102 | Doing the hard yards CJ Build does a wide variety of projects including new build and renovations. CJS Build T T Kelly Deeks SP Building A new life in Kaikōura T T Hugh de Lacy BUILDING Canterbury’s CJS Build is quickly evolving into a sought-after main contractor having done the hard yards and delivered excellent results for project managers since being established in 2021. Owner Cameron Stachurski has been building in the residential and commercial sectors for the past 15 years, and launched CJS Build in Christchurch in early 2021, when the post-Covid construction boom was gaining momentum. He picked up a wide variety of projects including new builds, renovations, hard landscaping, and repairs and maintenance. A big repair and maintenance contract with Harcourts Commercial team led to a referral to Refresh Renovations, where CJS Build enjoys delivering life-changing home renovation projects to the high standards expected by this growing national franchise group. “I love the renovation side of our business,” Cameron says. “We’re just completing a big renovation/extension at the moment near Rangiora, and it’s so rewarding as we come to the finishing stages. It’s a real team effort between ourselves, our client, and our subcontractors, and the culmination of all that effort is the exceptional end results we’re able to achieve.” This 1990s’ home in Fernside had not been touched since it was built. It was recently purchased by Cameron’s clients, who wanted to update their new home and add some more space for their family. CJS Build has extended the home on both sides, adding a new kitchen and dining space on one side, and growing the master bedroom with a walk-in-wardrobe and ensuite on the other. The whole house has been reroofed and reinsulated, the main bathroom has been renovated, and CJS Build has added two kwila decks on the north side of the home, one extending from the living area and one from the master suite. With the clients living in the house during the project, CJS Build was conscious of their comfort and convenience being compromised, especially during winter. “They were in there through August and September with no ceilings and half the roof missing,” Cameron says. “We had to try to keep them happy and properly sheltered while the works were going on. Because we had gutted their kitchen, we set up a temporary kitchen in one of the bedrooms, while they lived in another.” This project was even more of a team effort with the clients asking CJS Build to forego the end-of-day clean-up schedule in favour of more building work. The destruction of his parents-in-law’s farmhouse north of the Clarence River in the 2016 earthquake drew Seth Piercey and his SP Building and Renovations Ltd away from Christchurch and up to Kaikōura to a lifestyle built around three high-end cliff-top cabins. Seth built the cabins, which are available for rent, on his and wife Penny’s Scarborough Street property – “It’s got the best views in Kaikoura,” he says, and they allow him to down tools over summer while he acts as caretaker to the cabins, with Penny running the rental operation. “I’ve been really lucky to build a business for my wife who was otherwise a stay-at-home mum with three kids. The tourist scene in Kaikōura has become really vibrant since the quakes, and we get a lot of demand for the cabins. Over the winter, I work for various building contractors on renovations around the place, but no longer do new builds on my own account – I’ve got over waking up at 2am worrying about progress on them.” Seth was relatively late getting into the building business: he was flitting round Australia for a few years surfing and doing odd jobs that included being a snowboard instructor, when in his mid-20s he noticed how good the pay was for carpenters there. That prompted him to come home to Christchurch in 2003 and take up a carpentry apprenticeship with high-end architectural home builder John Creighton Builders. Coming out of his time four years later, he switched from architectural new builds to maintenance building and handyman work. He became a foreman for another Christchurch building company before launching out on his own with SP Building and Renovations in 2012, concentrating initially on renovations, especially on rural properties. Within a year he was into new builds, with a typical one being a 160sqm home on piles drilled into the rocks on Clifton Hill above the Christchurch suburb of Sumner. Then the Kaikoura quake hit, wrecking Penny’s parents’ farmhouse and prompting the couple to quit Christchurch and move north to help out with the post-quake rebuild. It was challenging work, the hardest part being just getting to the mostly farm worksites over roads that had been severely mangled and were under reconstruction. At one stage, Seth had four people working for him but, with the in-laws’ homestead restored and the quake recovery work well advanced, he took a year off to design and build the three cabins that are now a significant income-earner alongside his winter contracting work. ELECTRICAL 027 247 8884 richard@rjpelectrical.co.nz Domestic • Commercial • Industrial KAIAPOI ALUMINIUM JOINERY LTD 1261 MAIN NORTH ROAD, KAINGA CHRISTCHURCH P.O. BOX 62 KAIAPOI 7644 TEL: 03 323 7808 | EMAIL: sales@KAJ.co.nz | www.KAJ.co.nz | Josh Chambers, Electrician 0210 885 5076 • jgchambers@outlook.com Chambers Electrical Chambers Electrical offers a comprehensive range of both domestic and commercial electrical services Proudly supporting SP Building Ltd. SERVICES INCLUDING: New Homes Alterations & Renovations Repairs & Maintenance Drains & Septic Tanks Sam 027 203 5272 / 03 319 5656 samdunfoy@yahoo.co.nz Kaikoura owned & operated
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