Outdoor & entertaining · Sydney
Terraces, pavilions, pools and outdoor kitchens — set out with the same drawings and built by the same crew as the inside. Outside is not landscaping. It is rooms. Every photograph on this page is a completed LetsBuild project.
What it actually is
An outdoor room carries everything an indoor one does — levels, structure, drainage, gas, power, light — and then has to survive Sydney sun, storms and pool water on top. The difference between a terrace that lasts and one that lifts is set-out and falls, decided before the first stone goes down.
Licence 297590c · HIA member 1220336 · licensed plumbing, gas & electrical trades · Sydney only
Our work · Glenorie
At our Glenorie build the outside is a set of rooms — a dining terrace off the kitchen, a courtyard the house wraps around, and the pool deck that joins them. Flagstone runs through the glass line so inside and outside read as one floor. These are photographs of finished LetsBuild work, not renders.
Glenorie · pool deck
What moves the cost
Outdoor budgets are set by what is under and over the space, not by the furniture. Levels, water and structure decide the number — the finishes mostly decide how it photographs.
Site cut, retaining and falls — a flat, dry terrace on a sloping block is engineering
A roofed pavilion is a small building — footings, frame, and usually an approval pathway
Its own approval, barrier certification and registration — a compliance regime, not a feature
Gas to the kitchen, power and light through the garden, drainage under all of it
Materials specified for sun, storms and pool water — the cheap version fades first
No dollar figures here by design — a range that ignores your levels is a guess. A walkthrough prices the actual yard.
How it runs
Ground works, structure, services, surfaces, then fit-off — the same disciplined sequence as inside, with the weather as an extra trade to manage. The outdoor projects that make it for summer are the ones priced before spring.
Questions
The same questions come up on every backyard. Short answers below — the conditions are specific to your lot, so confirm before you rely on them.
Sometimes not. Small, low, unroofed decks and modest pergolas can qualify as exempt development under the State Environmental Planning Policy (Exempt and Complying Development Codes) 2008 — the limits are specific about area, height above ground and lot size. Roofed structures, raised decks and anything structural beyond those limits run through complying development or a DA. We confirm the pathway for your yard before anything is priced.
A new pool is never exempt — it needs complying development or DA approval, a child-resistant barrier certified to AS 1926.1, registration on the NSW Swimming Pool Register, and a compliance certificate when the property is sold or leased. The barrier geometry — 1.2 metre minimum height, gap and climb-zone rules — is designed in from the start, not retrofitted after the landscaping.
Yes — through the same licensed gasfitter and electrician who work inside the house, with fittings rated for weather exposure. An outdoor kitchen is plumbed, powered and ventilated like an indoor one; the difference is that every connection also has to survive rain, sun and salt air.
Earlier than most people think. A terrace or pool started in spring is fighting for trades and weather windows with everyone else who had the same idea. The projects that are ready for summer are priced in winter and built through spring — approvals, where needed, sit in front of that.
Yes, and it usually should. Excavation, drainage and services for the yard are cheapest while the site is already open and the crew is already there. Outdoor work bolted on after handover pays for its own establishment twice.
That is planned, not hoped for. Machine access routes, tree protection and where the spoil goes are set before excavation starts, and reinstatement of lawn and beds is in the program — not left as a surprise on the final invoice.
Planning summary current at August 2026 · exempt development and pool barrier conditions are specific and vary by lot · confirm with your council or a registered certifier before relying on it
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