At the Ahuriri villa where their work won them a national award are Mike Christie, left, Peter Christie and Jae Green of Christie Builders and Joiners. Photo / Warren Buckland
At the Ahuriri villa where their work won them a national award are Mike Christie, left, Peter Christie and Jae Green of Christie Builders and Joiners. Photo / Warren Buckland
They may be a small crew in the building and joinery trade, but a Napier company has got the nod over the rest of the country by nailing a national award at the recent Master Joiners Conference staged in Invercargill.
"We're a relatively small company so to head off thebigger boys around the country is a bit of a feather in the cap," was how Christie Builders and Joiners boss Peter Christie put it.
The company, which his father kicked off back in the 1950s and which he now heads, had first picked up the top Hawke's Bay/Poverty Bay regional award and then took out the top prize in the national finals - Best Compliant Timber Joinery category.
Their winning work and entry centred around an intricate and extensive retrofit and rebuilding project, to the highest compliance standards, of a villa in Hardinge Rd, Ahuriri.
Christie was proud of his crew which is comprised of two apprentices and a joiner in the workshop and two apprentices and two builders who work under the company's supervision out in the field.
The award-winning interior work at the villa carried out by the building and joinery crew. Photo / Warren Buckland
He was also delighted the latest award was the third year running the company had tasted success at the national awards.
In 2017 Jack Clifford was runner-up in the Master Builders Competition Apprentice of the Year while Brett Miller took out the title of Best Joinery Apprentice for Workmanship and Skill at the 2018 awards.
Christie said the latest national award reflected how the company had embraced what he described as shake-ups in the industry in terms of extensive compliance requirements over the past four to five years.
Tight new standards had been introduced around areas like double glazed joinery and ensuring water tightness.
He said they were a "traditional" company, with a long family background in the building and joinery field going back to his grandfather, and with that knowledge having been passed on were often called to do a lot of older home renovations as well as the latest design and construction jobs.
"You have to be multi-skilled and we have put a lot of effort into maintaining that," Christie said.
Now in his mid-60s, he had effectively put the tools down and worked in the office and said his son Mike, who looks after the builders, would eventually take the helm.
"Sooner the better, that's the plan," he said with a laugh.
"Time to just scale back."
There was also another Bay success in the New Zealand Master Joiners Apprentice Awards with Logan van der Meer of Molloy Joinery in Napier taking the Best Fitment Over 2 Years category title.
