86 | BUILDING DStevens Challenging build ticks the boxes DStevens took out the region’s Registered Master Builders House of the Year Awards in the $450-600,000 category. Photo: Russell Kleyn T T Sue Russell Peter Stevens is Managing Director of DStevens, overseeing all activities in the company and leading the construction team. He’s worked in the building sector all his working life and has an experienced team, spanning joinery and general construction, while Fiona Houston-Stevens, who joined D Stevens in 2013, looks after the businesses interior design division. Offering the scope of services it does has placed the Gisborne-based company in a strong position, to ride through the vagrancies of the current COVID pandemic. “We are always busy but actually saw a lot more positivity than we expected. There are a lot of people who can’t spend their money on overseas trips, so have directed investment into upgrading their existing home, or building a new one.” DStevens service offering straddles residential, commercial, industrial, health and education portfolios and while business is booming, there are some challenges operating in the current building climate. “My three biggest hurdles are availability of staff and availability and cost of materials and I think this is an experience shared by many in the construction sector at this time.” Peter says to counter the cost-spiral phenomenon, when potential clients approach him to take on a project he makes it clear that he can’t hold to a set price. “They understand the climate we’re operating in and I haven’t had one client balk at this.” When not driving the truck, Peter can be liaising with clients, finding and pricing new work, liaising with architects and subcontractors. He’s the first to acknowledge that currently the company has a great team of apprentices at varying levels of experience. “We hand-pick them at interview. After years doing this you get a good feel for what a person’s potential and suitability is. It’s very important they fit into the existing team and culture.” Peter’s also strong on enabling his apprentices to gain an all-round building skill-set, ensuring that they experience all aspects of a complete build. “It’s the difference between being an assembler and a builder. We train our apprentices to become builders. In some companies all they are doing is standing up pre-built frames whereas we do all our own framing.” This year, DStevens took out line-honours in the region’s Registered Master Builders House of the Year Awards with a wonderful ‘small build’ aptly named “FAB ONE” by the architects and is the largest in a series of modular house designs. It is the first FAB house to be built in New Zealand. Designed by Bonnifait + Giesen the home captured Regional Gold, Regional Category Winner ($450-600,000), was named in the coveted Top 100 group, and also awarded the National Category Winner at the national awards. The home was prefabricated in two 45sqm parts at DStevens’ workshop, enabling its construction to proceed efficiently. One of the reasons for the decision to adopt prefabrication as the preferred building mode was the isolated location the home would eventually settle on. “We we’re concerned about building in high winds on an exposed site and could achieve great efficiency building the house in sections at our workshop. The size of the modules allowed for easy transportation to be cranes into position.” With expansive views extending over Tairāwhiti Gisborne and Tūranganui-a-Kiwa Poverty Bay, once the two sections arrived on site the builders proceeded to apply the ply-lined interior and cladding. “You know it’s not a large footprint, but having the double height living-dining area, a media space on the ground floor and the kitchen tucked away under the stairs, absolutely no space has been wasted.” The home carries a light environmental footprint, with sustainably sourced low-treated timbers, good use of glass louvres for ventilation. Expansive views from both double bedrooms and the bathroom are the icing on the cake. “It was a great build. The biggest challenge was getting it up on site in the middle of winter. “We winched the transport truck up the track inch by inch. Fortunately we got the crane on site before the site became too muddy.” With a track-record that extends back 66 years and counting Peter says maintaining the reputation of the company is a top priority. “A company’s reputation is only as good as its last build so we ensure our systems place quality of outcome above everything else.”
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