Self storage in Rolleston, 856 Jones Road

Storage is one of the few purchases where new genuinely matters. An older facility accumulates the same problems every building does: doors that stick, seals that have given up, a corner of the site that puddles after rain. You do not find out until your things have been in there through a Canterbury winter.

The Jones Road site was built as a storage facility rather than converted into one. The units are laid out on a proper grid with drive-up access to every door, so you are not carrying a couch the length of a corridor. The concrete is level and sealed. The roller doors are new and operate with one hand.

It also means we could size the units for what people in Rolleston actually store rather than inheriting whatever the previous fit-out left behind. Four sizes cover the range from a few boxes of files up to the contents of a five-bedroom house or a small business's stock, with no awkward gap in the middle where you have to take a unit half again as big as you need.

The gate is electronically controlled and logs every entry, so we know which cards opened it and when. That is the real security benefit of a swipe system over a shared code: a code gets passed around and never expires, whereas a card belongs to one account and stops working the day the unit is given up.

The site is under CCTV monitoring around the clock, covering the gate and the unit rows. Lighting runs across the whole site, which matters more than people expect, because most of the awkward storage trips happen after work in winter when it is dark by half five.

Our office hours are Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 5pm, and that is when you can reach a person for a new booking, a size change or a question. Access to your own unit is not tied to those hours in any way. If you need to load at 11pm on a Sunday because that is when the truck is free, you can.

Square metres are close to meaningless until you picture furniture in them, and the most expensive storage mistake is renting twice: once too small, then again at the right size a fortnight later. So the numbers below are the honest version, with a walkway left down the middle rather than assuming you pack it solid to the roof.

One or two awkward items usually decide the size rather than the total volume. A three-seater couch is about 2.2 metres long and will not stand on its end in most units. A fridge freezer is around 1.8 metres tall and has to travel upright. A king bed base is 2 metres by 1.8, though most split into halves. If those fit with room to walk, the rest stacks around them.

If you are between two sizes, take the larger one. You can move down later, and paying $20 a week more for three months costs less than a second van hire and a Saturday.

The new build pattern is the one we see most. Rolleston has been one of the fastest growing towns in New Zealand for a decade, and a build almost never finishes on the day the old place settles. A unit for the three or four months in between is cheaper and less stressful than either storing everything in a relative's garage or paying to hold two properties.

The relocation pattern is close behind. People moving out from Christchurch typically arrive before they have decided what stays, and a 14 or 21 square metre unit buys the time to make that decision properly rather than in a skip on moving day.

Business use splits into two. Trades and small operators store tools, stock and seasonal equipment somewhere that is not the back of the ute. Offices store documents: accountants, law firms and property managers with retention obligations and no space for another filing cabinet. Both want the same three things, which are 24 hour access, a dry unit, and no long contract.

The rules that catch people out are the practical ones rather than the obvious ones. The units have no power supply, so a chest freezer can be stored but not run, and you cannot charge a battery or work in the unit off a socket. Bring a torch.

You supply your own padlock, and it has to be a standard 50mm padlock. Anything larger physically will not fit the lock housing on the door, which is a genuinely annoying thing to discover with a loaded van behind you. Buy the padlock before moving day.

Nothing flammable or under pressure: no petrol, no gas bottles, no fireworks, no paint thinner. Nothing perishable, because food attracts what you would expect it to attract. No plants and no animals. Nothing you are not legally allowed to own.

Rolleston is indoor units only. If you need outdoor yard space for a boat, caravan or trailer, that is at our Hornby site on Halswell Junction Road.

Rolleston town centre is 1.8 kilometres away, about five minutes. Templeton is 9.4 kilometres, roughly nine minutes north up State Highway 1. Lincoln is 12.9 kilometres, about sixteen minutes across Weedons Road. Prebbleton is 14.2 kilometres, about fourteen minutes.

Access is easiest with a van or a small truck, and the layout means you will not be reversing blind. If you are hiring a truck for the day, the drive-up doors are worth planning around, because loading straight from the tailgate into the unit is the difference between a two hour job and a four hour one.

If you cannot find the gate, call us on 027 487 8673 during office hours and we will talk you in.

Storage pricing gets confusing when facilities quote a headline rate that applies to one unit size on a twelve month commitment, then add administration, mandatory insurance and an access fee. Ours is the weekly or monthly figure on the unit, and that is the figure you pay.

The minimum rental is one month. After that it is month to month, so if the build finishes early or the house sells faster than expected you are not paying out a term.

We price match. If you find the same size unit cheaper locally, we will match it, and your first week is free. That offer is the reason to check us against whoever else you are considering rather than a reason to avoid checking.

If you are unsure which size you need, call before you book. Talking through what you are storing takes five minutes and is considerably cheaper than moving units.