Decking & outdoor living
Merbau, spotted gum and blackbutt decks engineered for Melbourne's swing from 4°C mornings to 42°C afternoons. Hidden fixings, proper drainage falls, and bearers sized for the span — not for the quote.
I'm Hamish Tudhope — a qualified carpenter working with Melbourne homeowners on the jobs that actually change how a house feels. Straight answers, fixed quotes, and a site left clean every afternoon.
Most of my work sits in the gap between "too small for a builder" and "too big for a handyman" — which is exactly where Melbourne homeowners get stuck. Here's what I take on.
Merbau, spotted gum and blackbutt decks engineered for Melbourne's swing from 4°C mornings to 42°C afternoons. Hidden fixings, proper drainage falls, and bearers sized for the span — not for the quote.
Opening up a dark kitchen wall, converting a sleep-out, lining a garage into a studio. Full carpentry scope — framing, linings, architraves, skirtings — with the trades I've worked beside for a decade.
Rotten bearers, sagging floors, doors that haven't shut since 2019, weatherboards eaten out under a leaking gutter. I diagnose the cause before I replace the timber, so you're not paying for the same fix twice.
Wardrobes, window seats, alcove shelving and mudroom benches built on site to suit walls that are never actually square. Painted MDF or solid timber, hand-fitted to a 2mm scribe.
Hanging solid doors, replacing rattling sash windows, patching hardwood floors so the join disappears. The detail work that makes an old Melbourne home feel looked after rather than lived-in.
Paling and slat fences that stay plumb, gates that still swing true after a summer, and carport framing that passes inspection first go. Boundary jobs handled with the neighbours in mind.
Real scopes, real timelines, real budgets — so you can see what your job might look like before you call.
A sloping backyard that had never been usable. We stepped the deck across three levels to follow the fall, hid every fixing, and wrapped the sub-structure in a slatted skirt so the steel stumps disappear. Built-in bench seating doubles as storage for cushions and the kids' cricket gear.
Load-bearing wall removed, 3.6m LVL beam installed to an engineer's spec, ceiling patched and cornice matched to the 1920s original. The room went from two dark boxes to one bright open plan.
Twenty years of a leaking downpipe had eaten three bearers and nine joists. Fixed the drainage first, then replaced the timber in treated pine and re-laid the original baltic pine boards.
I finished my apprenticeship in 2007 with a Doncaster building firm, spent eleven years running residential sites across Melbourne's east, and went out on my own in 2018 because I was tired of homeowners being the last person told anything.
These days it's me on your job — not a rotating crew of subbies. That means I can only take a handful of projects at a time, but it also means the person who quotes your deck is the person who cuts the first board, answers your text on a Tuesday night, and comes back in twelve months if something moves.
I work mostly on homes built between 1900 and 1980, which in Melbourne means nothing is square, nothing is standard, and everything takes a bit of thinking. That suits me fine.
The part most homeowners dread is not knowing what happens next. Here's exactly how a job runs from your first message to the final sweep-up.
Tell me what you're thinking. I'll tell you straight away if it's something I do, roughly what it costs, and when I could start. Usually within a day.
I come out, measure, crawl under the house if I need to, and talk through the options — including the cheaper one if it's the right call.
Itemised by stage, within three business days. It includes materials, rubbish removal, and any trades I coordinate. What you sign is what you pay.
Agreed start date, photos as we go, site cleaned every afternoon. At the end you get your warranty in writing and a walkthrough before I invoice.
"We'd had three quotes for the deck and Hamish was the only one who got under the house before pricing it. He found the old stumps were shot — something the others would have built straight over. Finished on the day he said, and it's the best room in our house now."
"Our hallway floor had been sagging for years and nobody would touch it. Hamish worked out it was a drainage problem, sorted that first, then rebuilt the subfloor. Six days, exactly the quoted price, and he swept up better than we do."
"Turning the garage into a studio meant a sparky, a plasterer and a painter, and I was dreading managing it. Hamish ran the lot. I got one invoice, one point of contact, and a room I've worked in every day since."
I keep the travel radius tight — roughly 25km from Camberwell — so I can get back to a job quickly if something needs attention. Outside that? Still worth asking for larger projects.
Something not covered here? Text me on 0412 338 907 — I'd rather answer it than have you guess.
As a rough guide, a straightforward ground-level treated pine deck runs $350–$500 per m², and hardwood like merbau or spotted gum sits between $550 and $800 per m². Height off the ground, council requirements, and whether stumps need replacing move that number more than the timber choice does. My quotes break it out line by line so you can see where the money actually goes.
Most decks under 800mm high and under 20m² don't need a building permit in Victoria, and neither do internal fit-outs that aren't structural. Removing a load-bearing wall, building a carport, or anything over that deck height generally does. I'll tell you which side of the line your job falls on at the site visit, and I can organise the engineering and permit paperwork if it's needed.
Usually three to six weeks for larger projects like decks and conversions. Repairs and small jobs I try to slot in sooner — often within a fortnight. If something's urgent, like water getting into the structure, say so when you call and I'll come look at it that week.
Yes. On bigger jobs I bring in a second carpenter I've worked with for nine years, plus the electrician, plumber and plasterer I trust. But I'm on site every day your job is running, and I'm the one you call.
Depends on the day. A single sticking door on its own usually isn't worth a call-out for either of us, but if you've got a list — a door, some skirting, a gate that's dropped, a few rotten boards — I'll do the lot in a day and charge accordingly. Minimum on-site charge is a half day.
No deposit on jobs under $3,000 — you pay when it's done. Above that, it's a 10% deposit to lock in materials and the start date, progress payments at agreed stages, and the balance after your walkthrough. Everything's invoiced with an ABN and GST, and I'm happy to work to a contract for larger projects.
Seven years on structural workmanship — framing, decks, subfloors — which is beyond the six required by Victorian domestic building law. Two years on finishing and hardware. Timber is a natural material, so some movement and weathering is normal; if something's moved further than it should, I come back and sort it out.
Free on-site visit, fixed written quote within three business days, and an honest answer about whether it's worth doing at all.
The more detail you give me — photos especially — the more useful my first reply will be. I answer every enquiry, usually same day.