Most questions arrive by email and get answered in the order they land. If your note is about a live renovation, include the suburb, the approximate floor area and whether you already have measured drawings. That saves a round trip and lets me reply with something useful instead of a request for more detail.
Drawing reviews and studio visits are booked rather than dropped in on, because the drafting table is usually covered in someone else's project.
The main channel for briefs, drawing sets and material questions. Attachments up to a few sheets are fine.
info@travisronaldson.comPhone
Best for short calls about site access, joinery lead times or a drawing that needs a quick read. Weekdays, working hours.
+27124681994Studio
Visits by appointment. Bring plans if you have them; if not, bring photos and rough dimensions.
60106 Leon Estate Apt. 173
Daviesland, KZN 9212
Response time
A few definitions and standing conditions that come up often enough to be worth writing down. They apply to every project on this site unless a signed brief says otherwise.
Existing and proposed plans, at least one section through the critical junction, and an axonometric where joinery is involved. Styled photographs are documentation, not a drawing set, and they never replace a measured survey.
Marketing floor plans are indicative only. Every renovation starts from a site measurement taken on the day, including ceiling heights, door swing clearances and any slope in the floor. Discrepancies are flagged before design work begins.
A board shows intent: timber species, tile module, grout tone, paint finish. Actual boards are cut from the batch supplied. Timber and tile vary between lots, so a signed-off board fixes direction, not an exact colour match.
Where a property sits in a heritage overlay or under a body corporate, approval sits with the owner. Drawings are prepared to support the submission, but timelines for municipal or trustee review are outside the studio's control.
Two rounds of revision are part of the design stage. Once the brief is frozen and joinery goes to the workshop, changes are handled as variations and priced separately, because cutting lists and panel layouts are already committed.
Finished rooms are photographed after handover, with the owner's written consent. Trade clients and design studios can request a drawing review or a studio visit by email at info@travisronaldson.com.
Most of what people ask is about timing, drawing sets and how decisions get made once a site is measured. These are the answers I give most often.
A measured survey of the existing building, usually half a day on site, followed by existing plans and a short written brief. Nothing is drawn as a proposal until the survey is checked against the title diagram and any body corporate or heritage notes.
For a typical Observatory or Southern Suburbs house, allow six to ten weeks for survey, concept, council-ready drawings and a joinery package. Small commercial fit-outs in Woodstock move faster when the landlord's approval is already in hand.
Plan, section and axonometric at minimum, plus elevations for any joinery run and a material board with timber, tile and finish samples named. Styled photographs are not the deliverable; they come later, if at all.
Yes. The drawing set is written so a competent contractor can work from it directly. If you already have a joiner, I will detail to their preferred sheet sizes and fixings rather than impose a standard.
It usually does, most often at the roof junction or under a floor. I keep a revision slot in the programme for one round of site-driven changes, and those are issued as marked-up drawings rather than a fresh set.
Send a short note with the address, the scope and any existing plans you have. Reviews are done by email or in person at the studio. You can also read the drawing and material notes before we meet, or check what support looks like during construction.
The order below is the one I keep to on renovations, fit-outs and furniture work. Dates are typical, not fixed. A measured survey can take a week on a cottage in Observatory and three on a warehouse bay in Woodstock, and the drawing stages overlap whenever a client needs to move quickly on a lease or a builder's start date.
Week 1
We walk the space together, photograph what exists and talk through how you actually use it. I take rough dimensions, note the orientation, and ask about the things that usually decide a scheme: where the wet core sits, which walls are load-bearing, and what you are willing to live without during the build.
Weeks 2 to 3
I return with a laser measure and set out the existing plan, section and elevations. On older Southern Suburbs houses this is where the surprises appear: a dropped ceiling hiding a beam, a floor that runs out of level, a window that was moved years ago and never recorded. Everything gets drawn as found before anything is proposed.
Weeks 4 to 6
Two or three layouts, drawn at the same scale so they can be compared honestly. Each one comes with a short note on what it costs you in circulation, storage or light. This is the stage where a client usually changes their mind about the kitchen wall, and it is far cheaper to do it here than on site.
Weeks 7 to 9
Timber samples, tile modules and finishes laid out against the drawings. Joinery is drawn as a full elevation with the carcass, door thickness and handle position shown, because a carpenter needs the section, not a mood. Tile layouts are set to full modules so the cut edge lands where it will not be seen.
Weeks 10 to 12
The final pack goes out as plan, section and axonometric, with a schedule of finishes and a set of notes on sequencing. I stay reachable through the build for questions on site, and I visit at the points that matter: setting out, first fix, and the joinery install.
After handover
Once the dust settles I photograph the finished rooms and update the drawings to match what was built. Those as-built sheets go into the portfolio alongside the original brief and constraint, so the next client can see what was actually decided and why.