WORK PHILOSOPHY

“ I don’t want to be working 60–70 hours a week in my business forever so have set it up with people and systems so that I don’t have to do it all the time. If anything happened to me this place would survive.”

COMPLAINTS

“ The most important thing we have learnt is that whenever it rains we are not ducking for cover. We pride ourselves on being organised, getting the jobs done and fixing roofs properly. Do it once, do it right the first time. There’s nothing worse than being busy for 3 weeks fixing leaks after heavy rain. We’re not perfect but we are a lot better off than other companies”.

Major roofing contract for this year – the Rotorua Energy Events Centre.

INCENTIVES

“ We have introduced performancebased bonuses in 2006 entitling the guys to a healthy bonus at the end of the year based on their time keeping, quality of work and other factors that will be clearly spelled out to them”.

PENAL RATES

“ We’ve gone back to paying time and a half to most of the roofers. We didn’t think they were earning enough for what they are doing but we don’t pay penal rates for travel time.”

COMPLIANCE

“ Jim Humphrey is a draughtsman so with my plumbing and roofing background and his building and architectural skills we actually solve many of the problems by thinking outside the square. We designed our own flashings. We put cladding around our office building which has never leaked and we can demonstrate this. We will help people work through the problems but wouldn’t do the work if we couldn’t resolve design issues”.

MOST CHALLENGING ROOFING JOB

“ Replacement of the roof on the No 6 paper machine at the Kinleith Mill following a major fire in 2001. The polypropylene panelling on the ceiling had all melted and the internal ceiling had collapsed. It was a highly pressured job in terms of man power and materials as it cost the mill $1/2 million a day when the machine was out of action. We did 12 hour shifts at night, working off gantry cranes in a pretty unpleasant environment. The fire opened doors for us though as we won the contract to remove asbestos roofing elsewhere at Kinleith and replace it over the following couple of years.”