Chris Cresswell | Director, Carpenter
Born and raised in Whangarei I moved to Wellington to study a Bachelor of Commerce at Victoria University. During my last year of study I started working one day a week for a housing company in Johnsonville, helping out labouring on site and assisting with some pricing of jobs. As the university year finished up I moved into building full time, signing up for a building apprenticeship constructing new homes in .
After 2 years of battling Johnsonville’s cold winter winds I made a move to Auckland to chase an opportunity of working on high end residential renovations with QPC Builders. Working on these high end technical renovations gave me a good base of skills in the residential building industry. I finished my apprenticeship whilst working for QPC.
Hobbies
- Hiking
- Sports – Rugby, Cricket, Golf
- Business
- Travelling
- Fishing and diving
- Snowboarding
CMCC Limited
Once I gained my Certificate in Carpentry I left the safety of employment to set up CMCC Builders in 2016. We started off with a few small fencing and deck projects around Hamilton and Auckland. Soon after I was approached to manage the fit-out of a backpackers hostel in Auckland’s CBD. This was my first taste in the commercial building game and the logistics of working in a busy city. Managing teams of up to 8 builders as well as various subcontractors was definitely jumping in the deep end. However we managed to turn an old, dated heath spa into Metro Adventurer Backpackers, one of the most popular hostels in Auckland.
Travel
In 2017 I spent 5 months backpacking around Hawaii, Canada and through South and Central America. This was an unreal experience travelling some areas traditionally seen as being unsafe. During this time I learnt that everything isn’t always as it seems on the surface. Locals are keen to do anything they can to shake the unsafe image of their country and encourage tourism.
Move to Wellington
I got back to NZ in late 2017 and started contracting in the commercial sector. We were working on projects like Boulcott’s Farms new club house and working on constructing a new lab for Kiwistar Optics.
Finally as we progressed through 2018, we focused more on the residential building market taking on a few new house builds whilst building up a reputation as reliable and competent builders. While building new subdivision homes was consistent work for the foreseeable future, the problem solving aspect of renovation work and architectural builds was more appealing and challenging. No two renovation projects are the same. As we move forward I hope to continually produce content giving people insight into all aspects of a construction project.
Country and Coast Construction
As the company was through growing 2020/2021 we decided a new name would signify the end of the one man band and create a company and culture employees would be proud to represent.
Goal
I would like to take on challenging work and help young tradies develop their skills in both construction and business. I would like to focus on more energy efficient building techniques whilst developing into a company that utilises new technology to provide a level of customer experience never seen before.
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