Backyard builders
16 Sep 2024, Builders business, News
Builders’ Business is a column by builders for builders. Its objective is to provide a forum, particularly for small business operators, in which to share knowledge, experience, tips and ideas
Q. How often are you asked to do decking and fencing?
Firm: Home Trends Builders
Interviewee: Peter de Gouw
Role: Director
Location: Canterbury
Staff: 10
We do take on fencing and decking jobs but I’d very rarely take them on for new clients, as we’re too busy for that. However, in the interest of building and maintaining positive relationships with people we’ve worked with in the past, we’re more than happy to take on hardscaping projects such as decks, patios, fences and pergolas. As a lot of our work comes from repeat clients and word-of-mouth referrals, we need to maintain strong relationships.
For our existing clients, landscaping work is split about 50/50 between them building new properties that need landscaping and them wanting landscaping work on an existing home. We usually do all the work ourselves, as our teams are skilled at hardscaping, but for something like fencing, we may look to bring in contractors, depending on our workload.
Fencing work can be frustrating, especially when it comes to resource consents. I find the rules can vary depending on whether it’s governed by a sub-division consent team, urban designers or town planning. They all have different rules and that makes it tricky.
Firm: David Reid Homes Wellington Region
Interviewee: Tim Sunderland
Role: Director
Location: Wellington Region
Staff: 6
We typically don’t do much fencing, unless it’s structurally related to a house, but we do heaps of decking. Before we start construction of a deck, we’ll work with a landscape architect – typically Ben Hoyle from Blue Gecko Landscape Design – to confirm the design and layout, then we’ll talk to our clients during the build to make sure we meet their requirements.
We give the deck the same attention to detail as we do to the house itself, so we use lots of hardwood like Garapa, Vitex or Purpleheart, which we pre-drill and screw-fix to make sure the build quality is as good as it can be. I also love using decking for entryways to help make sure the doorway is level entry into the house. This creates a nice transition point from the typical exposed aggregate concrete driveways.
Because most of our homes are new builds, we encourage our clients to properly consider how landscaping work can impact the overall tone of the home.
We always like to move a client in with a finished landscape, so we engage Ben – and a landscaping contractor if required – early in the project. Around 70% of the time, we’ll do the hardscaping work ourselves and use Ben’s contacts for any softscaping work.
Firm: Universal Homes
Interviewee: Sunil Prasad
Role: Project Director
Location: Auckland
Staff: 35
We build houses to spec, so we don’t get asked to build fences and decks as standalone jobs – but, if they’re on the plans, we’ll do it. What type of structure we build depends on the lay of the land. If it’s a flat site, we’ll do a patio but, if the site is contoured, we’ll build a deck. As we do the civil works ourselves, wherever possible, we aim to level out the land for each house we do, so we’ll only put in decks for around 10% of our homes.
Because we only project manage the builds, we sub-contract all of the construction work, including decking and fencing. Maintaining relationships is crucial for us. On the supply side, we’ve been with PlaceMakers for 15-20 years and we know they’ll see us right on service and price.
For our subbies, we love to work with the same people for all our builds, as they know what our expectations are and we have confidence in their processes and what they produce.
Having those efficient, long-established working relationships can help move jobs along quickly and to budget.
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