The Visit / Introduction

Arrange to come and meet us and view our Powered Living demonstration home in Nelson. We will show you round the house and answer all your questions. You can feel the comfortable temperature and see the materials. We can then discuss your site and go through some design ideas. We welcome enquiries from all over New Zealand.

If you are keen on the idea of working with a Powered Living solar design or the Concept house we will then arrange another meeting and/or visit to your site (depending on location) and complete a sketch design for you. This will provide us with a good idea of the viability of the design for your home and site. We will also be able to discuss a better indication of the construction cost.

Please note that from from here on there are two well defined stages to the overall Design Process: Design development stage (including Initial Design and Further Design) and Detail drawings stage.


The Initial Design

Following the introductory stage, we will provide you with our fee proposal for your consideration. After your approval of this we will complete our first formal ('Initial') design exercise. We will advise if you need to consider further survey information. This will cover in more detail what you want from your home and will also factors such as views and solar aspect, prevailing winds and site gradient. Following from this we will then engage in a more detailed assessment including items such as services/council/covenant requirements. At the end of this stage you will have a computer drawn Concept house design at scale 1:100 (A3 size).

Further Design development

Design development generally means refining the design of your home, and will cover more discussion on your personal design preferences and the role energy saving will play in your home. If you are working with our unique concept house - design development should be more efficient and easy - for all of us! We will complete a solar assessment and 3D visuals/model to enable you to fully understand how the design works. We will advise if you need to apply for a Resource Consent or if you need supplementary engineering services. It is also recommended that at the end of this stage we obtain an indicative price from your builder(s) or a Quantity Surveyor. This stage will conclude with a set of finalised 1:100/50 design layout drawings (Plans, Elevations, Sections); ready for the Detail drawings stage.

Time: The Design development stage will take between 2 and 5 months as a guideline.

Detail Drawings

Detail drawings can now be completed for the purposes of obtaining Building Consent approval and also to obtain a firm builders' price. This will cover advice on all materials and finishes. On completion we then place our submission to your local council for approval - and at the same time we can provide a copy to your choice of builder(s) to obtain a final price (note if possible however we recommend that pricing is obtained prior to consent application). We will answer all council queries and can help you with assessment of your final builders' prices. This stage will conclude with Building Consent approval and a firm builder's price.

Time: The Detail drawings will take between 2and 3 months as a guideline. Council approval and builders' pricing can vary but generally both take around 2/3 months, which is why it can work well to complete them together.

Building

Building can then start! We highly recommend that we monitor site progress in tandem with your council inspector.

The construction of your home should take between 5 to 8 months to complete.

Completion

Move in and feel warm about your Powered Living home!