Design & Construction Firms in Waikanae Beach, Wellington

“I have worked with Essence Design on numerous projects and Robyn has been fantastic to deal with right through. Every time there is a change required or an update to plans, she responds very quickly and nothing is ever a problem for her. I can highly recommend Essence Design and look forward to working with Robyn again in the future.”

“They ran to budget and to time worked efficiently and curtiously Pleasant and kept me informed and updated finished on time”

“Dear Houzz We are delighted to provide feedback to you on our experience with using Cathy Wood Ltd in our recent home renovation. We have indeed recommended her to several of our friends as a result of our satisfaction with her competence, expertise and professionalism. Cathy ‘rescued’ us from a situation where a renovation job proved to be a bigger job than we had anticipated. Originally we had planned digging under the house for a small L-shaped workshop space. The engineer had agreed it was feasible, and we set out to do it in May 2016. But we had already started with some excavation when it became apparent that far more complex work was required than we had anticipated. In the words of the builder and engineer “once we knew the structural problem was there we could not leave it unattended”. The problem was that a supporting wall, which had a window in it, had been very badly built and would need to be removed and the house above needed supporting. Luckily Cathy was referred to us by a friend. The situation required liaison between the builder, engineer and us, the clients, and Cathy then drew up working diagrams which we all consulted on until we were happy with the overall direction of the project. Cathy then undertook to take the necessary steps to get Hutt City Council approval, first of all a Certificate of Acceptance for the structural work already done, then a Building Consent application. Cathy liaised with the Council to obtain approval to proceed and then drew up the plans and elevations in consultation with the engineer, builder and us. A key issue was that the new stairs between the basement and upper level of the house would need to meet modern Code requirements and so some of the upstairs hallway had to be re-designed and rebuilt. Cathy talked us through the issues and the nett result has been strong, convenient and very attractive, and we were very happy to achieve the Code Compliance certificate in what was, in the end, a year of renovation!”