We’ve had a few people come back to us with some very nice things to say. Here are a few…
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the free publication that I received last week. I have already given our three copies to clients who are currently in either the planning or building stages of their projects. Two contacted me today to say how impressed they were with the magazine and how useful they found the information it contained.
I would like an additional five copies if available please!
Thanks
Angela Edhouse
Edhouse Builders Ltd
TAUMARUNUI
There is no bloody downturn down here yet Bill. We ran out of the 1500 a couple of months ago. Will come back to you.
Kevin O’Connor Manager – Building Control
Southland District Council
Thanks Jan, It’s an excellent book, really informative. Much appreciated.
Regards,
Brazier Property Management Ltd. MREINZ
Carol Eynon
Inspection Coordinator
We have received a copy of the above guide in today’s mail – congratulations, it’s a great publication. We would like to be able to hand these out to our clients before we start the building process and would appreciate it if we could receive 20 more copies please.
Regards
Wendy Strange
Office Manager
Construct Limited
Hamilton
Dear Mark
Thank you for sending us our complimentary copies of the publication. We have been very impressed and would like the opportunity to include them with our quotations and building advice that we offer our clients. We would like to have 15 more copies if possible.
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours faithfully
Teenica Grant
Office Manager
Grant Property and Construction
Napier
Good afternoon,
We were speaking recently to Wain regarding advertising in the NZ Homeowner’s Building Guide, and he asked for feedback on the magazine.
Both Carol and I feel the magazine is excellent, providing the consumer with reference points at all steps of the building process. The section on the 2004 Building Act is especially helpful for those wanting to negotiate their way around all the legal jargon, building and resource consents etc. We also believe the various sections throughout the building process ensure prospective home builders adequately consider all options to get the best home possible.
We would definitely recommend your Building Guide, and have it in our display room for easy reference.
Kind regards,
Sherill Patterson and Carol Spargo
Office Assistant and Office Manager
Hi Mark
This is an excellent publication. Can you please send 10 or so copies to me at the address below.
Thanks
Shaun Mitchell
PMP
Hi Amy
Thank you for your quick response about the building guide. The two boxes that we received have all gone and we could not keep up with demand.
As well as asking you for more I asked our Hornby branch for whatever they had left and have only got five of the twenty five that they sent.
Regards
David Cane
Trade & Building Supplies
Smiths Mitre 10 Beckenham
Hi,
Can we please have more copies of the NZ Homeowner’s Building Guide (Canterbury) sent down to us? We display the magazine in our show room and have completely run out after only a few weeks. They are very popular with our customers who are usually at the planning stage of the building process.
Our advertisement in this issue of the Building Guide has also been successful in generating a number of enquiries for us. Thanks! We look forward to the continuing success of this ad over the next few months!
Kind regards,
Wendy Shepherd
Marketing Manager
Central Heating New Zealand
Christchurch
Hi Mark,
Congratulations on a fantastic publication being ‘The Business of Building’ 2008 Annual which I received today as I am a member of NZRMBA.
In my opinion this is the best and most comprehensive publication for NZ builders I have seen in a very long time. Is it possible for 4 more copies for my staff? I’m happy to pay including postage.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Cheers
Andrew W Wallace Builder Ltd
Halswell, Christchurch
Hi Mark
The Business of Building magazine is a fantastic resource and we were wondering whether it was possible to get two more copies?
Thank you
Trish Hoit
Office Manager
Harwood Homes NZ Limited
Hi guys
Took a call from Graham Smith from the Design Arts College in Christchurch today.
He wished to compliment us on doing such a great job on BoB, the information included is all so relevant. Excellent for the tradesman and also so informative.
The information included also has great relevance to all their architectural students (years 1-3) and he has requested copies for each and every student.
He just kept on congratulating us on a job well done.
WHAT AN ENDORSEMENT!
Shirly
To Jan
Thank you for forwarding the lead I will follow that up tomorrow.
I have been very impressed with the service that the building guide has provided from the initial contact forward it is a credit to you all.
Thankyou all at the NZ building guide.
Regards
Bernard McCombie
Kitchens Revamped
Hi Mark
Thanks very much for the August copy of your NZ Homeowner’s Building Guide – Greater Wellington Edition.
We would like to accept your offer to supply us with as many free copies as we request as we think it is an awesome resource.
Thank you
Ali Auckram
Homecreators Ltd
Good Morning Mark
Our Area Manager, Mr Greg Pritchard has asked whether we could get 10 more copies of this publication please.
They can be sent to the address below, attention myself, Debbie.
Thank you
Debbie Porter
Executive Assistant
The Fletcher Construction Company
Johnsonville
Hello Mark
I am keen to receive more of the NZ Homeowners Building Guide which you recently sent in the post a further 10 copies would be great.
Have read it and it’s a great publication I see it being very useful for clients to read so they can get an understanding of the building process.
Regards
Phil Snelling
PJ SNELLING BUILDERS LTD
TEMPLETON
CHRISTCHURCH
Hi
Just emailing to let you know we think your magazine is great. In Phil’s words we get a lot of reading material through the mail and a lot of it is rubbish. He looked through your magazine last night and though it was very worthwhile so if we could have 12 more copies to share with our staff and clients that would be great.
Kind regards
Tania
Phil McCarthy Builders Trust
Te Aroha
Hi Mark,
We consider this an invaluable tool. Could you please send us approx 20 copies of this?
Thanks very much
Lockwood Rotorua
Dear Mark
Thank you for sending us a sample of your NZ Homeowner’s Building Guide. It seems to be jam packed full of very useful information and the information on the local councils is very interesting
We have a few new homes being built at present and feel this information would be very useful for future reference. On that note we here wondering you could send us half a dozen copies to have on hand to hand to these people
Thanking you in advance
Jo Foote
Office Assistant
Mc Abins Builders Ltd
Hi Mark
We received our copy of your new-look NZ Homeowners Building Guide (Nelson/Marlborough) today.
Although we don’t build many houses (usually our work is commercial), we thought your guide was a good resource and would like to get 6 extra copies sent out.
How often does the guide come out, and can we be put on the mailing list for 7 copies of future issues?
Thanks & regards
Janet Ashcroft
Administration
Robinson Construction Ltd
Hi Mark,
Yes, an excellent response & I also plan to provide some to the two Property Investor Associations that I am involved with. Any spares would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Chris Morgan
ANZ Mobile Mortgage Manager
Palmerston North
Dear Mark
I would like to request 50 copies of the Building Guide (as per your letter of 20 September 2006) so we can distribute to our clients.
We are a Blenheim based Architectural firm and we are endeavouring to supply our clients with an information package to inform them of the process that is required for their building projects and we feel that your guide would be the ideal source of this information.
Regards
Barbara Carpenter
Administrator
Planit Architectural Design
Hi Mark
Thanks for being in touch I would like a copy of both if possible. We are a retail outlet in Albany – opened just this year. We have many clients building new & more doing renovations I would say. Your mags would be very useful . Thanks a lot Kind regardsKirsten BryanCreative CounselNewmarket
And what the Councils say about us! Our front of house staff believe that the building guide is useful before people even get to the building consent application stage, so they like to give them out when people first enquire about the process.
The guide is available at the council’s service centres. It is available on the table in the waiting area, which is very effective as people can wait up to an hour for an appointment, so the front of house staff find that this works well. Front of house staff also give away the guide when people come and talk to them about building projects. Feedback is that it is a really informative and comprehensive guide, which is really useful to help anyone start a building project.
Katherine Speller
Senior Executive
Communications and Marketing
Auckland City Council (regrettably, Auckland Council no longer make the Building Guide available)
The Dunedin City Council Building Control Unit believes that this publication is a valuable recourse for our customers. We distribute them in several ways including making them available to all of our customers at our public counter; they are mailed out on request, used as teaching resource by the Otago Polytechnic Construction Department and distributed by our Building Control Officers as required.
Neil McLeod
Building Control Officer
Dunedin City Council
The Southland District Council provides a copy of the N.Z. Homeowner’s Building Guide to the property owner with every building consent issued in the district and intends to provide a copy of the newly released N.Z. Builders Guide to the responsible building contract for the application for the next 12 months as a trial. We also distribute the N.Z. Homeowner’s Building Guide to customers requesting consent application forms be forwarded to them and calling at the front counter for information or a consent application. We find N.Z. Homeowner’s Building Guide a useful guide to customers on building consent and related processes to supplement our own in house public information.
Kevin O’Connor Manager – Building Control
Southland District Council
We are impressed with the publication and distribute it widely to anyone requesting information about building. We recently distribute hundreds of copies through our stand at the Homeshow. We have them available at our public counter. We distribute them at workshops and conferences we promote.
We include a copy in all building consent packs.
We believe the publication provides valuable information and is a good toll for people who are in the process of building or thinking about building and we are happy to continue to endorse it.
Phil Saunders Building Control Manager
Hamilton City Council
It is a brilliant magazine and so useful with all the adverts, etc, pertaining to our specific area…we put one of the magazines in all of our Building Consent Application packs…
We put one of the magazines in all of our Building Consent Application packs and we are issuing up to 1000 consents a year, as well as having them on our counters in Dargaville and here at Kaiwaka for members of the public to be able to help themselves to an issue, and we receive very favourable feedback. Great service too.
Jane Stace
Building Administrator
Kaipara District Council
The N.Z. Homeowner’s Building Guide is made available in the brochure section of our public display area on the second floor Civic Offices. There would be 20-30 books per week uplifted by customers.
Barbara Thomas Team Leader
Regulatory Support Team
Christchurch City Council
Building or altering a home can be a confusing task even for professionals, so a lay person can find it difficult to remember everything that has been discussed. This is where your Building Guide comes in real handy, It is well laid out, technically correct and follows a logical pattern as you read through the publication.
I am in the process of building a workshop/garage and I have read things in the building guide that I would have never thought about, but my wife would surely quote “I told you so” if I had left them out.
So thank you from both sides of the coin.
Marc Donaldson
Customer Services Team Leader
Whangarei DC
Central Otago District Council is a very customer focused and forward thinking organisation. We like to supply as much helpful information as possible when people are planning to build. We find the N.Z Homeowners Building Guide is very helpful in providing this type of information.
We therefore provide a copy of this publication in our information packs we give to the public on building requirements. We also have copies on all our counters at our service centres for the public to take away.
Stewart Geddes
Building Control Team Leader
Central Otago District Council
With all Councils throughout NZ having to come to terms with their accreditation as a Building Consents Authority through Government processes it is important that they provide relevant Building Control information to the public. The Homeowners Building Guide is one option to educate stakeholders on regulatory matters prior to any proposed project. The Guide also provides building industry advertising that can be advantageous for both the supplier and the building owner.
Councils distribute these booklets to applicants when their Building Consent has been issued, they are readily available at Councils front of house and at a recent National home show display held at the Palmerston North Showground’s Arena, we were able to hand out hundreds of the booklets to the general public over a three day period. Currently I am working with a number of Companies to further distribute these booklets especially where these companies have display areas of their products.
Robbie Walker
PRINCIPAL BUILDING OFFICER
Palmerston North City Council
We have the NZ Homeowners Building Guide on display in our Customer Service Centre. We also give it away to people when they apply for building consents as it includes a lot of relevant information for both new and existing homeowners. The Guide is set out in a way that is easy to read and understand for both our staff and customers alike.
Natalie Palmer
Communications Advisor
Tauranga City Council
At North Shore City Council the NZ Homeowner’s Building Guide is displayed and made available to all customers on our shelves in the Reception area. We also stated in our documentation for BCA Accreditation that the NZ Homeowner’s Building Guide is one of the tools we use to make information available to our customers to satisfy the requirements of Regulation 7. Feedback from customers is positive and they find the Guide easy to read and understand.
Pierre van Zyl
Team Leader: Building Processing
North Shore City Council
We place a copy of the NZ Homeowner’s Building Guide in the building folder that accompanies the building consent documents when they are issued. This means that everyone who is issued with a building consent receives a copy of the publication.
In addition we have copies of the publication on display in the Customer Services One-Stop-Shop area of Council where many persons considering to apply for a building consent visit or where they have a meeting with a building consent officers to discuss their project.
The feedback we get from customers is that they find the publication very useful.
David Rolfe
GENERAL MANAGER
ENVIRONMENT AND REGULATORY SERVICES
PORIRUA CITY COUNCIL
The Hutt City Council, distribute the Building Guide to our staff who find the articles, information and advertising to be of great value. The Building Guide is also available to all customers at the front counter and on occasions we include the Guide in the Consents issue packages. The comments on the Building Guide have been positive.
Leonie Gibb
Building Consent Manager
Hutt City Council
At TCDC we have four centres; Thames, Coromandel, Whitianga and Whangamata. We display the NZ Home Owner’s Building Guide at the reception areas of each office. The publication is well received and all the new potential home owners are given a copy when they come in to pick up a building pack. We like it as it saves us having to explain everything to them.
About 90% of building work in our District takes place on the east coast of the Peninsula so we have to send the Whitianga and Whangamata offices most of the Guides. Although the rest of the country is experiencing a significant decline in building work we are not, we are only down about 15% and we put much of that down to the Pre-lodgement interview process which vets the applications before we accept them. Each month we used to have to cancel/reject around 20 out of 150 now it is more like 3 out of 130. The applications we receive now are better prepared.
Richard Foster
Business Support Manager
Thames-Coromandel District Council
The NZ Homeowner’s Building Guide has become a feature of our building information area. The magazine is prominently displayed on our Building/Planning information board, with copies also available at our reception counter. It is appreciated by staff, local builders and especially customers who come in to enquire about building consents for different things but aren’t really sure how to go about it, especially for new home building projects.
The publication always contains articles about the legislation, so the average person can get a better idea of why, as a Council, we need to do things in a certain manner. There is also a very broad range of advertisers which is very useful. A small community such as ours doesn’t always have a broad range of suppliers, so it is important for people to see what options are available.”
Gail Dickson
Personal Assistant
Community and Environmental Services
Buller District Council
The N.Z. Homeowner’s Building Guide is received and utilized by our staff and customers at Kapiti Coast District Council. The Guide has a prominent distribution location at our Customer Service Counter and is one of the most sought after publications we have on display. The Guide is very informative and receives constant positive feedback from customers.
Ken Smith Regulatory Manager
Kapiti Coast DC
Te Kaiwhakahaere Whakaritenga
This is to advise that I have found the NZ Home Building Guide a very interesting read. It has some excellent articles and contains good advice for anyone involved in the building process. Our council distributes the magazine in different ways. We have them on our display in the foyer of councils offices, also available in the interview room, and in some cases are sent out with a building consent…to home owner/builders of new houses/additions/alterations.
The comments I have received from these people was very positive “very useful and interesting,” “ Excellent articles” “Came in very handy “ I have just checked our front display and there is only one Guide left. So people are taking them home also.
Jim Hannan,
Senior Building Control Officer,
Waitaki District Council
We use the magazine in several ways; We use it as part of Application Pack, in this we have various pieces of information, pamphlets, DBH publications Application forms etc. We send it out as part of the pack we issue with a building consent, again giving more information to the applicant. We have them at each of our service centres, on display with other building information – application forms, pamphlets, DBH publications etc
The reason behind this is to try and inform the public as much as possible about the building process and the various bodies who can help their application and building project. We find it important to have as much different information around about these processes – building and resource consents – as possible so that people have a rounded view of requirements rather than just a council view.
Les Smith
Quality Manager
Far North District Council
They are generally on offer at the Consents counter and get distributed with domestic consents when mailed out to the client/applicant. Comments made have been positive to being given this guide, especially where we deal with the “one-off” Consent applicant.
These customers are generally very appreciative of any information received, so yes we applaud your efforts as well. I have found the publication is precise and not too over-technical, which could result in confusion from Joe Average. All in all a good magazine for the purpose intended.
Russell Paterson
Building Control Manager
Gore District Council
NZ Homeowner’s Building Guide incorporates valuable information on the building process. Apart from forewords from Councils, there is detailed guidance on legislative requirements under the Building Act 2004.
The step by step building process stages will be a useful tool for the common DIYers as well as developers.
Copies of the Building Guide are available for our customers through our customer centre and remote sites (libraries). Soft copy of the guide is also available on Council website.
Jose Paul
Service Delivery Advisor- Customer Centre
Customer Relationships | Organisational Performance
The Upper Hutt City Council has a regular supply of the NZ Homeowners Buidling Guide which it distributes to its customers. It is useful because it explains in clear and simple langauge supplemented by glossy colours the operations of the Building Act. It presents these facts in a well organised structure so that it is readily accessible to first time builders and to the serious developers. It has information for people interested in purchasing a home or those who own a swimming pool. It covers a wide range of information available to anyone interested in working in the built environment.
Leo Pirini
Building Control Services Manager
Upper Hutt City Council
Copies are available on the front at the building department for customers to pick up when visiting, we also send them out as part of our information packs for building consent and anytime we are aware that the Community Development Team are putting on displays at the likes of AMP Shows or Field Days we ensure that a box of the books goes out with them.
Vanessa Beavon
Team Leader – Customer Services
Building Department
Selwyn District Council
Over a number of years the Building Consent Division of the Napier City Council have displayed in the reception area the NZ Homeowners Building Guide for the public to obtain a copy. We have also placed a copy with most of the Building Consents Issued.
Comments received have stated that the guide is very informative and explains the workings of the Building Act and Code, procedures and processes in a manner that is easy to understand.
John Brydon
Senior Building Consents Officer
Napier City Council