will tell you honestly which camp your job is in when we quote it.

Can plans be approved if my design does not meet the rules?

Often, yes. The codes allow a design-principles pathway where you justify a departure rather than meet the number outright. Whether it succeeds depends on the departure and whether there is a sound argument for it. It is a large part of what we do, though nobody can guarantee an approval.

Who can legally draw plans in WA?

There is no licence required to draw plans in Western Australia. What is regulated is the approval process: a registered building surveyor issues the certificate of design compliance, and your local government issues the permit. That means the person drawing your plans should be judged on whether their work gets through, not on a title.

Do you deal with the council for me?

Yes. We prepare the submission, lodge it, and handle the questions that come back.

What if council asks for more information?

Expect it. It is routine, not a rejection, and we answer it as part of the job.

How much does a draftsman cost in Australia?

 Draftsmen fees vary, ranging from $60-$100+ per hour based on the project’s complexity. We offer transparent pricing to ensure no hidden surprises.

Should I use an architect or draftsman?

 For smaller residential projects or renovations, a draftsman is often more cost-effective and suited to the task than an architect.

How much do draftsmen charge for house plans?

 The cost can range from approximately $1,600 for simple renovation plans to $9,500 for new complex builds, depending on the design’s complexity.

How long does it take a draftsman to draw plans?

 Simple plans can be completed in about two weeks, though more complex projects may take longer.