AnchoredWood 2.07

About Michael Gaston

Michael Gaston is a fully certified carpenter with over 15 years experience in the building industry. Michael is a third generation tradesman who learned his trade in his Native New Zealand, where he completed his apprenticeship in 2005. The New Zealand apprenticeship system is internationally recognized for producing some of the worlds most well-rounded and skilled carpenters via an extensive, dynamic and thorough qualification system.

During his early career he was privileged to learn from and work with some of the most skilled and accomplished builders and carpenters in his country. He later moved to Australia where as part of a Perth building company, he developed additional skills including the pouring, setting and finishing of tilt-up concrete. He moved to Canada in 2009 where, as part of NZ builders, worked on several ambitious residential and commercial projects throughout Vancouver Island.

From his earliest days as an apprentice he has worked his way up to the position of foreman in which capacity he handled client relationships and managed sub-trades and other workers in addition to his on-going hands-on carpentry work. Over the course of this period he has applied his knowledge of project management, quality control and quantity surveying to ensure that projects are completed efficiently and within set deadlines.

These diverse professional experiences have left Michael with a deep appreciation for applying innovative and dynamic thinking to the problems that sometimes appear during a complicated project. He is a strong believer that you should not be wedded to a single way of doing things and that client service must include providing outside-the-box thinking in both design and execution. Michael prides himself on being able to simultaneously apply both logical and creative thinking to his work.

Over the course of Michaels career he has worked on several award-winning projects, the most recent of which was Wain Road, a project using a concrete sandwich panel building method. The team at NZ Builders improvised by taking tilt up construction from the commercial industry and using it in the residential sector. Also unique, all of the furniture was custom built from wood that was milled right off the original property. Throughout the course of this project Michael was responsible for all of the concrete work as well as being solely responsible for the fabrication of the interior doors, the live edge book shelves, coffee tables, makeup desks and other unique, one of a kind pieces of furniture that characterize this cutting edge, energy efficient home.

Michael strongly values quality, and takes great pride in his craft. In his spare time, he continues to apply his trade in crafting one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture including side tables, coffee tables, dining tables, bed boards, mirrors, doors and bars.

Michael recently launched his own Company Kiwi Construct.


Kiwi Construct

Kiwi Construct is a unique company that is driven by quality, strict attention to detail and thinking outside of the box in order to exceed client’s visions and expectations.

Based out of Toronto, Kiwi Construct delivers high-end, custom building of homes and one of a kind furniture. Specifically, Kiwi Construct provides the following services:

• Custom renovations and updates
• Custom millwork
• Custom furniture
• Consulting
• Project Management