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We finish the yards on Lara West’s new homes, repair and repaint the houses from Lara’s 1980s to 2000s boom, and build the sheds, gates and verandahs the rural living blocks need. Lara has three housing markets side by side, and each calls a carpenter for something different.
Lara has been growing for 40 years, and it is not finished. That leaves new estates, middle-aged homes and acreage all within a few kilometres.
The Lara West growth area was approved in 2014 and is planned for about 11,000 people over 20-plus years. Lara Lakes released Stage 10 in July 2025, with lots of 441 to 768 square metres on narrow 14 and 16 metre frontages, and Coridale on Brisbane Street is now one of the town’s most established estates. Narrow lots mean compact pergolas and decks, side gates that get used daily, and built-in storage the house never came with.
Between 1985 and 2006 Lara grew from about 5,186 to 10,525 people. Those homes are now 20 to 40 years old. In our records, painting came up in 15 of our 27 Lara jobs and doors in 10, so painting and plaster done alongside the carpentry is the most common thing Lara calls us for.
Around the town there is about 1,590 hectares of rural living zone. Those blocks need sheds, long fence lines, gates and verandahs. Hovells Creek runs through Lara and has a history of flooding, so some lots carry flood overlays that set floor levels, and parts of Lara carry a bushfire overlay. Lara lost 17 people in the 1969 grass fire, and building to the rating matters here.
Running a business in the Lara industrial area or near the town centre? The commercial side of our work is on the commercial carpentry page for Lara.
Ordered by the work we have done in Lara, then what the new estates and rural blocks need.
Painting and plaster repairs with the carpentry, our most common Lara job.
Doors that have moved on 20 to 40 year old homes.
Shade on narrow Lara West lots.
Compact decks for new estate homes.
Side gates and rural driveway gates.
Verandahs on rural living homes.
Boundary fences and long rural runs.
A call or a message. Tell us whether it is an estate lot or a rural block.
On a rural block we check access and any flood or bushfire overlay before pricing.
Itemised and free, with painting and carpentry on one quote rather than three.
The same crew from first visit to final clean-up, and a check once it has settled in.
Michael worked with our budget and we were so impressed by their diligence and workmanship. They did not cut corners but went the extra mile. So impressed we engaged them again at another property.
Prompt, great communication and a terrific job. Have used JF Maintenance for lots of work over the years and would recommend.
Beyond our expectations, and it was great to work with people who could turn our ideas into something better than we imagined. Couldn’t recommend them highly enough.
Lara’s name comes from the Wadawurrung word for stone. The area was known as Kennedy’s Creek and then Duck Ponds when the railway arrived in 1857, and the township was proclaimed on 21 August 1874. In January 1969 a grass fire swept through and killed 17 people.
The town grew fast from the mid-1980s and has kept growing. The 2021 census counted 19,014 residents, nearly nine in ten in separate houses. New estates, middle-aged homes and rural blocks side by side is why the work here is so varied.
Corio • North Shore • Geelong
Lara borders Corio, Lovely Banks, Anakie, Little River and Avalon.
Estate lot or rural block, tell us what you have in mind and we will come back with a free estimate.