We get the question every few weeks. "Do we really need a design? Can't you just build it?" It's a fair question. The honest answer is that we can absolutely build without a design — and we sometimes do, on small jobs — but on anything larger than a single garden bed, the design pays for itself several times over.
This article explains what a real landscape design actually contains, what it costs, and what happens to a project when you skip it.
Design is not a drawing — it's a set of decisions
When people think of landscape design they picture a coloured plan from above. The plan is the artefact, but the value is in the decisions captured in it: where the levels sit, where the paving stops and the planting begins, which way the steps run, where the lighting cable buries, what the eye sees from the kitchen window in three years' time.
Every one of those decisions has to be made before a metre of pipe goes in the ground. If they're not made in advance, they get made on site — by whoever happens to be standing there with a shovel, under time pressure, without the full picture.
A garden built without a design is a garden that's been re-decided fifty times by fifty different people. You can see it.
What's actually in a Coasta Valley design package
Our standard design package is the document we build from. It contains everything our crew, the engineer, the certifier and the client need to be aligned before the build starts.
- Site analysis: soil, slope, light, drainage, neighbouring vegetation and sight lines.
- Concept plan: the overall arrangement of spaces, with mood and material direction.
- Construction drawings: levels, dimensions, materials, junctions, drainage falls.
- Plant palette and schedule: species, sizes, quantities, placement.
- Lighting and irrigation overlays: where cables and lines run before paving goes down.
- Council documentation where required.
What it costs — and what it saves
A residential design package for a typical Sunshine Coast garden sits somewhere between three and eight thousand dollars, depending on site size and complexity. That's a real number and we don't pretend it isn't.
But on a $150,000 build, that design fee typically prevents at least $20,000 in change orders, rework and material waste — and almost always shortens the build by one to three weeks because the team isn't waiting for decisions. The fee is, almost always, the cheapest part of the project.
What happens when you skip it
We've inherited plenty of jobs that started without a design and stalled. The pattern is consistent. Walls get built in slightly wrong positions, then have to come out. Planting gets in before irrigation, then gets dug up. Lighting is decided after the paving's down — so the cable runs in a trench across the new patio.
Each of those is a few hundred to a few thousand dollars of rework, plus a week of lost time. By the end of a no-design build, the cumulative waste is usually two to four times what the design would have cost.
When you don't need a full design
Not every job needs the full package. If you're replacing a fence, laying a small patio, or adding planting to an existing structured garden, a site visit and a written scope is enough. We're upfront about when design is overkill.
The threshold is usually around the $40,000 mark, or any project that involves levels changing, structures being built, or more than one trade. Below that, a clear scope of works and a good build crew gets you there.
- 01Design captures the decisions that have to be made before the build starts.
- 02A typical design package is 3–5% of the build cost and prevents 15–25% in rework.
- 03Skipping design doesn't save money — it shifts the cost to change orders and lost time.
- 04Small jobs don't need full design. Anything over ~$40k almost always does.
Frequently asked questions
Can we get a design from you and build with someone else?+
Yes. We deliver design-only packages and the documentation is detailed enough that any competent landscape contractor can price and build from it.
How long does the design process take?+
Most residential gardens take 4–8 weeks from first site visit to construction-ready documentation. Larger acreage projects can take 10–12 weeks.
Do design fees come off the build price?+
We don't bundle them, because that pushes the design to be a sales tool rather than a useful document. Designs are priced honestly on their own merit.
What if we change our minds during design?+
That's exactly what the design stage is for. Two rounds of revisions are included in every package, and we'd much rather you change your mind on paper than on site.
