| 113 T T Virginia Wright Hawera builder gets the balance right Bourke Building has completed many top-quality projects troughout the Hawera district. Bourke Building BUILDING Hawera-based builder Chris Bourke (37 yrs) went out on his own eight years ago when he established Bourke Building Ltd with his wife Sarah. He had started a building apprenticeship aged 19 in New Plymouth but finished it in Hawera with Robert Cochrane, the builder he worked for until he set up his own business. Over several years, they did a wide variety of work, starting with building the local MacDonald’s and including several new builds along with renovations of varying complexity. “It’s pretty broad in Hawera,” says Chris. “We do roofing, concreting, whatever’s needed. We’re a jack of all trades here compared to New Plymouth and the big cities. We’re still building our own frames, and still build a house from start to finish.” Chris always intended to go out on his own, an impulse that he puts down to his dairy farming, entrepreneurial parents and a wish to keep extending himself and find new challenges. “Working for someone protects you a lot because he’s dealing with the clients and taking all the risk financially, so I was ready for the next step. It was terrifying for a start, but then it levelled out, and there was only me to keep busy to begin with,” he says. Taking on staff as the work increased was a new ball game again with the awareness of being responsible for someone else’s income, a responsibility that only grew as more people were taken on. Currently, they are a team of Chris plus four, including two apprentices, while Sarah does the admin, pays the bills and generally runs the office. “We didn’t realise how big we were going to get, and it’s always that balancing act between not enough work and having the guys to do the work when we’ve got it. At the moment we’ve got the balance right with work through to Christmas and another big job close to being confirmed.” The depth of experience Bourke Building Ltd offers, and the good relationships Chris and the team establish with clients, means clients come back when they have more work - the true test of a job well done. Chris particularly enjoys jobs that involve design work, such as the detailed timber screen they are building for Anna Dunlop of Dunlop Insurance: the more intricate and challenging the work the better from Chris’s point of view. He likes bringing a plan to life and one of the builds he most enjoyed was building his parents’ house complete with its mix of claddings and finishes, interior and exterior curves, and staircases both inside and on the outside of the three-storey, architectural build. “That was really exciting, I’d love another challenge like that,” says Chris. He’s working on his architectural papers, and once he has finished the degree he will become a design-and-build one-stop-shop so he can create his own challenging builds alongside his regular work. “I can start designing some really fun stuff, either for clients or for a spec build so that people can see it rather than having to imagine it,” he explains. In the meantime he and his regular subbies make a good team, all of them aware of whoever’s coming behind them, with a work-flow based around good communication. It works for everyone, including their clients, regardless of the size, scale or complexity of the job. PH. 06 278 4449 admin@evergreenplumbing.co.nz PlaceMakers® haweraorders@placemakers.co.nz • RESIDENTIAL / COMMERCIAL WINDOWS AND DOORS • INSERTS AND RETROFITTING Proud to support Bourke Building We measure, manufacture and install aluminium joinery Taranaki wide. • BALUSTRADES • MAINTENANCE Matt Smith Ph. 021 0234 5482 | windowsmiths.co.nz Turning your dream home into your reality home. cambiearchitectural.co.nz | hello@cambiearchitectural.co.nz
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