Advocate aims to lessen building stress

BUILDING a home or a commercial space can be a challenging process for a property owner.

But one local construction professional is using his 30-plus years of experience in the industry with the aim of making the experience smoother and less stressful for people across the city as it grows.

Troy Channells, a civil engineer and licenced residential builder, is the director of Ballarat’s Pavilion Management and Consulting, now working for clients as an owners’ advocate, from the property acquisition through to construction.

“I’m there to help people navigate their build, and to minimise things going wrong in the building process,” he said.

“I can provide a full management process of their project, from land acquisition, through to land feasibility studies, to helping with design management and the authorities involved, construction and supervising that process.”

He said everyone who starts a project is always hopeful that it will go to plan, and the process is usually relatively smooth, but unfortunately, that’s not always the case.

“Building can be very stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. I aim to take the stress out of it, by offering my 30 years of experience and knowledge, which means I can potentially see something going off the rails well before it occurs, solve the problem, and move on.

“It’s possible to save money and time. I don’t want people missing out on the support, and the peace of mind that’s available.”

Mr Channells said owners’ advocacy is more important than ever before, not only locally with booming suburbs to the west, but across the country, following the pandemic’s impacts on the industry.

“There’s a lot of stress with labour and securing the correct personnel, alongside getting materials, due to shortages coming in from overseas.

“It’s become even more important to have someone with you that understands the process of construction, to supervise and engage with everyone to streamline it as much as possible,” he said.

Common defects that occur in construction involve water leakage, internally in wet areas like bathrooms, or externally, with rain seeping in.

“The longer it takes to find an issue where a detail has been missed, the more it costs to rectify it,” he said.

Mr Channells has worked on large residential, commercial, industrial, health, correctional and infrastructure projects in metropolitan and regional Victoria, as a developer, project manager for both clients and builders, and a design manager.