78 | Supply, staff issues a real challenge Virginia Wright “It’s definitely been a crazy couple of years with Covid and as a result indirectly or directly we get price, material and supply issues and even staffing’s a big one.” to page 80 Tasman - Cunningham Construction 2021 BUILDING When Eddie and Laurie Durbridge-Hunt came back to Nelson in 2010 after living in Auckland for a few years Eddie joined the family’s business, Cunningham Construction. From giving his father-in-law John a hand on whatever project he was working on he went on to do his apprenticeship and now, 12 years later, he’s Operations Manager, and John’s right-hand man. Eddie’s role involves overseeing all the builds and making sure things are going smoothly, dealing with both staff and clients, and making sure the materials are there when they need them. “It’s definitely been a crazy couple of years with Covid and as a result indirectly or directly we get price, material and supply issues and even staffing’s a big one.” Cedar cladding offers a good example. In the past it had to be ordered more-or-less as it was needed whereas currently they ordered last year what they hope will arrive in July. They have to plan all their builds with this sort of supply chain delay in mind which makes drawing up a reliable timeline decidedly tricky, but good relationships with all their suppliers and the communication that comes with that certainly helps. With Nelson and Richmond booming over the last couple of years Cunningham Construction’s workload has risen accordingly. They’re currently involved in two new developments, one in Oxford Street and one on Arbor-Lea Avenue, with six houses on the go at once as the work progresses in phases. Two of the seven town houses in Oxford Street are well underway. They’ll be finished over the coming year as all the roading and infrastructure is developed then once the titles for all seven houses are through the remaining five will be built in two blocks. “They’re all 180sqm upwards, standalone townhouses,” says Eddie. “They’re up market, high-spec, so they’ll be really nice to live in and look really nice from the road frontages as well. “The foreman on site is Daniel Martin and he’s one of my best mates from college and it’s his father-in-law, Chris Satherley, that’s doing the development, so it’s cool to be involved with something close to home like that.” There are still two houses to be removed from the site, one of which Eddie hopes may be relocated and the other to have as many of its materials taken for recycling as possible. Jack Sawyer, the 2021 runner up apprentice of the year in the Nelson region is the foreman on the Arbor-Lea development. This is another six high spec, upmarket homes being built in three lots of two duplex townhouses. Owners are already living in two of them with the others far enough advanced to have the cladding going on. Cunningham Construction has enough work in the pipeline to see their team of nine builders well into next year. “We’ve got a fantastic team and it’s a great size,” says Eddie. “Not so big we lose the personal touch but with a huge range of skills including a joiner, Tim, who builds everything from wooden doors and windows, double glazing existing window or door joinery, custom made internal doors to match older villas, kitchen renovations, new kitchens and wooden bench tops are all part of his skill set.” PROFESSIONAL QUALITY BUILDING SOLUTIONS www.contour.nz | sales@contour.nz Nelson: Phone (03) 538 0824. Find us at 41 Venice Place, Nelson Blenheim: Phone (03) 577 7720. Find us at 35 Kinross Street, Blenheim Roofing · Windows · Steel frames
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