Having built everything from lofts and house extensions to superyachts, New Zealand hutmaker Paul was keen to get stuck into his first job at Plankbridge – cladding a stunning bespoke hut bound for the Med in beautiful homegrown cedar
Tell us a little about yourself and how you came to join Plankbridge…
I’m from a small town at the bottom of the South Island in New Zealand, and having left school at the age of 16 I started an apprenticeship as a builder, where I worked until I was 23. After that, I spent two and half years in Oz doing commercial construction and from there I moved to London where I worked on lofts and extensions. When my visa expired, I crewed for a while on superyachts before returning to England to take up a job in Poole with Sunseeker. One day I got talking to a friend of a friend who said Plankbridge was looking for a hutmaker, emailed my CV over, and after a trial day where I met Richard and the team, I started a couple of weeks later.
What have you been working on since joining us?
I’ve been quite happy to be given the cedar cladding on a bespoke beach house for my first job – a great project because it’s similar to a lot of the timber frame work I used to do back home. The cedar is lovely to work with and smells nice too.
What attracted you to working at Plankbridge?
When I found out about the job, the first thing I did was look at the Plankbridge feed on Instagram and I could tell the standard of the craftsmanship was very high. That’s what made me want to join the team. I also liked the fact that I’d be working not just on one piece of the job but on the whole thing, from framing to the finishing. Having that variety was important to me.
When you’re not making huts what do you like to do on your time off?
I live near the sea so I enjoy getting down for a swim and I want to get back into mountain biking. There’s no shortage of people to do it with on the team.
What do you enjoy most about working as a Plankbridge hutmaker?
The guys are really good to work with – if you like the people you work with it’s definitely more enjoyable and the work is what I’m familiar with from working back in New Zealand, seeing the process through from start to finish. Also, one of the things that drew me here was the fact that the work is inside a workshop – I wanted to be dry rather than working out on-site in the rain during a British winter!
Meet other members of the Plankbridge team, here
