Timaru Craftsman Wins NZ Master Painter of the Year

Media Release
May 24, 2011

Timaru Craftsman Firm Brushes up on Past to Win New Zealand Master Painter of the Year Title

It was a long commute and the project involved thousands of hours of painstaking detailed work, but Grant Jenkins’ daily trek from Timaru up to the historic Mt Peel Station in the High Country near Geraldine has paid off handsomely as the project has helped him earn his firm the coveted title of the New Zealand Master Painter of the Year 2011.

Grant Jenkins and his team of up to six qualified painters travelled from Timaru to Mt Peel every day for nearly a year to repaint the interior of the iconic historic homestead, which has been the home of the Acland family for more than 150 years. The interior of the 18 room homestead is constructed of plaster walls, cornices, and ceilings with endless timber doors, windows, skirtings and feature stairways.

The Mt Peel homestead was fortuitously earthquake strengthened just prior to last September’s earthquake. Luckily, it suffered only minor cracking to the interior in both earthquakes, which Grant Jenkins and his team are due to repair and paint.

Grant Jenkins Contracting also won several category awards which were presented along with the major award at the New Zealand Master Painter of the Year Awards, proudly sponsored by Dulux, in Hamilton on Saturday night (May 21). The Timaru family firm won the Residential Dwelling- Rework interior and also the Decorative Specialty Paint Finishes categories. Both these wins were for the Mt Peel homestead paint project.

For the specialty paint finish, the team used a unique plaster finish to create a rag roll marbled effect. Grant Jenkins Contracting also won the best Wallcoverings – Commercial, for their skill and accuracy in hanging particularly hypnotic patterned wallpaper in Timaru’s grand Grosvenor Hotel, known as the Grand Old Lady of the South, during its recent major renovation.

A previous winner of the South Canterbury Business Excellence Awards, Grant Jenkins has built on the reputation he developed through working with his father and brother in the family firm, RB Jenkins. He established his current business in 2005 with one staff member and he has built up the firm to a team of 22.

Some of the prominent painting projects the company has completed include Farmers department store, Smiths City, the Waimate Basilica and the South Canterbury Hospice. The business is a family affair with Grant’s wife, Silvia, running the accounts and marketing while brother, Brett, manages the company.

Awards judge Murray Gray, who is National Stores Manager for Dulux New Zealand, said he and his fellow judges were impressed with the standard of entrants.

“The standard for the past couple of years has been fantastic and this year we were again blown away by the quality of work entered.

“We were also pleased to see that the number of entrants increased again this year to almost double that of last year’s, and that there were a number of new and long term members entering for the first time across a number of regions.”

Entries in 16 commercial and residential categories were received from as far afield as Invercargill to Gisborne, New Plymouth to Auckland for a variety of projects, ranging from a new residential property in Te Anau in a setting “to die for”, to a rework of the interior of the historic Wellington Supreme Court, and the painting of a new school block at Burnside High School, which remained undamaged in the recent earthquake.

Painters’ work is judged on a number of factors which include: evenness of surface coatings; degree of difficulty; cutting in of one colour to another; detail of finishing and evidence that the contractor has taken that extra care when completing the project.

These were the third New Zealand Master Painter of the Year Awards and Murray Gray believes the awards attracted more entries this year as winning one of the categories or the major award has proven to be an extremely useful marketing tool for the winners.

A full list of this year’s New Zealand Master Painter of the Year Award winners accompanies this release.

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