80 | T T Sue Russell Barrow Builders reno work increases Robert’s keen on ensuring that those coming into the building trade receive the best possible training and encouragement. Based where he is in Hawkes Bay, the geography he and the team extend from Waipukarau in the South to Wairoa north. Robert Barrow has been a builder 25 years and for the past three of these, has been operating his own residential building business, an achievement he is very proud of. Based in Napier, Robert leads a small team of four other builders, to of whom are qualified and two apprentices. It’s a good number he says, to cope with the steady flow of work crossing his desk. “We do a mix of work but at the moment a lot of renovations as new builds had dropped away a little given the recent tight economic situation. Having said this though, there’s a sense that the market is more bouyant now than it was which is encouraging.” Working primarily in the renovation/ alteration space at the moment, Robert says it is very important to stress to clients that a price is an estimate, given the uncertainties of what a project can evolve into. “If you communicate clearly about this, people understand that you can’t give a precise quote and as long as you continue to communicate as the build progresses it works well. I think this is the most important aspect to working successfully in the renovation build space.” These days Robert is still actively engaged on the tools, though he understands that leading a business requires some dedicated time working to find and price new work and engage with new clients. Based where he is in Hawkes Bay, the geography he and the team extend from Waipukarau in the South to Wairoa north. Over the years Robert has accrued a solid team of specialist sub-contractors, some of whom work almost constantly in Barrow Builders projects. Robert’s keen on ensuring that those coming into the building trade receive the best possible training and encouragement and while the apprentices are overseen by someone from BCITO, it comes down to Robert actually doing the teaching and ensuring the quality standards the company’s reputation has been built on, are transferred in the teaching to those entering the sector. “I make sure I talk to all my team one to one regularly and every three months we have a breakfast meeting where we can talk freely to and fro about how the work is going. It’s a good way for the team to contribute to how we work and it gives me a good sense of how they all are.” Asked about recent projects Robert says a large old villa restoration was a really engaging, often challenging build. “It’s just north of Napier. It was a full renovation of a historical home and it taught the young guys the old traditional building techniques, such as decorative trimming work around decks, trellising. BUILDING Barrow Builders A significant 75% of the original floor-plan was changed in the build.” As it turned out the job became significantly more than originally envisaged. It was moved on to its current site about 20 years ago in parts and hadn’t been connected back correctly. “We had a lot of work to get it back to how it should have been rejoined.” Other work currently includes a very large poll shed and Robert says they are about to start work on an alteration of an old home in Hastings. Robert admits his ‘old school’ approach to how building should happen fits well with the type of projects he and the team get involved in. “I think we’re in a good position to grow in time, depending on how the country bounces back but also right now I’m quite happy with how the business is performing.” PLUMBING | GAS | DRAINLAYING PLUMBING·GAS·DRAINLAYING LIMITED jordysplumbing.co.nz NEXT Generation technology. m 022 105 5960 k sales@nextwindowshb.co.nz
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