Champagne tastes, beer budget

Hi Doris and welcome. I would recommend you talk to TotalSpan. They have a place in Woodend. We are getting a heritage-type barn built by them at some stage and we have found them very good to deal with. They are pretty busy from what I understand. BUT, please check with Waimakariri District Council first and find out what they will let you do. Speaking from experience they are Bl..dy dreadful and seem to make up rules as they go along.

talk to me!
i will totally come and build a barn while you buy me beer!

check out outpost sheds... it's what i live in...

an' thurr ain' no-thang wrung wit' me!

as far as rules and council go... don't tell them.

Hi Doris and welcome to the Forum. Plenty of people with advice so just ask your questions. I can't help with barn/house builders in Nth Canty but in Sth Canty we have used TotalSpan and found them very good to deal with.

Good luck

Neil

We used Total Span from Woodend for a double garage and they were fine, they do barns and stuff. They were alot cheaper than Versatile.

Stonewood we found good for our house build, I have 3 mates who built with Stonewood and all generally happy, few moans but nothing major.

Good luck and enjoy the process!

How about these guys. I believe they are building in Christchurch also www.breezepod.com/index.html

We went to genesis and asked for prices, waited ages, their houses looked really good, by the time they got back to us we had already applied for council consent with stonewood. No experience of A1.

Doris. We have done exactly that - TotalSpan built us a Heritage Barn that we were going to convert and live in whilst we built our new house. But then Feb happened and we had to take our house off the market, then this house went red!! So now we have done a complete conversion, fully lined and insulated, 3 bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, logburner, heat pump, gas hot water, carpets, windows etc, etc, Not even sure now if the house will ever get built! We are on a lifestyle block also but dealt with CCC

TotalSpan took care of the basic barn structure (Versatile are not suitable as a dwelling), once the pad was down it only took the boys a week to put up the barn. Ours is 3 bays wide and 4 deep. Approx. 140sqm. We then took care of the rest, using our own plumbers, electrician, builders etc. We have put in a log burner, a heat pump (mostly to cool the place down) and gas hot water (no need for a tank). We are about to take out the 3 roller doors at the front and put in 2 large windows and a ranch slider. Bearing in mind the cost also of getting power, phone, water tank, septic tank etc., I still think it is a far cheaper option than building a house I have to say. But then that depends on what kind of house you were thinking of building. We still needed all the basic services whether we live in a house or a barn! We have been able to recycle carpets, heat pump curtains etc from our red zone house so we have saved money on that stuff, and windows etc are very readily available from demo yards around the city!!

Currently we only have Certificate of Compliance because we only planned on living here whilst the new house was built... however, due to our other property being red zoned in Sept last year and the battles we are having with the powers that be, we are applying for (retrospective) building consent as we don't know how long we are going to be living here. This is pricey as we have had to engage our architect to do all the drawings and submit to CCC.

Does that help? I'm not sure if you can put photos up here but I will try. Total Span can do the conversion for you and they have a number of plans and completed conversions to look at if you ask them. We used our own tradespeople because we did it over a 12 month period - when we bought the land and planned the barn Feb's events hadn't even happened, so we were able to live in our other property and use the barn for weekends etc until we had decisions regarding zoning.

and I would also add that we used the barn unlined/uninsulated for a winter and a summer and it was just awful - freezing cold in winter (although we had one bedroom and the bathroom that were lined and insulated), until the log burner cranked up, we didn't have an oven or hob so cooked on the bbq and on top of the burner. And it was stinking hot in summer - just one big hot tin shed! We would all be sitting in the bedroom, because it was lined and insulated it was the coolest place to be! We also had a carport on the left, which has been invaluable for storage - bikes, mower etc.

My last point is that Total Span (main south rd) are insanely busy!!! We contacted them in October last year about putting up a double garage & carport for us, consent only came through last week and the soonest they can start is JUNE!!!

Hi there, we have recently finished building out near Cust. We were going the Stonewood route but were frustrated by all sorts of "costs" they were adding on which weren't appropriate for where we were building - including insisting on a perimeter fence during the build "to keep the tradesmen safe". We were very frustrated by them, and by the high cost, so we went with a local builder called Rick Gordon instead. He was absolutely brilliant, kept us informed all the way, and produced our house on time, and on budget. Also, was more than happy for us to "help out" with the build - e.g. my husband did a lot of the batts in the walls, we painted it ourselves, and various other bits and bobs. Send me a PM if you would like his number.