John Stewart — Rakaia, Canterbury

John Stewart farms at Rakaia. Over the years, he's picked up what he calls the "iron disease" - collecting vintage and classic John Deere tractors.

The collection kept growing, and with every tractor needing protection from the weather, it was time to build a new shed.

John looked around at a few shed options before making his call. What stood out was Alpine’s service.

After making initial contact with Alpine, the team were onsite two days later. Within a week, he had four prices across four different shed designs to compare.

From there it was a straightforward process of narrowing down: four options to two, two options to one.

"You can't go past them (Alpine) for quality and workmanship and pricing."

Wider Bays. John went with 10m-wide bays using fully enclosed, bird-proof steel purlins, rather than timber. This gave him considerably more room to move machinery in and around.

"I'm very pleased with the 10-metre-wide bays. It gives us a lot more usable room, and for the little bit extra cost, it's a well worth advantage for storage, especially with machinery."

Bird-Proof Purlins. Timber poles, paired with Steelbone purlins - fully enclosed and bird-proof steel purlins.

"To have a shed that was bird-proof was quite an advantage to me, and so far, the only time the birds come in is when John opens the door."

Efficient Processes, and a Dedicated Install Team. "It just flowed from start to finish. The build team (Alpine’s Install team) was a pleasure to have on site. Everybody communicated well with me, kept me informed of where they were at. Even the weather didn't slow things down. When wind threatened to hold up the roof, the crew started at 5.30am and had the iron on before it picked up.”

John now has a 27m x 20m timber pole shed built for exactly what he needed it to do: house a growing tractor collection, keep it protected from the elements, and keep the birds out. The wider bays give him the working room he was after, and the build process itself was seamless.

"If you're looking at a shed today, I'd talk to Alpine. Very approachable, and the guys are great to work with. We went through the different options of doors, clearlight, size of bays and height, and they talked me through it all. We settled on this design, which so far has been brilliant."