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Building a Deck That Handles Wellington Southerlies
My name’s Grant Hollis, and I’ve spent close on 25 years building decks and outdoor timber structures around Wellington’s harbour edge, Petone included. The first deck I built here faced dead south across the harbour — looked a picture in the brochure the owners had in their heads. The reality was that for about eight…
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Working Near Boundaries: The Rules to Know
Ask any concrete contractor what the worst phone call is, and most will give you the same answer: “the neighbour reckons it’s over the line.” I’ve spent years pouring driveways and slabs around Dunedin, and that sentence still comes up more than any question about mix ratios or curing times. It’s not just a local…
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What Outdoor Work Needs Consent in New Zealand?
A fellow out in Hokowhitu emailed me last spring, pretty rattled. He’d built a tidy little deck and a sleeper retaining wall along the back of his Palmerston North section, and a neighbour had mentioned he “probably needed a consent for that.” Cue a weekend of panic. I’m Grant Ellison, and I’ve spent the last…
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How to Get Honest Quotes from Regional Tradies
My neighbour in Porirua rang me last winter in a right state. She’d had three quotes for a small concrete patio and they ranged from $4,000 to $11,000, and she couldn’t tell whether the expensive bloke was padding his numbers or the cheap one was about to cut corners. I’ve spent thirty-odd years pricing concrete…
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Budgeting Outdoor Projects Across a Year
I’m Grant, and I’ve spent the better part of 20 years knee-deep in gardens and building sites around Wellington — Johnsonville, Tawa, Khandallah, wherever the work takes me that week. My sister-in-law, who lives up the hill in Johnsonville, is the sort who wants the whole section sorted by Christmas: new deck, retaining wall, replanted…
