Build Process

If you already have your block of land, we’ll ideally meet you on-site to gain a better understanding of your vision!

If you are still in the process of acquiring land, that’s fine, we can arrange to meet at any location that suits!

Time to bring all your ideas together and get them down on paper! This can happen in many ways:

1. Perhaps we need to start your plans from scratch to suit your vision—no problem! We’ve done this plenty of times before. (There’s no pressure to stick to any early designs, so let your creativity flow. )

2. Maybe you’ve found one of our designs you love and just want to make some changes—easy! We can mark up our floor plans to suit. (Try as many alterations as you need—we encourage it! Now is the perfect time to explore your ideas.)

3. Perhaps you already have completed plans from someone else and would like us to price them. Skip to Stage 5! (This is fine, as long as there are no conflicts of interest or legal issues.)

We’ve now completed what we believe is the best draft floor plan at this stage. It’s likely been drawn on grid paper, altered a few times, and scanned back and forth between us!

Now, we take this masterpiece and send it off to our design team. They’ll refine the overall plan and provide a clearer understanding of the structural elements beyond our expertise.
At this stage, to ensure our quotes are as accurate as possible, we’ll need to engage both a surveyor and an engineer for the following reasons:

Engineer
If you’re unable to source one yourself, we’ll likely recommend the engineer we’ve trusted for many years. They’ll visit your site to conduct inspections of the proposed house location and perform investigations to determine the ground conditions for your foundations. Based on their findings, they’ll provide recommendations to ensure your build starts on solid ground.

Surveyor
A land surveyor will confirm the correct location and height for your house, as well as provide existing and proposed site ground levels to overlay onto your concept design. Paired with the engineer’s ground inspection, this gives us the best chance to price your house accurately, particularly the earthworks and foundation components. At the end of your project, the surveyor will also provide a “Building Location Certificate” as part of the required documentation for your Code of Compliance Certificate.

You’ve done it! You have been able to relay your vision to us and we’ve managed to provide a new home design that you love!

We now get pricing underway for your new home!

Depending on what scenario we are in, this can take between 2 - 4 weeks for homes designed from scratch or plans provided by you from another designer. If you’ve used one of our plans without any significant changes, the price can potentially be provided immediately!

After another successful step on your building journey, one of the most important milestones has been achieved—your dream home design matches your dream budget!

Now we get to take another exciting step together by working through the Master Builders Contract. This finalises the expectations, procedures, and requirements for both parties before we obtain building consent for your dream home.
Most importantly, we’ll also provide you with a completion date at this stage!

Note: The Master Builders Contract can be requested to be viewed and explained at any stage of this process.

The Design team has completed the remaining details for your project, and we now send this off to the local authority to obtain Building Consent (for example - DCC for Dunedin, Central Otago District Council for Cromwell)

The building consent process usually takes 20 working days, however, the processing council can make a RFI (request for more information) if they would like clarification on any of the new home documentation, this request pauses the 20-working day clock until we respond to the RFI. We always keep you updated with how this process is tracking and if there has been any RFI’s we respond to them as quickly as possible.

A huge milestone has been achieved! We are now about to break ground on your New Home Building Project!

We will introduce you to our Site Manager if you have not met them already. Our site manager will be the person behind giving you daily updates on our project management software “Builder Trend” a very handy piece of technology that can be accessed via an app on your phone or via our log in on our website. Buildertrend gives you access to three very important items for your construction phase.

1. We provide daily logs on Builder Trend that will share comments on the days progress, supported by some photos relative to the day’s work! So Good! Perfect for those customers who would struggle to get to site daily or even once or twice a week!

2. You will be able to view your New Home schedule, which will also provide you updates with how your New Home Build is progressing and what date you will be able to move in!

3. We store all Building Consent Documents in Builder Trend, allowing you to access these as you please.

We can organize to meet onsite at any stage you would like, and ideally we meet at certain times throughout the building phase, especially the day the frames are stood and you get to walk around the floor plan!

Read more on Buildertrend below

The Best Part!

You finally get to move into your dream home—all your hard work has paid off! It’s time to enjoy it!
Your house is filled with brand-new materials, fixtures, fittings, and appliances. We’ll ensure you receive all product warranties, so you’re covered if anything ever needs attention.
And of course, if you have any questions or concerns, you can contact me directly at any time, and we’ll resolve them immediately.

You’ve moved in!

But you can’t get rid of us that easy!
We will touch base within the first 3 months of moving in, and then at least every 12 months onwards to check in and see how everything is going with your dream home.
Only one way to describe the process - NEXT LEVEL!