Cover story: Alpine Buildings shed

By: Shannon Williams, Photography by: Justin Bennett

Date: 22.06.2021

After coming across Alpine Buildings purely by chance, within weeks, Derrell Meyer had his dream shed designed, confirmed, and underway

Derrell’s 15 x 28.8m Alpine Shed stands large and proud on his Hamurana property

Nobody has ever regretted making a shed too large. That was the sage advice given to Derrell Meyer as he designed his dream shed for his 60-acre dry stock farm in Hamurana, Rotorua.

"I was told to always build at least one bay more than you think you’ll need. Well, we ended up with two extra bays and are already managing to fill them," Derrell admitted as he gave a tour of his new prize possession – a six-bay clearspan shed from Alpine Buildings.

At 15 x 28.8m, with six bays at 4.8m wide each, and with automatic roller doors at both ends, the new shed stands large and proud on Derrell’s property.

Derrell’s Alpine Buldings shed was put up in two weeks

After looking at several clearspan and pole shed manufacturers, Derrell says he came across Alpine Buildings almost by accident.

"I was visiting another farm and they had an Alpine building. I took one look at it, and I could see the quality in it, so I hunted down Alpine there and then," he says.

"I’d already been looking at clearspan-type sheds and I was so impressed by his Alpine building, that I found out who Alpine were, gave them a phone call and went from there."

It’s all in the details

With a relatively firm vision of what he wanted, Derrell had a few must-haves to be included in the shed design.

"We were looking for a shed that was going to be low maintenance. It had to be large, have height, and it needed to have a clearspan design so we could move things around inside without poles being in the way," he says.

Each bay comes with automatic roller doors at each end

"We needed a drive-through section so we could come through from one side and straight through and out the other – we didn’t want to have to reverse. Having an entry and exit for each bay is very useful because some of our vehicles and equipment are quite long.

"And we’ve also got an open section. We needed that for the dirtier farm equipment and appliances."

The open sections were a game changer, Derrell says.

"I was going to close in the whole lot, but the open bays are incredibly useful for the farm machinery that is coming and going every single day," he says.

The Alpine bird-proof design protects against the acidic effects of birds

Because a lot of farm equipment and vehicles are stored in the shed, it was important for Derrell that no birds or vermin would be able to make a home for themselves inside. Alpine’s birdproof steel rafter system perfectly met this requirement.

"We’ve got an agricultural trailer, a regular dumping trailer, a couple of pick-up trucks, and a large caravan that we use as an office when we are on-site. All this as well as a tractor and its implements and the telehandler and all of its implements as well. And everything fits inside the shed.

"If you’ve got vehicles and equipment in your shed, you don’t want birds coming in, making a home and making a mess. And because we’ve got an RV parked in here, we don’t want rats or mice coming in either," he says.

User-friendly and quality shed design means all farm machinery and equipment is well protected

"By design, the shed is bird-proof; there’s nowhere for them to settle or to nest. All of the roller doors have anti-bird mesh installed in them so they can’t get in underneath the roller door. The whole thing is sealed."

Dream team

Derrell says the entire process, from the first phone call with Alpine Buildings, through to seeing the shed complete, was incredibly positive.

"From the first phone call to Bella Boakes and Scott Ackroyd leading me right through, to arranging everything with the council, the kitset delivery… even Colin, the driver with the kitset, contacted me on his way over. The whole thing was seamless," he says.

Derrell uses the shed to store a range of farming equipment

"I gave them the dimensions that were required with the length and width, which then determined the bay size, and from there they determined what the roller door size could be. Then they presented me with a draft plan of what it could look like.

"We modified it a couple of times, and
we took due consideration to where the prevailing wind was and how we were going to deal with the water that would be coming off the roof, which was a bit of a consideration because its 435sqm roof here, so every millimetre of rain that falls here is 435 litres going somewhere.

"Then I pretty much got put onto a dream team in terms of the builder and site prep," Derrell adds.

Each bay has its own lighting as well as plenty of natural light

"We had Jon Jolley from Jolley Good Bobcats do the site prep; he’s a local here in Rotorua. The site was all ready to go when the kitset arrived and wasn’t out by even 10mm across the entire 30-metre width."

"And builder Travis Conway, who had been recommended by Alpine, was on-site the day after the kitset arrived, and he commenced work straight away and wanted the council site inspection done the day after that," he says.

No hiccups, no headaches

"Travis puts up all kinds of pole sheds, but his strong preference is for Alpine. He says they’re just great to work with, and everything is in the kitset.

The mobile home is used as an office for the farm

"When you see the kitset arrive here, it’s incredibly organised. Everything is in place, the instructions are perfect – more than what you need to assemble it. There wasn’t a single hiccup," Derrell says.

"It was an incredible kitset that arrived. We weren’t looking for one single screw or bolt or anything. It was all supplied, very well labelled, and impressively packaged. Travis wanted for nothing for the assembly.

"And it was assembled in two weeks."

Derrell, who works full-time on top of the farm, says that end-to-end service from Alpine made all the difference.

Entries and exits on both sides eliminate the need for reversing in and out of the shed

"I didn’t have time to organise everything or be on site full-time. So that end-to-end service meant there were less headaches for me.

"Nothing was too much trouble, the contact and communication from the team was incredible," he says.

"There were no hiccups or surprises, which is practically unheard of. It made this a really enjoyable experience. It’s quality the whole way through.

"If you are going to summarise what an Alpine Shed is, it’s quality," Derrell adds.

"Even down to things like the door. Even the door catch. It’s the little things that set this shed build apart."

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