What are you looking for?

You choose a time, and Clinton calls you at that time — no missed calls, no phone tag, and no sales layer in between. You talk directly with the builder who would be responsible for the work.

Before the call he looks at anything you've sent — photos, plans, a rough description. After it, he'll tell you plainly whether the job is a fit. If a site visit makes sense, he arranges it with you directly. There's no obligation at any step.

Book a callback

Yes. Call or text 021 148 5769, email toppshelfbuilding@gmail.com, or book a callback — every channel reaches the same person.

The booked callback exists for one reason: it removes the guesswork about timing. You're not catching a builder on a roof or leaving a message into silence — you know exactly when the conversation will happen.

Attach any photographs, plans or information that may help explain the job — phone photos of the damaged or awkward part, a sketch, or your architect's plans if you have them.

Nothing is required; it just makes the first conversation quicker and more useful, because the job has been looked at before the call starts. Replying to the confirmation email with attachments works too.

There are no prices on this site, and that's deliberate: no two of the projects we take on are alike enough for a published price to be honest. A price made up before seeing the job is a guess, and guesses become disputes.

What actually determines cost is the scope, the site, what's revealed when things are opened up, and the products you choose — so we quote from the actual work, not from a rate card.

The aim isn't the cheapest job; it's good-quality work at a reasonable price, with a higher level of detail and finish where your expectations and budget support it.

Get a real answer for your job

A markedly lower quote is usually pricing a smaller job — something is excluded, allowed for optimistically, or not understood yet.

Before comparing totals, compare scope line by line: what's itemised, what's excluded, what's an allowance. We're happy to walk through any quote against ours on the phone — that comparison usually answers the question on its own.

The honest answer changes month to month, so we don't publish a stale one. We run one main project at a time, so your job, when it starts, gets continuous attention — which also means we book ahead rather than juggling.

Book a callback and you'll get a real, current answer — not a website's guess.

Ask about current availability

Duration depends on scope and, where it applies, consent — councils have a statutory 20-working-day clock on complete applications, and a request for more information stops that clock. We give a real timeframe when we quote, not a generalisation here.

On staying with it: we run one main project at a time. Once your job starts, it is the job — you see consistent progress, not weeks of empty site while the builder is somewhere else. Rachel, who named timeframes as her worry before her own project, describes being kept informed throughout and the process as transparent and upfront.

Yes — plans on paper and rooms in framing read differently, and changes are a normal part of building.

A change is discussed, priced and agreed with you before the work happens, directly with the builder — no administrative layers. And asking costs nothing: as Grant put it after his renovation, "you never got the feeling that the eyes were rolling."

Older houses hide things, and no honest builder can price what can't be seen.

What we do: flag the risk areas at quote time, tell you the moment something is found, then price the remedy and agree it with you before proceeding — the same rules as any other change. You hear about the problem and the proposed solution in the same conversation.

Floors and furniture are protected, tools are packed down, and the site is left tidy at the end of each day. You get clear notice of the disruptive days — when the water will be off, when it will be noisy.

Jo, whose small rebuild ran while the house was lived in, describes drop cloths down, furniture protected and the site vacuumed as the work went.

Topp Shelf is owner-led: Clinton prices the job and builds it, with his apprentice and a small set of regular trades he has worked with for years.

When a trade is on site — plumbing, electrical — Clinton remains the one responsible to you. You deal with the builder who carries the job from the first conversation to the last day on site.

More about how the business works

It depends on the scope of the work and the site — some work needs consent, some is exempt, and the thresholds change, so we'd rather look at your actual job than hand you a generic rule.

Where consent is needed, we handle the application and the council process as part of the job, while being straight about one thing: the consent legally belongs to the property owner, and the council's clock — 20 working days on a complete application — is the council's. We'll tell you honestly at the start what your project is likely to involve.

How we handle consent

Yes — farm buildings are part of the business, not a sideline, and most rural clients don't have a builder just down the road.

Distance is discussed honestly on the callback: some small jobs at a distance aren't economic for you, and if that's the case we'll say so and point you toward someone closer.

See a woolshed rebuilt around the stock

A kitset price typically covers materials — siteworks, foundations, erection, consent and adapting the design to your actual site are yours to organise. A builder prices the finished, standing building, adapts it to the site and how you'll actually use it, and remains one accountable party throughout.

Where a design is site-specific — yards, woolshed internals, a loading race built around how the trucks actually load — a kitset isn't the product. And where a smaller rural building may not need consent at all, we'll tell you honestly when your job qualifies.

Rural & farm buildings

Disagreements on building projects are usually about surprise, and the way we work exists to prevent surprise: a written quote, changes priced and agreed before the work happens, and clear communication throughout.

When we do disagree, we talk it through directly and put the resolution in writing — and the contract sets out a formal path neither of us should ever need.

Yes — it's a common situation: consented plans and no builder, a build that stalled, or an architect's design that needs a builder's eye before pricing.

We review the plans, price from the actual documents, and flag buildability issues before they cost money. Working alongside your architect or designer is normal practice — Grant and Jillian came to us exactly this way, consent in hand after a previous arrangement fell over, and the job ran through in one continuous stretch.

How we work alongside your architect

Yes — selected smaller jobs, when they fit around the main project and the travel makes sense. The same care applies at any size: options discussed, an on-site measure, a tidy finish.

And if we can't do yours justice, we'll say so quickly rather than string you along.

We're a Kāpiti-based building company working across Horowhenua, the Kāpiti Coast, Porirua, the Hutt Valley and Wellington City.

How far we'll travel depends on the job — rural builds travel further than small repairs — and the callback settles it in one conversation.

Start with a conversation, not a decision. Bring the idea, photos, a rough sense of what you want, and we'll tell you what it involves, what order things happen in — design, consent, pricing, build — and what makes sense to do next.

You'll finish the first call knowing more than you started with, whatever you decide. Hayden's first build ran exactly this way: everything explained step by step, so they always knew what was being done and what came next.

Start the conversation

We look at every enquiry and answer every one. If the job, the timing or the distance isn't right, we say so quickly and point you toward someone who fits — nobody gets silence.