Why Kiwi builders choose local | with Ben Gommers, Gommers Construction

In Part Two of the 'Made here, for you' Series, we spoke with Kiwi builder Ben Gommers from Gommers Construction about what really makes a difference when it comes to windows and doors - and why choosing New Zealand-made continues to matter in their day-to-day work.

Hear firsthand how builders are helping shape a stronger, more resilient construction industry by choosing locally made solutions. 

🎙️ About the Series – Made here, for you
Made here, for you is a storytelling series by APL & AGP, shining a light on the people, places, and processes behind New Zealand-made windows and doors. Every episode captures the craft, care, and Kiwi ingenuity that make our products truly local and built to last.

🏠 Explore Our Brands
• Altherm Window Systems
• First Windows & Doors
• Vantage Windows & Doors 

🌿 Proudly NZ-Made
From design to delivery, every window system is created here in Aotearoa supporting local manufacturing, innovation, and communities nationwide.

💬 Connect with Us
LinkedIn YouTube Instagram Facebook

Produced by APL. All rights reserved.
“Made here, for you” stories of New Zealand-made windows and doors, told by the people who bring them to life.

Transcript

0:00

Kia ora, I'm Simon Farrell Green and I'm the editor of Hear magazine. Welcome to New Zealand Made, a series of podcasts we're making with our friends at APL Windows Solutions. The question we're asking is essentially what does it mean to build, renovate, and an increasingly global and interconnected world, and how do we balance a desire to reduce carbon emissions and improve the performance of our buildings with the ever-increasing cost of doing so? So far, we've chatted with experts at APL and AGP about changes in building tech and a few other issues. Now we're heading out into the real world to chat with the builders who use APL product. I'm joined now by Ben Gommers from Gommers Construction. Welcome Ben. Thanks Simon. How are you? I'm good. Yeah, good. So your first task is to tell us what you do and why you do it in 50 words or less. What we do is our residential architecture. We tend to do some challenging projects, working alongside architects to achieve the best outcomes of clients. Why, what is it about that side of the industry that keeps you interested? What is it about the tricky jobs and the architectural jobs rather than the bog standard that you love? I think it's just the challenge, right? The problem-solving required is actually quite enjoyable once you get through it and find the solutions. So I think that's why I'm drawn to it. What's the most of the work that you do? You've said architectural, but how is it necessarily high-end or is it more that it's got that design edge? I would say we're not high-end. We're definitely heading to that end of the market, but we tend to do projects which are more affordable architecture, I would say, for the average person. So we're often challenged with trying to find ways to meet clients' budgets. So we're often not graced with an open checkbook for jobs. So we have to kind of work through carefully and tailor what we can do on their budget. That's really cool. The thing I always notice about the jobs you've worked on is how precise the detailing is. It's always like I'm looking around at this room and the timber paneling and everything. That's something you really focus on, isn't it? Yeah, whether I focus on it or whether I'm kind of forced to focus on it, but I've always tried to make every detail in a project look right and a lot goes into that. So a lot of thinking has to happen before you end up actually putting it together, and that's where architects enjoy working with us because we go into that level of detail. It's really cool. So we should talk about where we are. This is a really beautiful house. Tell us a bit about it, who designed it, and kind of what stage it's up to. Yeah, so we're at Moata Place in Devonport. It's a four bedroom house designed by Oli Booth and Libby Elmore of Elmore Booth Architects. 285 square meter new build. It's in a heritage zone, so not often you can build in Devonport like this, so a bit of a unique project. It's a fairly open plan downstairs, as you can see, large kitchen, sunken lounge over there, four bedrooms upstairs, two bathrooms, and just some really interesting details. Some tricky details, yeah. What's the trickiest detail? What's the one that really took some work to get right? The trickiest detail. There's a few skylights that are triangular, which was a bit of fun to get right. But the curve behind me here has to take the cake as the trickiest part of the project. Yeah. And the clever thing about that curve is you've got the curve, but then the joinery is square behind it. Tell us a bit about that, what point do you get involved with the project and start working with the architects to make these things stand up? Yeah, I guess it's mainly predetermined in terms of the shapes from the architects, but we get involved detailing how it's actually going to work. So sometimes there'll be an intention of how something should look, but not necessarily a broken down explanation of how you get there. So we have to see the end result and then work back from there to make it happen. Yeah. So tell us a bit about the windows and the doors, I guess, particularly in here. There's some quite beautiful bits of joinery and some quite big bits of glass as well, right? Yeah, there's definitely some big panes of glass. This corner slider opens right up, so sort of maximising the opening there without the central million. And then Elmore Booth has sort of divided some of the other sections up just to create a bit of interest and a bit of light filtering, which is quite nice. So tell us a bit about the process. When a job like this comes in, how important is it to have someone local that you can work through the details with and how does that work? So we get involved with our local manufacturer well ahead of time, usually during the pricing stages. Once we're on site, they'll get involved by coming to site for a site measure, but they'll also be able to provide us with any information we need around profiles of extrusions and dimensions so that we can set everything up for the site measure. And then when the site measure happens, we can work together with them to make sure that all our critical dimensions are right. And so that's really easy because they can come to site being local, often, and work through these details. Yeah. That's cool. Tell us a bit about some of those sort of that customisation that those really fine details. What are some of the things that you can do with an APL suite and with with Viewmaster that you know you maybe wouldn't be able to do? We often have details where a ceiling will run into a piece of joinery or war linings and there's a few different sort of adaptor plates you can use on the head and the jams to suit your details. And so, yeah, they're really good at telling us what's available because it's a suite that they're really familiar with but us, we're at least familiar with it. So it's really good to have someone who can just point us in the right direction. But you're customising and changing and adapting, whereas say something that was coming in kind of off the shelf from overseas, there's no way you could do that level of detail with that sort of a product. I don't think so. I mean Viewmaster's local to me so I can easily pop down there and talk to them about things. I think having someone who can just pop out the site and talk through it as opposed to email is really valuable because it can be very slow communicating by email but a site visit can cover a lot of items really quickly. Yeah. It's really cool. We sort of touched it a little bit but what does the APL system allow you to do on a build like this? What are some of the other things that you see? The advantage I see is the profile of the frame is quite small so you kind of maximise the glass. Obviously it accommodates your double glazed units and things like that. It has this corner slider behind me that's a fairly common detail where they have all those components ready to go. Can you give us some other examples where you've kind of really pushed the boat out with APL joinery to get an amazing result? Yeah. We've managed to work with APL to create frames for entry pivot doors so they're happy to explore different pivot systems and how it can work in their frames so that's been a massive advantage to be able to do that. We've worked with Viewmaster on overcladding sliders, worked through details with them for council to achieve co-compliance. We've managed to build triangular skylights here which is a bit new and they were really helpful with that and accommodating you. Tell us about the triangular skylights. What where are they and what do they do and how did you manage to work that together? So there's two triangular skylights on this project. One is in the sunken lounge and serves as just a light well at the end of the daybed. The other one is a much larger triangle skylight in the ensuite which sort of marries into all the angles of the building and looks really easy like Viewmaster just kind of worked with us to tell us exactly how we need to set the framing up and detailing the fleshings underneath so that when it came more or less just slotted straight in. So there's a lot of bureaucracy and liability around sign-offs and building building concerns and that sort of stuff. How important is that the products for you will do what they say they'll do and that they'll last? Oh it's really important. We need to be able to give the client the assurance that it's going to do the job and last that the coating is suitable for the environment that it's in. So yeah it's really important. What about follow-up care? How important is that again that sort of local touch? You don't want anything to go wrong but if things do go wrong what happens then? Yeah so another advantage of having someone local who can come out and troubleshoot inevitably there'll be something that needs looking into after the clients moved in and we've found Viewmaster really helpful like they'll come out and problem solve and solve the problem really quickly which I think if you're dealing with someone in another country is this going to be far less likely? Yeah. Hey that's awesome Ben. To finish off what's your favourite thing about this house? My favourite thing about this house. The thing you're most proud of. It's the curve behind me. Yeah that would be my favourite part. That's awesome. Thank you. That was Ben Gomez of Gomez Construction talking about a house in Divinport by Elmore Booth Architects. We'll let you back to work. Thanks Simon.