Registered commercial builder for lift modernisation · Melbourne
Modernise your lift. Leave the building permit to us.
Counterweight Construction is a Victorian registered commercial builder. We arrange the building permit, coordinate the engineers, act as head contractor where required and deliver the building works around the lift, so lift contractors stay on the lift and owners get one accountable party for everything else.
Why modernisations stall
A lift upgrade in an existing building is building work. In most cases it needs a building permit, a relevant building surveyor and a registered builder named on the permit.
Lift contractors are not builders. Owners and managers rarely know where the permit process starts. The upgrade stalls before a spanner is lifted.
Around every lift sits work the lift contract does not cover: fire services, machine room, penetrations, lobbies. Someone has to own it.
What we arrange
All servicesBuilding permits
We prepare and manage the permit application, brief the relevant building surveyor and hold the builder's obligations through to completion.
Engineering and design coordination
Structural, fire, electrical and access consultants engaged, briefed and coordinated against the lift contractor's scope.
Head contractor
Registered, insured and on site. We carry the statutory builder role, safety and quality supervision where the project needs it.
Ancillary trades
Fire, electrical, builders, finishes. Procured, sequenced and supervised around the lift program.
Site set-up
Site establishment, inductions, access control and tenant protection in occupied buildings.
Ancillary works
The shaft, machine room, fire interface and lobby works that make the lift compliant and the building whole.
[Site photo: lift lobby, machine room or shaft · landscape, 3000 px wide · no client signage]
Who we work with
Lift contractors
Keep your crew on the lift. We organise the permit and the site.
Owners and owners corporations
One accountable builder for the whole upgrade, not five contractors and a surveyor.
Architects and project managers
A builder who already speaks RBS, regulation 233 and essential safety measures.
Current work
Two-tower Melbourne CBD lift modernisation
Multi-year staged program for a global lift OEM in occupied premium office towers. Building works on the permit, relevant building surveyor liaison, fire services interface and lobby make-good.
ProjectsTwo ways to engage
Lump sum. One fixed price, agreed before work starts, covers all of the building works. We engage and manage the trades, hold the permit and relevant building surveyor liaison, and supervise safety and quality from start to finish.
Cost plus fixed fee. Best where the scope is undefined. We estimate the cost of the works up front, engage and manage the trades, and the owner reimburses the actual costs of labour, materials and equipment plus an agreed fixed fee.
Lift design, installation and compliance remain with the lift contractor.
How we engageScoping a modernisation? Walk the building with us before anyone commits.
We scope and price with the incumbent lift contractor so the building works are right-sized from day one.