But Mother Nature had its say, through the winds of October 23, and it is hard to operate a business without a roof, electricity or customers.
Mr Gordon, 64, a one-man band at the garage, saw his roof blow off four weeks ago. It ended up against a retaining wall across the road.
"I was in the workshop — it was huge, huge winds. Then we had two really big gusts, which caught the roof and the roof flew off," he said
"Could I believe it? Well, I think the reality was kicking in pretty quick. It was pretty unbelievable wasn’t it?
The roof flew across the road and hit a retaining wall.
He said the roof was buckled and bent and the wood attached to the roof was splintered and smashed.
He put in his insurance claim and waited for a new roof to appear. Four weeks on he was still waiting and had been told it might be January before the work was completed.
"Yeah, I can’t work. The building’s not operating."
The insurance company had assured him the roof would be repaired and work was set to start next month.
"But it’s all about jumping through hoops and dealing with bills and dealing with engineers and dealing with council. There’s five or six people I’ve got to deal with.
"Everyone’s got their own opinion."
Issues had come up around consenting and changing building standards.
"It’s all those little glitches that happen when there’s a complex build going on."
He said the building was 60 years old and things had changed since it was built.
He had business interruption insurance, which was helping him out. There had been assessing work for the new roof but no construction had started. No windows were blown out by the wind.
So what has he been doing for the past four weeks?
"Pretty much every single day I ring insurance. I’ve made about half a dozen calls today to different people.
"It’s a couple of builders, engineer, insurance assessor. It’s just phone call after phone call. I’m getting sick of it."
He bought the business in December 1985, when it was also a petrol station but the pumps disappeared in 2000.
He said it was a busy time of year and his loyal customers would have to look elsewhere, which was frustrating. Electricity was too difficult to get into the workshop.
