A licence for the work, set by the state
Each of the three states below writes its own rule for floor work, and each writes it differently.
One licenses the class of work, one counts the money, and one registers the practitioner. The three rules are collected here so they can be read side by side.
The comparison at the end holds only what those pages say, because no single regulator's page sets out another state's threshold.
Queensland: floor finishing and covering, a licence class of its own
Queensland licenses the work by class, and hard-sector floor finishing and covering has its own. The Queensland Building and Construction Commission's page for the class lists the jobs it covers.
- Prepare, sand and apply coatings to timber floors.
- Install and repair mosaic and block parquetry flooring, including prepare, sand and apply coating systems.
- Install pre-finished manufactured and engineered timber flooring.
- Install and repair non-structural strip timber flooring, including repair, sand and apply coating systems.
- Install and repair cork flooring, including prepare, sand and apply coating systems.
- Prepare, apply and finish epoxy and seamless floor coverings.
The class does not carry the whole of a renovation with it. A licensee who intends to undertake work outside the class's scope, beyond incidental work, may need to hold additional licences.
Holding the licence is a demonstration, not a fee: the Commission's page says an applicant must show the technical skills for the scope of work the class covers.
There is a financial test as well, on the same page: applicants must demonstrate that they meet the relevant minimum financial requirements, by providing a report or a declaration with the application.
Where the holder is a company, a nominee carries the technical side. The Commission's page says the nominee must be an individual licensee with qualifications and experience in the same scope of work the company is contracting for.
The nominee must also be an employee, secretary or director of the company, and is responsible for keeping the site safe, supervising the work, and ensuring it meets the required codes and standards.
A licence from interstate is not simply carried in: the Commission may only issue a licence equivalent to the one already held, and must impose any condition the interstate licence carries.
The interstate licence also has to stay active to qualify, and the Commission asks that it be renewed on time, with any outstanding fines paid.
New South Wales: a contractor licence past $5,000
NSW writes its threshold in money, and its page for wall and floor tiling work states it plainly.
You must have a contractor licence to carry out, advertise or contract for building or trade work valued at more than $5,000 in labour and materials, including GST.
Floor tiling sits inside that as trade work: the same page says wall and floor tiling work is trade work, and that a licence or certificate is required to do it.
It draws the category by definition. Wall and floor tiling means attaching tiles to the internal or external surfaces of buildings, for function or decoration.
A tile, on the same page, is a thin plate of a regular or irregular shape, made from fired clay, moulded concrete, ceramics or natural material, or a similar material.
The definition stretches further than fired clay: the page's own list of work and materials can include tiles made from cork, linoleum, rubber or thermoplastics.
The State's own pointer to the full list is schedule 4 of the Home Building Regulation 2014. Its page for waterproofing work carries the same $5,000 line.
The work is not left to the licence alone. The state's own penalty line: doing unlicensed work can draw a fine of $22,000 as an individual or $110,000 as a company under the Home Building Act 1989.
The page also notes that an apprentice or trainee cannot be issued with a licence or certificate at all, and that a licence or certificate runs for one, three or five years.
Victoria: registered with the commission, and when
Victoria registers the practitioner rather than the class. Consumer Affairs Victoria's page for building practitioners says that, under Victorian law, the people a household calls building contractors are all building practitioners.
The page gives their threshold: building practitioners must be registered with the Building and Plumbing Commission to carry out work worth more than $10,000, except for work involving only one of the trades the page lists.
On Consumer Affairs Victoria's page the exemption covers work involving only one listed trade: installing floor coverings, or tiling (wall and floor).
The threshold is not the only trigger: the same page says a person must be registered if they are using a combination of skills, such as plastering and painting, to complete a job, or going to do work that requires a building permit.
Its examples of work that requires a building permit are structural ones: to reblock, restump, demolish or remove a home, regardless of the value of this work.
Money over $10,000 brings paper with it, on the same page: a major domestic building contract is required for all work worth more than $10,000, including renovations, extensions and repairs.
The page's advice to a householder is to check the registration when that contract is signed, and confirm that the builder is allowed to do the work in the contract.
Both checks are public. The Building and Plumbing Commission keeps a Practitioner Search for checking whether a builder is registered.
The Commission also keeps a Disciplinary Register, and says information on it may help when deciding whether to engage a builder.
The three thresholds side by side
The comparison no single regulator gives: one table, three states, and the line each one draws. Where a state is not in this table, no claim for it is held here.
| State | What brings the licence in | In the state's own words |
|---|---|---|
| Queensland | The licence class for the work: floor finishing and covering (hard sector), covering timber, parquetry, cork, epoxy and seamless floors. | The QBCC's scope of work: Prepare, sand and apply coatings to timber floors. |
| New South Wales | Building or trade work valued at more than $5,000 in labour and materials, including GST. | The NSW page: You must have a contractor licence to carry out, advertise or contract for building or trade work that is valued at more than $5,000 in labour and materials (including GST). |
| Victoria | Work worth more than $10,000, except work involving only one listed trade, such as installing floor coverings or tiling (wall and floor); work using a combination of skills, such as plastering and painting; and any work that requires a building permit, regardless of value. | Consumer Affairs Victoria: building practitioners must be registered with the BPC for work worth more than $10,000, except work involving only one listed trade. |
Each figure in the table is the state's own, and each is stated by the page linked with this one.
What to check before the floor is laid
The money matters on both sides of the contract.
NSW's page attaches the licence at $5,000, Consumer Affairs Victoria's page puts registration with the Building and Plumbing Commission at $10,000, with work involving only one listed trade exempt, and also on work that combines skills or needs a building permit; and the QBCC's class has to match the floor being laid.
Each state's check is its own. Queensland's licence class decides which floors a licensee may contract for, and NSW's contractor licence decides whether the work may be contracted at all.
Victoria's register is the one to read before a major domestic building contract is signed.
The floors have guides on this plan: the waterproofing that comes first on a bathroom floor, the permission a hard floor in an apartment needs, and what may be underneath an old vinyl floor.