You will decide this months before you ring anybody.
Renovations, extensions and new builds in West Auckland. Ten or twelve names go on a list — off a fence, from a neighbour, out of a suburb Facebook group — and most of them come off it again quietly, at a kitchen table, without a phone call and without ever being told why.
So this page does not open with photographs. It opens with the three things that are actually being weighed at that table: how the money moves, who carries the can, and what happens on the day something goes wrong. The pictures are at the bottom, where they belong on a decision like this one.
When you are ready, here is how to start a conversationHow it moves, and when
The fear in a build is not the total. It is paying a long way ahead of the work and having no leverage left when something stalls. So we are paid behind the work, never in front of it, and the schedule is on the contract before anybody signs.
| Stage | Claimed when | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit | On signing, to hold the slot and order long-lead materials | 5% |
| Foundations | Poured, inspected and passed | 20% |
| Closed in | Framed, roofed, windows in, building wrap on | 30% |
| Linings | Gib up and stopped, services roughed in | 25% |
| Practical completion | Usable, code compliance certificate applied for | 15% |
| Retention | Held by you for 90 days after the defects walk-through | 5% |
| Each claim is a progress payment against work already standing on your section, and each one comes with a photograph of the stage it is claiming for. The retention is yours to hold; we do not ask for it early. | ||
Nothing here is legal or financial advice, and no page can be. A residential build contract over $30,000 has requirements of its own, and your lawyer should read ours before you sign it — we would rather that happened than not.
Who carries the can
Most of what goes wrong on a build is not workmanship. It is nobody being quite sure whose decision something was. Three named people, and one of them is yours for the whole job.
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Your one contact
Tom Aleki
Director, and the person whose mobile you have. He runs the programme, prices the variations and is the one you ring when you are unhappy. He does not change halfway through, and he is not a salesperson who disappears after the contract is signed.
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Licensed Building Practitioner
Tom Aleki — LBP, Carpentry
Restricted building work has to be carried out or supervised by an LBP, and the record of work at the end says who that was. On our jobs it is the same name as the one above, which is not true of every builder you will talk to.
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On site, every day
Reuben Carty
Site foreman. He holds the programme for the week and runs the subcontractors so that you do not have to chase a plumber who has gone to another job. If you want to know what is happening tomorrow, he is the one who knows.
Invented people on an invented business. On a real site these are the client’s own team, with their own licence numbers — and naming them is one of the cheapest things a builder can do to separate themselves from the ten other names on the list.
Because on a six-month job it will
Every builder’s website says the job will go well. The useful question — the one being asked at that kitchen table — is what happens on the morning it does not. Here is ours, written down before we need it.
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Something is uncovered
Rot in a bearer, a pile that has moved, wiring that was never legal. Work stops on that part, you get a photograph and a price the same day, and nothing proceeds until you have said yes in writing. We do not carry on and put it on the final invoice.
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The programme slips
You hear it from us, in the Friday update, with the new date and the reason. Weather, an inspection queue and a subcontractor letting us down are all normal; not being told is not.
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You change your mind
Allowed, and priced before it happens. A variation gets a number, a cost and a time effect, and you sign it. Late changes cost more than early ones and we will tell you honestly which side of that line you are on.
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You are not happy with the work
Tell Tom. If we did it, we fix it at our cost, and we would rather do that in week four than argue about it in month six. If we disagree, we say so plainly rather than going quiet on you.
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Something fails after we have gone
Residential building work carries statutory warranties, and the manufacturer’s warranties on materials are handed to you at the end in one folder. The 90-day retention exists so that the defects list has teeth.
General description of how this invented business says it would work, not legal advice about your build or your rights.
What you have in your hand
All of it before the deposit, none of it after. If a builder cannot give you this list, that in itself is the answer to the question you were asking.
- A written contract, with the payment schedule above inside it
- A programme with real dates, stage by stage
- The LBP’s name and licence number
- Public liability and contract works insurance certificates
- A named list of the subcontractors who will be on your section
- The variation process, and the rate a variation is priced at
- What is excluded, written down rather than assumed
- Who to ring, and who to ring if that person does not answer
What we build
Renovations
Kitchens, bathrooms and whole-house work on villas, bungalows and seventies brick and tile.
Extensions
Adding the room you actually need, consented and built to sit properly with what is already there.
New builds
Standalone homes and minor dwellings, from plans through to code compliance.
Weatherboard & recladding
Repairs and full recladding, including remedial work on leaky homes.
Decks & outdoor
Decks, pergolas, retaining and fencing built to last in West Auckland weather.
Project management
One point of contact running the trades, so that you are not the one doing it.
One, at length
Three short five-star lines prove very little on a job this size. One person describing what the six months were actually like is worth more — so on a real build this is the client’s own longest Google review, quoted whole. Skyward has none of its own yet, so the words below are written and are not anybody’s.
“We got three prices and Ridgeline was not the cheapest. What decided it was that they were the only ones who told us, in writing and before we paid anything, what would happen if they found something under the house. They did find something under the house. We got a photograph and a price on the same day, we said yes, and it went on the next claim where we could see it. The Friday updates carried on the whole way through, including the two weeks we lost to weather.”
Sample text · Kitchen and living extension, Titirangi
Down here on purpose
Every other builder’s site opens with these. Ours does not, because by the time you are looking at somebody’s finished kitchen you have already decided whether you trust them. On a real build these hold the client’s own jobs; they are empty here because this business does not exist.
We book a look, not a sale
First thing is half an hour on your section with Tom, at no cost and with nothing to sign. If we are not right for the job we will say so there, and we will usually know who is.
Waitākere · Titirangi · Green Bay · Blockhouse Bay · Avondale
Usually six to ten weeks out