Design Questions

Q: What will my design cost?

A: You can check out our design pricing through this link in our design section

Q: Do I have to use one of your designs for my new home?

A: No, We can build from plans created by other designers

Q: What flexibility will I have with design? Many building companies charge a lot more when the design is changed from their standard plan

A: We provide total flexibility, but at all times are conscious of the price of construction, so we always ensure that your design will fit your construction budget

Q: What materials do you design your new home in?

A: The choice is yours entirely, but we provide lots of information and advice on how different materials perform and what their relative costs are

Q: Does design in steel framing cause any difficulties?

A: No. Anything you can design in timber you can also design in steel. In fact, steel framing gives some superior performance to timber and thus allows for longer spans for architectural purposes

Construction Questions

Q: If we decide to engage you to build our new home for us, what makes you different to any number of other builders out there?

A: We are passionate about design and construction, and about seeing you, as our customer, getting the best value and customer service possible.

Q: What do you mean by "best value?

A: We don't necessarily mean the lowest price on building components as that can sometimes lead to inferior elements being included in your new home, which nobody wants. Instead, we're talking about the best return on your investment, because that's what you are having built, not a liability. Our professional project and risk management, security of your funds and use of top quality tradespeople all provides value by having the project go smoothly for you.

Q: How does it cost about the same as another builder, yet you provide project management on the construction?

A: We've negotiated great pricing from suppliers who recognise that they are dealing with a company that will provide them the security of payment on time and of professional on-site skills. That has resulted in good discounting while still maintaining the highest levels of customer service and quality

Q: OK, that all sounds good. However, you're in Christchurch and I'm not. How do you manage that successfully?

A: We will be using technology and local resources to ensure that we are totally aligned with on-site activities for your project. Firstly, each day our on-site tradespeople will receive a text from our project management office asking for an update of achieved versus planned activities for the day, as well as photos. We will collate that information and issue twice-weekly updates to you by email. Additionally, our customer service team will visit the site and yourselves from time to time during the course of the construction, to discuss progress and any issues that you may have. We will also have a local expert builder visit the site from time to time to inspect the work of our resources, ensuring that all work is top quality and meeting required standards for the Building Act.

Q: What happens if something goes wrong on site?

A: Our on-site tradespeople will be trained in communication and project management basics. They will escalate the issue to our project management office where a decision will be made. In some cases a representative from a supplier may be requested to go on-site to investigate and report back to us. We will endeavour to resolve any issue very quickly and will provide a full report to you about the incident, for your records.

Other Questions

Q: Are you a nationwide building company?

A: Yes, we are building nationwide. We will be creating new sales centres throughout 2011 and 2012

Q: What would be the one thing that makes your company stand out from the others and make me want to deal with you for our new home?

A: We would say Risk Management. As a professional project management team with over 20 years experience working on multi-million dollar projects, we've learnt how to plan for the unexpected and to reduce risk. The building industry is full of risk and we have gone over all aspects of those to put plans in place to deal with events that do occur. We've looked at the number of building companies that have failed recently and studied why they did, before coming up with our idea for security of your funds, thereby managing that risk. In all other areas of the project, risk management is the key focus and we're proud of that.

Q: Do you have a guarantee on your work?

A: We offer a two-tier cover on the quality and performance of your new home. We offer firstly a six month warranty covering such eventualities as do occur, usually caused by settling of your new home. After that, because we only use Certified Builders, you can purchase their 10 year guarantee on the workmanship covered by the carpenter. We also manage guarantees on all other components should there be a failure, acting on your behalf if necessary back to the supplier