Why Kiwi builders choose local | with Richard Davidson, RDB

In Part Two of the 'Made here, for you' Series, we spoke with Kiwi builder Richard Davidson from RDB about how working with local manufacturers helps deliver better build outcomes and smoother projects from start to finish. 

Richard talks about about relationships, responsiveness, and knowing there’s local expertise standing behind every frame.

🎙️ 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.

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

Chapters

• 0:44 Introduction: Richard Davidson | 40 Years in Construction Industry
• 1:13 Why Concrete Construction?
• 1:27 Project Overview & Contemporary Design
• 1:36 Large Sliding Doors & Big Panel Joinery
• 2:10 Describe the design process
• 2:32 The Precision Behind Heavy Joinery
• 3:29 A 30-Year Partnership with Vantage
• 3:51 When Joinery Collaboration Begins With Vantage Windows and Doors
• 4:28 The Importance of Local Manufacturing
• 4:50 Aftercare & Long-Term Confidence With Vantage Windows and Doors
• 5:25 What Makes the APL System Stand Out
• 6:00 How Joinery Technology Has Evolved
• 6:35 Designing with Walls of Glass
• 6:45 Pushing the Boundaries: APL System Custom & Oversized Joinery
• 7:26 The Evolution of Architectural Design
• 7:45 The Subtle Impact of Glass on a Home
• 8:27 Why Overseas Joinery Doesn’t Work
• 9:00 Trust Built Over Decades

Transcript

0:00

Kia ora, I'm Simon Farrell Green and I'm the editor of Hair Magazine. Welcome to New Zealand Made, a series of podcasts we're making with our friends at APL Window Solutions. The question we're asking is essentially, what does it mean to build or renovate in 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 and now we're heading out into the real world to chat with the builders who use APL product. I'm joined now by Richard Davidson from Richard Davidson builders. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for joining us. No problem. So to get started, tell us what you do and why you do it in 50 words or less. Okay. I've been building for 40 years. At the moment we're doing this lovely house designed by MDS, predominantly concrete houses for the last 25 to 30 years and have a background in commercial building. What is it about? Concrete in particular that you're interested in? Just like it because it's permanent and it's really quiet, a quiet house to live in and easy to warm up and cool down. Tell us a bit about this beautiful house. Who's the architect? Mark Wilson from MDS Design. And tell us a little bit about what it will look like, what some of the special features of it. Special features probably the joinery will be one of them because they're such big panels. We're all big sliding doors and a very contemporary look in the house. As you can see from the road front, a lot of concrete. So you'll come in and it's got a fantastic entrance. So you'll come in through that big sort of double height void and then out into this living space. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, into a north facing courtyard with a pool. Yeah. Yeah. So when, tell us about this sort of design process, when do you get involved with that? Do you have any input? Not really into the design part of it. Sort of we come in when the concept and the design is done. So then we start talking to the client once we start building. But that's about, that's when we come in. Yeah. Tell us about, so we're standing here in this and what will be the living room. Some really, really big openings here. Tell us about the joinery that's going into them. These are big metro, vantage metro sliding panels. All the doors are sliders pretty much in this house. So yeah, 2.8 by sort of roughly 1500 wide per panel. So big heavy, heavy panels. So the joinery's got to be really strong to cope with that, especially in this environment. Yeah. And we've got recess tracks with the whole thing. So these these openings will really, really open us out to the to the to the outside. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That a lot of daylight in. Yeah. What are the what are the pitfalls of those sorts of openings? How hard do you have to work to make work? They've got to be really accurately put in. Otherwise, they you'll have problems because the panels are so heavy. It's got to be it's got to be 100% when you fit them. But we fit all our own joinery. So we're not relying on anyone else to do that. Yeah. And tell us about the relationship with vantage. That's one that goes back a fair way. Yeah. Nearly 30 years work with Paul Bayer of vantage windows and have found them not never a problem. Nothing's a problem. The joinery always turns up straight. Yeah. Just don't have a problem with it. And it's nice joinery. So yeah. When when do you start talking to them once a job is kind of in train? When does that conversation start? And I guess I'm particularly thinking about maybe for something a bit tricky with it or a bit unusual about it. When does that chat start? Normally once all the windows and door openings are trimmed out. Once we've got a trim size, we start talking to them about how things going to work and where the joinery will sit within the wall, the total wall thicknesses and what's on the inside of the blockwork, whether it's strapped or not. Just yeah. So it's pretty much when the the openings are ready to measure. How important is it to work with a local business who's kind of up the road in terms of in terms of that process? Oh, very important. Very important. Yep. Very important. Just it just makes it a lot easier if they are local. And you know who's actually making it and you know where the product comes from. It comes from very important. What about after the fact you know on the you said nothing's ever gone wrong but you know if things do need tweaking or adjusting or whatever. How important is that local relationship for the I guess for the client as well? Well very important that they they have faith in and the product because it's a pretty expensive product to go into the house. And we have that you know they're very quick to rectify anything that might go wrong and touch wood then normally isn't. But if there is it's it's not a problem. That's great. What does the APL system allow you to do? What are some of the things that that as joinery that you look at that and say that's the stuff that really makes a house? I suppose aesthetically it looks really nice. They can pretty much make anything custom. And it's always big joinery in these houses. It's always very big joinery. So it's very heavy glazed panels. And it's pretty much always straight. So it's just easy working with it. Yeah. That's great. Over those 40 years what have you seen change in terms of I guess the technology in them and how big you can make them? Well obviously a lot's changed with the joinery because now it's all thermally broken and the sweets are a lot stronger than they ever used to be. And the joinery is getting bigger and bigger. So it's changed hugely in the last 20 years. It's in double glazing thermally broken. You know size of joinery. So pretty much just about everything gets glazed on site now as well where it never used to be. So there's just a heaps changed. So it's allowing you and architects to design spaces like this with these almost a wall of glass. Yes. That's right. It's exactly what it's doing. Yeah. Can you tell us some other examples of I guess where you've you know you've kind of pushed the boat out or the designers pushed the boat out and you've ended up with an amazing result? The well I mean there's there's always different houses with different you know some houses have a lot of French doors and some have French doors with curves over the top of them. It's sort of it is sort of changing. The joinery putting into houses is changing with the house designs 10 years ago we weren't doing sort of anything like this with this sort of joinery in it and it was more just windows and doors everywhere where this is just big door panels everywhere. Where's that coming from do you think? What is it about that look? Just the evolution of design I suppose and just just what people see and want and yeah it's just this people change and houses change and building them out of concrete and still you can you can pretty much do anything a lot more than with a timber frame house anyway. Yeah. That's really cool. When you look at a finished house and you see those finished windows and doors in it what do you think that does for the look of the house? What does it do for the finishing touch? Well I suppose it's just it's all subtle so it's you don't sort of really notice it because it's a lot of it's glass but it's there you know it's got to be watertight and it's got to work so just the overall look of the house really yeah and on this one it's just front and back is all glass. You know one of the I guess one of the things where we're looking at with with this series a little bit is you know if you were to be bringing a joiner from overseas what would happen? I think it would be a disaster just the absolute disaster waiting to happen so you got no backup with anything you wouldn't even know if it was you know to our standard for windows you would have no idea about that and and thinking that you can order a joinery to put in holes from overseas it just won't work that wouldn't work for start and you just wouldn't do it I wouldn't do it so yeah because you'd be guaranteed for them to be wrong that's right something would be wrong but then you've also got to guarantee them for their life as well when you you wouldn't know that so I mean APL has been around a long time and so as vantage windows have been around a long time so you know you work for someone that long and you have a lot of faith in them of what their product is so that was Richard Davidson of Richard Davidson builders that was a podcast for APL window solutions as part of the New Zealand made series we'll let Richard get back to work now we'll see you next time