| 99 Phone: 03 983 5500 waterfordpress.co.nz Your Business, Your Industry, Your News. DO OUR READERS KNOW YOU EXIST? BUILDING Kaiuma Bay Builders T T Hugh de Lacy It’s a little bay in the Pelorus Sound, 20km north of Havelock, but Kaiuma Bay has its own local building company, Kaiuma Bay Builders, that’s in the process is being handed over to the next generation of locals. The company was founded by Peter Sykes, a self-taught tradesman whose skill and experience enabled him to become a Licensed Building Practitioner (LBP), who saw a village rise in his home bay. Peter is in the process of handing the company over to two other Kaiuma Bay residents, Blake McLaughlan and Seth Everson, tradesmen who have worked for him for three years, in Blake’s case, and throughout Seth’s recently completed carpentry apprenticeship. Rounding out the team is apprentice Jack Walsh, who’s more than two years into his time. Kaiuma Bay Builders specialises in modular homes designed by Nelson engineering firm Potius, with the pre-insulated panels manufactured by a company called Konstrukt. Under the Potius system the piles are installed ready to accept the new home, which arrives on-site as several truckloads of panels from Konstrukt that Kaiuma Bay Builders assemble – quickly. “We can have a three-bedroom home of 120-130m2 up and waterproofed in a day,” Peter says, “and within a week we’ll have the roof on and all the doors and windows in, and the house will be lockable. “We then do the cladding and organise the specialist subbies to complete the wiring and plumbing. “We prefer to build most of our houses this way, and they tend to be in a range of 120140m2, but we’ve built them up to 170m2.” Peter was a secondary school teacher who switched to building in 2001, starting his first company in Murchison on the West Coast and naming it Doughboy Construction after an adjacent stream, while at the same time running a camp-ground and café. When the 2010 economic downturn hit, he shot off to Australia and ended up helping to build, and then managing, a 1250-man mining camp at Port Hedland in the north-west Pilbara Region. In 2015 he returned to Kaiuma Bay where two years earlier he’d bought a section in a 240-block sub-division, started in 2007 by wine entrepreneur Peter Yealands, which had become overgrown with gorse and manuka. Peter and his family became just the second residents to settle, and they went on to build 16 houses there, mostly as holiday homes but some for permanent residents who now number 30. “It’s been great to work in Kaiuma Bay because we’ve never had to travel more than 600m to get to a current housing project,” Peter says. Others have since discovered the bay’s attractions, and there are now three builders working in the area, but Kaiuma Bay Builders’ new owners, Blake and Seth, will continue to have the inside running on local projects after they take over. “We’ve got clients coming in from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, mostly building holiday homes but more and more people are shifting here for retirement, or to run their own businesses from home,” Peter says. Still keeping it local in Kaiuma Bay Kaiuma Bay Builders specialises in modular homes designed by Nelson engineering firm Potius, with the pre-insulated panels manufactured by Konstrukt. • Manufacturer of Potius Floor, Wall & Roof Panels • Timber frame post & beam cutting • Relocatable buildings • Site installation services M 021 277 9577 E clint@konstruhkt.co.nz www.konstruhkt.co.nz PO Box 3489, Richmond 7050 109 Aporo Road, RD 1 Upper Moutere 7173 Potius Panels offer an engineered timber panel system that is a lightweight and fast alternative to conventional floor, wall and roof structures. Gavin Robertson - 021 427 846
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