Top Shelf Builders

Top Shelf Builders is an owner–operated, small team of locals who will personally be involved with you through the whole process. From concepts and design, to door handles and decks!

WITH YOU FROM DAY DOT

We believe building a home should be an exciting, enjoyable, and personal experience.The current housing company model sees you taking a number, waiting in line only to be passed from department to department until you finally get to the other side, stressed, uncertain, and undoubtedly not going to do that again. We believe the relationship between client and builder is key. 20 years ago your builder would have been involved with the planning, designing, and building of your home. We’re bringing that back.

A NEW LEVEL OF MANAGEMENT

What makes us stand out from the crowd is our management model. From the first contact, our operations manager becomes your on–call guide through the whole adventure of building your dream. This personal touch separates our business from other project manager roles that revolve around the build only. With over 30 years experience in the trade, our operations manager will see your build through from picking a spot on the grass, the build, landscaping, even where to place the trampoline.

SMALL BUSINESS AT ITS BEST

When you engage in a project with Top Shelf Builders, you’re tapping into a wide network of Waikato’s small businesses. We’ve been working together for years and have all the know how and resources to ensure your project runs to plan.

FLEXIBLE AND COOPERATIVE

We take pride in being able to provide whatever you can dream up. We don’t punish our clients for changing their mind. In the end, you have to live with it, so let’s get it right.

The Top Shelf Process:

Initial Meeting:
Our personal involvement with your project starts at our initial meeting. You will meet with both Mark – owner and builder, and Grant – Operations Manager to discuss and form a brief for your unique build. Unlike other builders who throw square meter rates and PC sums around as though every build is the same, we like to gather as much information as we can in order to give you back a realistic cost of building your dream home.

Our initial meeting will cover:

• Purpose of the building
• Do you need a more creative design process from scratch, or do you have a rough idea of floor plan and finishings of the home?
• Location of building – Are there views or outlooks to consider? Are there obvious site obstacles to overcome?
• Budget and spec of project – Is this your first, second or forever home? Spec or rental?

Prelim Contract:

After our initial meeting we will present you with a couple of options of our preliminary contract. This contract covers:

• Geotech report
• Engineered stormwater and septic design
• Consented architecturally designed plans
• Council fees
• House selections
• No obligation quote

This contract is designed for a few reasons. The first being, saving you (the owner) the time and hassle of trying to coordinate the above subtrades including navigating the council process. Secondly, we work with these businesses every day. From our experience, a project runs much smoother and to budget when you use and work with the same team and have great processes in place.

Selections:

The house selections part of this contract is the fun part, choosing what goes into your home!

Grant will guide you through every little detail of your home and meet with you and our suppliers to design and pick all the homes selections. It is at this point in our process that we want to know your extras and feature ideas. Feature walls? Interior to exterior cladding? Barn doors? Floating concrete shelves? Whatever you can come up with, we want to make happen.

Selections include:

• Colour consult to get a general idea of the interior and exterior theme of the home.
• Kitchen consults and design.
• External claddings.
• Hard and soft flooring covers including tiles, carpet and timber flooring.
• Plumbing fittings such as vanities, tapware and water heating options.
• Electrical layout and home automation options.
• Appliances.
• Wardrobes.

The Contract:

Once our preliminary contract is complete you will have a one-of-a-kind home, designed and consented, and ready to build. With this comes our Top Shelf no obligation build quote in which we offer two options:

• Fixed price contract.
• Management fee & build + 10%Both these contracts include all the information we gather during the design and selections process. 

Our quoting process may seem slower than other housing companies, however being this thorough means we have less PC sums and don’t need to include margins of 15-20% on products. This helps us to produce a competitive price, resulting in less surprises and extras along the way. Isn’t that nice?Of course, we are also a Registered Master Builder, so can offer the Master Build 10 Year Guarantee on top of your contract. 

More information on this can be found here.

If you choose not to build with Top Shelf by the end of this process, then we would be sad to see you go. But we will see you off with everything you need from the Prelim Contract. After all, the plans are uniquely yours and yours to do what you see fit.

The Build:

We will set you up on Google Chat, Calendar and Drive which are all tools for us to not only keep in contact but also so you can see progress and scheduling of your build.

Well, that’s it. The hard work is done on your part, and now you can enjoy the ride and watch your plans come to life. Grant will schedule and organise all the trades, site meetings and logistics of the build while Mark and his team get to work constructing your vision.

Most single storey builds take between 6-7 months depending on complexity while two storey homes or more complex builds may take 7-12 months.

That’s Top Shelfs process in a nutshell. We are a business that takes pride in what we create. We build one off designer homes with our clients. We are open and transparent and above all rely on good relationships, clear communication, and flexibility to see your project achieved to the highest of standards.