Making The Right Choice

Where do you go for a high end roof with a Pacific flavour when you are a privately owned New Zealand company specializing in the design, manufacture and export of customized and prefabricated houses
and resort developments throughout the South Pacific, Asia and the world?

The Ross family is proud to say that Greg Charteris chose Metrotile Roofing Systems and its Shingle Textured Charcoal product.

The Charteris home is luxurious by any standard in its size, quality and presentation. The brief to Architectural Designer Martin Heere, from Timber Construction Solutions, was based upon a floor plan provided by Greg and Toni Charteris and involved a high degree of collaboration to produce a unique design, with the look and feel of the Pacific, that could comfortably accommodate guests and family and which took full advantage of its rural setting and the surrounding countryside. Martin noted that it wasn’t just the size of the house that made the design challenging and enjoyable, but some of its features, including floor to ceiling doors and 15 metre long truss spans, all of which required a high degree of on going communication with Greg and Toni, the Builder and the Engineer to complete in a seamless manner.

The 730 square metre family home is located near to an existing cottage on the site. The new home sits above a lush and expansive sub-tropical garden which wraps around a small pond that sits below an outdoor gazebo and dining area. Greg installed the roof on the gazebo himself, but wisely chose to have SH Roofing install the Metroitle Shingle tile on the roof of the main house. The roof, which is some five times the area of a standard house, is a highly visible and defining feature that emphasises the Tropical design of the house. It has a 30 degree skirting roof, which required custom flashings where it merges into the main body of the roof, which is set at a 45 degree pitch. The roof also incorporates a number of long
valley lengths and ridge lines that are visible from multiple angles. Greg and Toni recently opened up their house to support the Christmas in Karaka fund raising drive for the local Tehihi Primary School, which is attended by their grandchildren. Over 1,000 people visited their home and a number of other properties in the area, during the fund raising drive, which raised some $60,000 for the school. Greg noted that many of the visitors referred to both the house and roof as stunning.

The house itself is divided into two parts by its central Atrium, which runs directly through the middle of the home, from its Southern front entrance to its long indoor / outdoor dining area and 40 metre long North facing decks. The deck is beautifully finished and it took the best part of a month to install the 1.5km’s of decking, which was secured with over 7,000 screws. On the East side of the Atrium is the Master Bedroom and living area and the Lounge and Guest rooms sit on the West side of the North facing home.

Hayden, from Roose Butcher Builders Ltd. who was contracted by Greg and Toni to build their family home, found it a challenging and enjoyable project with a number of “out of the ordinary” and one off features including the first ‘’floating’’ fire place in New Zealand. This is located in the lounge / dining room area, opposite the kitchen which in turn opens on to a Scullery or commercial kitchen. Greg is particularly fond of the Scullery which enables quality cooking to be undertaken in a separate, but adjoining area, to the entertaining. Needless to say there has been more than one “Karaka Master Chef” battle at Greg and
Toni’s Stan Wright Road property. He is also proud of the workmanship that has gone into his family home
and the quality job done by Hayden and his team at Roose Butcher Builders.

Other unique, fun and functional features include a Japanese style water garden, which flows from the Atrium entrance to the North facing decks and entertaining area, floor to ceiling doors, a sunken wine cellar with a glass ceiling that you can walk over, concealed LED lights throughout the house, a floating roof over the kitchen area and 2.7 metre high sliding doors, in lieu of walls, which open out onto the out door dining area creating a completely seamless indoor / outdoor flow. The overall concept was to create not just an impressive and aesthetically pleasing home but one of timeless style that was uniquely New Zealand with its strong Pacific flavour. In essence a quality home, that would stand the test of time and be relatively maintenance free, with its weatherboard cladding, aluminium joinery, plaster finish and Metrotile Shingle roof.

The Metrotile Shingle tile was the ideal product for this project as it is lightweight, which was particularly important due to the 15 metre long truss spans. The Shingle tile also has an attractive low profile finish that compliments the Tropical design of the house and is suitable for the collection of drinking water.

Scott Harris from SH Roofing, who undertook the installation of the Metrotile Shingle roof, was recommended to Greg by Cameron Ross, one of the Directors of Metrotile. Scott Harris has been roofing for 20 years and has owned his own roofing company for 15 years. Scott has actively worked with Metrotile in the trialing of their new products and profiles and specializes in high end metal tile roof installations. His skills were put to the test in the roofing of the Charteris home, which is a particularly steep, complex and
highly visible feature roof.

Over all this is an impressive quality home which has been created using the very best in materials, design
and original decor. A credit to all involved.

Greg, who owns Timber Construction Solutions, has over 40 years experience in timber framed design and construction and has been exporting prefabricated timber frames and other products and services for over 18 years to a range of Pacific rim markets including China, the Cook Islands, Fiji, The Solomon Islands, French Polynesia, Hawaii, India, Japan and the Maldives. Whilst Greg does not actively “sell off” of his
family home he has found that an increasing number of his customers and markets are looking at utilising
a number of the special features included in his home in their upcoming projects. This includes the Metrotile Shingle roof.