Letter Boxes

[hawkeye]

Has anybody ever had any experience getting Letterboxes made?

We've got a twelve flat property and I want to get a single free standing unit with twelve A4 size lockable Letterboxes. I've searched the Web and rung the specialist Letter Box manufacturers but they are very expensive. The best I've found is $600 if I wait for his 'seconds' to build up over time.

Thanks in advance.

[Ianacek]

$600 sounds like a great price to me. I have had letterbox banks of 3,5 & 12 made. They all cost in the $60 to $70 per box range, for front-opening lockable boxes. Front opening boxes can generally be emptied on the way in without getting out of the car. In towns, they only need to be large enough these days for mail - milk deliveries are no more & couriers generally take packages to the door anyway.

Even a 12-unit metal bank is light enough to mount on a fence by yourself, so there is a saving there.

If you currently have old letterboxes that tenants have to lean over to get their mail or spill leaflets on the ground; they are probably affecting your rentals and/or vacancies far more than the one-off $70 it may take to get a modern box.

[Marcus]

Hi Hawkeye,

Why not have a joiner make a one piece set up for you.
Get a few quotes.
Be sure to stipulate the level of treatment you would like the materials to have, painted/not painted etc.
Where are the units?
I recently had a joiner make up a large wall mounted TV/SKY/VCR/DVD unit from MDF cover sheets. I asked that the unit be "built like a tank" as it is mounted directly over stairs. This now makes the lounge more functional as the stairs (installed when the previous owner raised the house and built a basement underneath) came up into the lounge using up valuable space.
With a quick sand and a coat of polyurethane, it came up perfect. It could easily hold a 40" TV with room in the compartment below for the other goodies.
Coversheets are a good cheap option particularly if you are going to paint anyway.

The job cost $60.00 + "tradesman’s GST" (a box of Waikato ).

Regards,
Marcus.

[hawkeye]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the quick replies.

The flats are in Christchurch. Currently they share a single letterbox which works better than you might think. When we bought the place a simple "No Junk Mail" sign eased the overcrowding and one of the tenants delivers the post from the box at the gate to the communial hallway. Most of the tenants only receive two or three pieces of mail a week.

If I lived there it would worry me that I didn't have my own private Letter Box which is why I looked into the costs.

I was thinking a metal construction. What type of establishment made your units Ianacek? A sheetmetal factory? I'll explore the wood option too.

Thanks again.

N

[grotto]

Getting them made

I've never had letter boxes made, but I've had other similar things made by sheet metal fabricators, and they've always cost much less than I'd anticipated.
Being from Auckland, I don't know any places in Christchchurch, but the Yellow Pages would help out.
I've had galvanised & zincalume flashings etc. made, and they have been about a third of the price of buying them made up.
The cost of the sheetmetal is quite low, and with the right equipment it does not take them long.
As with everything, ring around and get prices and haggle a bit.

[Marcus]

Hey Hawkeye,

Be sure to let us know how yoy get on. You never know, I may need a 12 unit letterbox made up one day

Cheers.