nzmoonlight

I'm really thinking of building my new home. Have any built their own and is using franchise building companies such as GJ, Jennien and Signature homes advantageous apart from price? Or go for one that seems a little pricer such as McRaeway Homes, who seem to have built many South Island houses, but not many in the North but is not franchised and seem to support local builders. Any thoughts? Thanks

shirl

Hi

There are many on here who have built - I think Teebrown built with GJ Gardner and had photo's on here somewhere. Search her posts to find it.

The best advise I could give is to choose your construction material carefully, and if you don't want to use a big building company find yourself a designer or architectr and then employ a local builder to take care of it for you. They usually have local trades contracts who will take care of everything for you unless you have some skills in the building trade that you would want to contribute yourself. The best product in my opinion that you can build with is the SIPS panel which is a A German product used in Europe & the U.K. The panel is 140mm thick comprising of an inner and outer skin of 20mm orientated strand board with a 100mm foam core. The panel is used to form the exterior walls and the roof diaphragm if so desired. The panel by itself has an R value of around 5.5, (thermal value)this can be increased depending on what you choose to clad the building with.

It is a minefield when trying to decide what to do for the best and obviously your budget will factor into it as well. Our daughter built with Peter Ray homes and they do good packages as well. Good luck with whatever you choose.

minky

we are building this year and designed our home and then had the plans drawn
up its quite a slow process .Shortly we will be sending out tenders for the various trades prices vary quite considerably we found when the excavating was done.Council here have 20 working days to do the paperwork however any queries the time stops untill theses are resolved and then you carry on.We are building with block and not timber frame and going off grid with solar.

Karen

nzmoonlight

Thanks for your replies. I'm really don't know how to coordinate a project of new build. And also not really know who are the good trade in the area. I am doing my research using a building company that takes care of everything. I am in the South Island and I have requested information packs from David Reid, Stonewood and McRaeway Homes. I requested a free DVD from McRaway Homes and an information pack and watching it now. I am tempted in paying a little bit more but for the company to deal with the whole build.

I just want to know what people's experience are with these building companies. Also is it safer to go for a non franchised building company as compared to franchised. I been seeing internet posts that many franchise companies have gone bust in the past year and you may risk losing your money. Scary thought! But I guess, then that is a risk with any buidlers/building firm.

Lynne sinclair

We move to CHCH in Oct and will either rent/buy in town to begin with -Avonhead/Burnside areas to facilitate schools but ideally in the next couple of years plan to buy a lifestyle block 10 acres and build and we have been advised through family ( husband from CHCH so lots of advice generated!) to use Macraeway Homes, we want to have a nice 4 bed place open plan not anything ostentatious by any means just a nice family home.. and also space to accommodate family from Scotland and some paddocks for the ponies, so we look at West Melton but people then say it's too windy...hey as long as its sunny we can deal with wind...!

shirl

I have sent you a PM Moonlight!

Toon_Nut

Hopefully some of these might give a a few new ideas?

Good luck, something we'd love to do, one day.

http://www.tcs.net.nz/

http://www.bachkit.co.nz/

http://www.kitsethouses.co.nz/

http://www.versatile.co.nz/

http://www.kitsethomes.co.nz/

Vincent2010

[QUOTE=nzmoonlight;8754421]I'm really thinking of building my new home.

I do not blame you because what's on offer at present for a house / home buyer is quite ordinary indeed. Just so crasse are most of the dwellings on offer with regard to quality of materials, construction and design etc. for their asking price. Except of course properties above the NZD 600k price range.

I live in a superb townhouse in Australia valued at AUD 450k & very tidy at that. I'd love to live near Auckland but trading in my current abode now would fetch me a 'dump' in NZ, all costs considered.

Good luck.

SidNZ

Platinum Homes built our house for us. We started with a standard design that we liked as it fitted the section perfectly and changed things to suit - increased the floor area, changed the kitchen layout, added in central heating - in all I think we made around 35 changes.

Whoever you choose to build with I would suggest that you get them to cost everything that you can think of before you enter in to a Contract and then allow a contingency to cover any changes that you might want to make as the house is being built.

nzmoonlight

Hi alll,
Thanks for your information. Doing research and there seems to be many good companies around. Cheers

Woodpigeon

We built our own house. Like you we looked at both national building companies and local ones. In the end we went with a local one cos we wanted to support local business.

Turned out to be the biggest mistake of our lives! In the middle of a building boom our company managed to go bust, leaving us with about 6 weeks worth of work until completion that actually took us over 6 months to get done (not including the court case we ended up with to try to get what we were supposed to out of the Master Builders Guarantee).

We have ended up with a nice enough (by NZ standards) house - double glazed, insulated, heated (heat pumps and wood pellet fire), but its not the home that we had planned. Lots of the finishing touches, that were my individual design details, were what weren't completed by the original company, and weren't understood by the builder foisted onto us by Master Builders.

We were originally intending to build with Jennian Homes, just that they stopped communicating with us just before we committed (turns out that the guy who would have actually been building our house through them had been mucking them around, so they slowed up on all their deals they were quoting on until they got another builder - just they didn't bother telling us that at the time). The Jennian agent later told us that he wanted to spare us the difficulties that our neighbours (who were building through them) were going through - on balance, even he agreed that that would have been better than what we ended up with. At least with Jennians the parent company would have stepped in and fixed up any building problems.

So based on our experiences, I would say go with a national company - much less risk!

Charismatic

Not quite accurate, perhaps “Thinking of getting someone else to build a house for me to my specifications...” would be more appropriate. I had visions of men felling trees and cutting notches in logs to slot them together.

fitzandindiana

we were thinking of doing this too we're not bothered about a massive house but would like 2/3 bedrooms with 1 onsuite and a nice big kitchen and lounge and a garage.
I know it's a wide area but how much would it cost and how accesable is land to build on in NZ? We are thinking of the south island so will also need heating hopefully central heating if we can manage it.

nzmoonlight

Hi all,

Thanks all for your replies. I've taken a look at David Reid, but I am very taken by McRaeway Homes. Have anyone dealt with them before? I requested their free DVD from their website - which only took 2 days to arrive and it is providing inspiration and ideas. Literature have been ordered from other buidling companies so hope to build on my research.

However, some of the homes just seem too big so only going for a smaller build, double glazed and well insulated.

McRaeway Homes seems to look after the build from start to finish with their network builders which is also putting myself at ease. The thought of arranging trademen, building materials etc etc is not want I really want. However, are there other companies the same? Just comparing prices at the moment - and don't mind paying a little more for a quality home. From research, A1 homes and Versatile Homes is not want I am looking for. As i want to ensure that when I do sell on in future, I want prospective buyers know it's a quality home.