124 | A winning home with environmental benefits T T Hugh de Lacy BUILDING Top Shelf Builders As if scoring gold in the Builders’ Own Home category of the Waikato Master Builders annual House of the Year wards wasn’t enough, first-time entrant Top Shelf Builders of Te Awamutu finished the night with environmental and smart home awards to go with it. The Waikato awards were held in early August, and left Top Shelf Builders owner and founder Mark Foster grinning from ear to ear. His own home at Ohaupo, which won awards for environmental excellence and smart-home innovation, was a signature project in both categories because it began with a big old macrocarpa tree right in his back yard. Mark hired arborists to cut it down and mill it, and it provided the cladding inside and out for his new home. The environmental efficiency of the project – no diesel burned carting timber to the site – grabbed the judges’ attention, as did the near-off-grid solar power. “It’s not quite off-grid but we’ve got a solar-powered heat pump and hot water cylinder, resulting in minimal power bills,” Mark says. Mark has a team of three other builders besides himself, plus a project manager, and Top Shelf Builders has graduated through the ranks from the renovations and additions that are the mainstay of most start-up residential building companies to today being able to specialise in one-off up-market homes. The company is currently building a 550sqm lifestyle property at Tamahere, just outside Hamilton, and by early August had it ready for the roof to go on. Mark got into the building industry virtually straight out of school, with a carpentry apprenticeship with Hamilton company J Alexander Homes, coming out of his time in 2014. Rather than heading off on the typical post-apprenticeship OE, Mark instead prepared himself for company ownership by working as a builder for another company. Great Northern Construction Ahead of the game... Great Northern Construction has been kept busy with renovation work. T T Hugh de Lacy Borrowing the name of his late grandfather’s building supply company, Klay McConchie and his Great Northern Construction company, based at Kaukapakapa west of Auckland, have defied the prevailing gloom in the industry, and are “flat out and looking to stay that way,” he says. “The new-home building market is pretty strained at the moment, but we’ve been up to our ears in alterations and additions, decking and retaining walls, and we’re now moving into earth-moving,” says Klay. “A couple of years ago we bought a 1.5t Kubota digger, and that’s opened up a whole lot of work for us, from drilling to earth-moving and drainage, and that’s the direction that the market’s taking us in. “It’s some time since we’ve done a newhome build, but we’ve tapped into a bottomless pit of work doing renovations, decks, fencing and even pole sheds. I far prefer this sort of work with its variety, to standard building jobs. “For example, last year we completed a pole shed on a 600-acre farm at Matakana, and that was pretty cool: we drove over farm tracks to get to the site, away from everyone with no traffic noise – that sort of work is hard to beat. “We were in the middle of nowhere, and it took a lot of organisation to get the plant and materials on-site, including generators, but part of the joy of this sort of work is in being in different places all the time.” Besides the digger, Great Northern Construction operates a three-tonne tipper truck for materials delivery and spoils removal, and tracked wheelbarrows for efficient access in challenging terrain. “By owning our own gear we’re able to reduce, if not eliminate delays, manage costs and keep the project moving from the breaking of ground to completion.” Great Northern Construction has a staff of three, including Klay, who resurrected the name of his grandfather Bill McConchie’s Auckland building supply firm when he formed the company virtually as soon as he completed his apprenticeship in 2021. Klay had gone straight into the building industry out of high school, doing his apprenticeship under a couple of local builders. With the 1.5t digger to work narrow and confined sites, and a five-tonner for driveways, side cuts and bulk earthworks, Klay can see a way ahead to acquiring more such plant as the budget permits. “We’ve built the business out of word-of-mouth recommendations, supported by cold-calling if necessary to get our name out there,” he says. “I’m a bit of a home-body really,” he says. He was with them for just a year before launching Top Shelf Builders with one employee, and they quickly found ample business doing labour-only contracting. “But then word got around that we did a good job, and by 2020 we were building homes on our own account, and for the past three years we’ve been building up-market ones,” Mark says. “From here we’re expanding our services into design as well as building. I’ve got a slightly unusual set-up in the business in that, though I’m the owner, I hate being in the office, and I employ a project manager so I can stay out on the tools. “That ensures I’m involved in every stage of the actual construction process, and that’s hugely reassuring to the client. “The building process doesn’t need to be stressful for the client. In fact, I firmly believe it can actually be enjoyable if the builder is constantly accessible, and is quickly able to answer any questions and foresee and prevent any glitches,” Mark says.. “Our commitment to high-quality workmanship and clear communication translates into a trouble-free building experience, from concepts and design to door handles and decks,” he says. “The building process doesn’t need to be stressful for the client. In fact, I firmly believe it can actually be enjoyable if the builder is constantly accessible, and is quickly able to answer any questions and foresee and prevent any glitches.” TEAMWORK SCAFFOLDING Proud to support Great Northern Construction Your Local Plumbing & Drainage Experts Proudly supporting Great Northern Construction 021 237 0012 ı WWW.EDACONSULTING.CO.NZ ENGINEERING SUPPORT FOR RESIDENTIAL & COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS PROUDLY SUPPORTING TOP SHELF BUILDERS.
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