88 | BUILDING Ajax Building Contractors T T Russell Fredric Strong demand for commercial builds Farm sheds are just one of the build services provided by Gore firm Ajaz Building Contractors. Strong demand, especially from the commercial building sector, is creating a busy workload for Gore firm Ajax Building Contractors, in addition to benefiting the local economy. Co-director Tom Hewitson says the company has a diverse range of projects at various stages, either in the planning or design phase, in progress or near completion. “At the start of last year, we completed three houses and then began construction on two large commercial projects.” One of these commercial projects was a 1540 square metre workshop and office building for machinery sales and service business AdvanceQuip. “We started that project in July last year, after ordering materials for it in March/April to try and beat the price increases that we were experiencing.” Ajax initially became involved in the project through early contractor involvement in collaboration with XL Structural Steel to provide input into the design and to assess ways of achieving the most cost effective construction. “XL have a design team that provided valuable input into the architectural design right through to consent. We have worked with them on a number of jobs, they were looking for a local builder that had the capacity, the resources to team up with them.” XL Structural Steel provided the main structure, a clear span steel portal design, with Ajax building undertaking the internal fitout, including all excavation and concrete floors. “We started the excavation of the site in April last year to try and beat the wet weather. We had to lift the whole site approximately 900 millimetres due to the risk of flooding from a nearby creek.” This required 4300 cubic metres of fill which took about eight weeks to place. The 1540 square metre, two storey high building comprises a 1142 square metre workshop with a full-span gantry crane, a 398 square metre second storey office and an adjoining covered concrete wash bay, plus extensive concrete aprons outside. It also included a 25 metre long precast concrete pit in the workshop. A first for Ajax Building Contractors was installing a cross laminated timber (CLT) floor for the office area which was achieved using 8 metre long by 3.6 metre wide 180 millimetre thick tongue and grooved sheets. This construction method was extremely successful, Tom says. “We laid all the office floor in four working hours with the assistance of a 50 tonne crane.” “We probably sped up the process by four weeks I would say; four weeks to four hours. “We have actually priced up another building in Gore in which we are proposing to use CLT again. For speed, I would be promoting to use it again on any substantial job. We saved so much time on-site and time is obviously money.” Electricians working smarter to provide you with a better solution. CONTACT LACHIE MOORE: 47 Broughton Street, Gore 9710 m: 027 270 9777 e: lachie.moore@kinetic-electric.co.nz www.kinetic-electric.co.nz PRESTON PRE-CUT LTD MANUFACTURERS OF ROOF TRUSSES AND WALL FRAMES Ph: 03 218 3647 • Brent Cell: 0274 15 1963 30 Mersey St, Invercargill • Email: prestonprecuts@xtra.co.nz • Prenail Frames • Roof Trusses • Loose Timber NZO SG • Claw Beams • Laminated and LVL Timbers Suppliers of: Get in touch today | 22 Hokonui Drive Gore | gore@flooringxtra.co.nz | 208 9535 Our locally owned and operated store is your one stop shop for an extensive range of carpet, hard flooring, and tiles as well as curtains, blinds and wallpapers. PROUD TO WORK WITH AJAX BUILDING CONTRACTORS LTD
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