Carfax
Carfax March 2015
Carfax Commercial Constructions is an award-winning, quality-accredited construction company headquartered in Sydney, Australia. Since forming in 1998, the company has grown substantially in size and reputation through word of mouth and repeat clientele which currently makes up almost 80 per cent of their business. Positive results Carfax
We re always looking at ways to get the best results for our clients, says Paul Reimer, Managing Director. We re always honest and respectful, and we re not in it for the quick buck we re here to earn long term relationships and make people happy they selected Carfax to deliver their projects. Paul started his career in the early 80s, working as an apprentice for a larger builder. Once he finished his trade, he graduated to become a leading hand, and then joined another company as a site foreman, and later a site manager. From there, he moved into project management, where he worked on projects related to the upcoming 2000 Summer Olympics. In the years following, Paul worked for many of the contacts he had made while working on the Olympics, which allowed him to build the company s experience and grow their portfolio. By earning a fully certificated Quality Management System, Carfax became a pre-qualified contractor for many Government Agencies and Tertiary institutions. One project became two, became five, Carfax March 2015
Carfax
and so on, he recalls. The business grew quickly. COMPLEX WORK Over the years, Carfax has successfully delivered a diverse range of projects for a variety of satisfied clients. They have built a solid track record working in school environments, tertiary educational facilities, industrial and civil projects, public domain,healthcare facilities, and more. Today, Paul says the company will still take on smaller-sized projects, but specialises in large contracts valued anywhere from $500,000 to $15 million. We work across a lot of disciplines in the building industry, he explains. We build new commercial buildings, sporting facilities, education facilities, and we undertake public domain work. We do refurbishments, extensions, and interior fit outs. We also do quite a bit of heritage restoration. In particular, Carfax is adept at building within unique working environments such as film and theatre studios, hospital facilities, Universities and even zoos. At Taronga Zoo, for example, they have been working consistently for almost 10 years, building various exhibits and structures. We tend to gravitate towards difficult Carfax March 2015
Carfax
projects with live sites, Paul says. With the majority of our projects, we have to work around our clients and communicate with all stakeholders, so their operations can still carry on. According to Paul, Carfax is skilled at delivering that kind of complex and sensitive work because of the intense personal focus they grant each client. Paul and his fellow Director Jerome Curll, for example, are intimately involved in all project stages from tender to completion. We re available for the clients at all times, Paul says. Some of our competitors are much larger than us, and can t provide that same level of access. I am very client driven, he adds. That culture is passed on through the company. We definitely want the client to get the best results that they can, which hopefully leads to further opportunities from those clients. Paul also credits Carfax s high level of capabilities to the skill of the company s team, which includes their subcontractors and tradespeople. He describes those relationships as open and strong, and says many of those team members have been working with the company for a very long time. Carfax March 2015
Carfax
GRAYTHWAITE HOUSE Over time, Carfax has developed a large and significant portfolio of projects their staff can be proud of. Recently, they added the historic Graythwaite Estate to that long list. Graythwaite House is a place of exceptional historic significance to New South Wales, and is included in the state s Heritage Register. It was originally built in 1833 and is arguablythe oldest remaining structure of its type in the North Sydney area. In 1915, it was donated to the government by its thenowner, Sir Thomas Dibbs, for use as a convalescent home for returning soldiers from the First World War. Carfax was contracted to restore the estate for use by the new owners, the Sydney Church of England Grammar School (SHORE School). They are a great client, as they were passionate about restoring this building to its former glory so that its future is assured, Carfax March 2015
Paul says. They didn t take any shortcuts. A lot of clients will restore old buildings, but they won t go that extra mile to really make them something special and SHORE did that. The Stage 1 scope of works on the site comprised the conservation and refurbishment of the three historic buildings on the site for school uses. Those building include Graythwaite House, the Tom O Neill Centre, and the Coach House. Stage 1 works of the redevelopment also comprised drainage and stormwater works, site levelling, and landscaping enhancement works including a surfaced driveway, new plantings, pathways, garden structures, and more. The project also included the construction of a new Union Street gate and Palisade fence with sandstone retaining walls, and new Edward Street and Senior School gates and fences. According to Paul, Graythwaite House was in a terrible state prior to the commencement of the works. Since then, it has Carfax
Carfax March 2015
been meticulously restored to its former glory, and its future has now been assured. OVERCOMING CHALLENGES The Graythwaite Estate Stage 1 Project was awarded two Master Builders Excellence in Construction Awards in 2014. First, the project received the 2014 NSW MBA Award for Restoration of a Historic Building. Later, at the National Awards, the project won the Commercial Historical / Renovation Award. Paul says he values that kind of recognition from a marketing perspective, but in this particular case, it also meant a lot to the whole team. To win that award was brilliant, he says. It was a difficult project with significant time constraints, given that SHORE had booked in dignitaries to open the building for their 125th year anniversary. We had to work very hard to get there, and we did, and the client was over the moon with the result. According to Paul, Carfax was able to overcome that challenging timetable with some pretty intense programming programming which accounted for even the smallest details. For example, they had to match 150-year-old tiles, which were made overseas in England. It required a lot of time to get samples sent back, get the architect to sign off, and get the work commissioned and that time needed to be programmed in from the start. There were a lot of things we had to be doing well in advance of when we actually could start carrying the works out, Paul says. It was a big team effort to make that happen. We had a number of people working very hard and very long hours to achieve that Carfax
goal. The entire project team was excellent, he adds. Everyone from the client, to the project managers, to TKD Architects they all worked hard to overcome the hurdles and helped us deliver an excellent result. Moving forward, Paul aims to continue working collaboratively with clients like that to deliver exceptional projects like Graythwaite. Recently, Carfax did that on another award-winning project for the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), who are one of their many long term clients. We built a new three-storey building within NIDA, which was also an extremely difficult project, Paul says. We had no access, and we weren t allowed to block the street. We ended up lifting in a self-erecting Tower crane in the middle of the night, and we built the building by bringing everything in by hand including more than 60 tonnes of steel and roughly 50 tonnes of other building materials. It all had to be brought through the main foyer of NIDA out of hours. But again, the client was very happy with us, he adds. That s what we thrive on. In the future, Paul says they will keep thriving as they grow ideally by 15 to 20 per cent per year. They will also continue to take on larger projects, and will look at creating a division within the company to take care of the smaller ones, and perhaps another division to take care of heritage ones. That s around the corner, Paul says. But our main line of work has been working within live commercial environments, and we re keen to continue along that line. For me, what s most important is delivering a product that our clients and the Carfax team are happy with, he adds. If we continue to do that, we ll continue to grow from strength to strength. Carfax March 2015
Carfax
Carfax March 2015