Colab Construction: Commercial and Residential Builders in Albany WA
We are a commercial and multi-residential builder based at 4 Prior Street, Centennial Park, working across Albany and the Great Southern of Western Australia. Our capabilities range from new builds to bespoke fit-outs and intricate refurbishments in live environments. If you are looking for builders in Albany who will work alongside your architect and your trades rather than around them, that is where our name comes from: collaboration is in the name, and it isn’t a slogan, it’s a daily practice.
From a two-person outfit in 2015
We began in 2015 as a two-person carpentry and roofing outfit and registered as a building contractor the following January. Adam Wheeler, our director, has been on the tools since 1991, completing his carpentry apprenticeship in 1994 and his Advanced Building Certificate in 1997. He now has over 35 years of commercial and residential work behind him, across Western Australia, the UK and New South Wales.
The people on the job
We are a sharp, longstanding, cohesive team who all live within 15 minutes of the office in central Albany. Adam is our nominated building supervisor, a registered builder and carpenter, and he runs projects, construction, estimating, contract administration and the day-to-day business. Jason Bell handles estimating, job management and contract administration and oversees our quality and management systems, with more than 20 years in the building industry behind him. Michael Triplett is a qualified carpenter working as site supervisor, head carpenter and plant and equipment officer. Steve Archer joined us after 19 years running his own business, bringing occupational health and safety and project management experience with him. Michelle Quinn-Archer coordinates tender submissions, payroll and accounts, Adele Pitzalis is our bookkeeper, and Alex Spaanderman started one day a week and has since progressed to a full-time carpentry apprenticeship.
The work we take on
Our three streams
- Commercial: as a diversified contractor we work across construction, fit-out and refurbishment, from new builds through to bespoke fitouts and complex refurbishments in live environments.
- Residential: defined contracts, clear protocol, itemised quotations and detailed project timelines, covering group dwellings, new homes, renovations, alterations and additions in the Great Southern.
- Refurbishment: where the business started. We were founded on complete and often complex refurbishments for community housing, returning homes in extreme states of decay, with failed foundations or gutted by fire, to as-new condition under tight timelines and strict protocol.
Buildings you can drive past
Most of what we build is within half an hour of the office. The Albany Shellfish Hatchery, the Albany Police Complex, Headspace Albany, the Hearing Australia office fitout, the Albany Entertainment Centre remedials and the Albany Residential College dorm refurbishments are all ours. So is a good deal of school work: the STEM facilities at North Albany Senior High, Denmark Senior High and Mt Barker, the commercial kitchen and the bus shelter at North Albany Senior High, the six-classroom block at Mt Lockyer Primary, and projects at Golden Hill Steiner School. Further afield we built the Katanning sheep feed facility, and closer to town, the Angus Street units at Mount Melville. Office fitouts for the Department of Justice and for the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety round out the list. Jonathan Bilton at the shellfish hatchery put it plainly afterwards: potential flaws were identified early and improvements implemented without delay, and quality control was excellent.
How we run a site
We spend where we live, prioritising local subcontractors and suppliers. On our recent $3 million hatchery project, 84 per cent of contract value was placed inside the Great Southern. We also run sites you’d be proud of: clean, safe, organised, and working hard to minimise impact on neighbours, schools and staff, which matters when half our jobs are in an operating school or office.
That is written down rather than just said. Our health and safety policy sets an accident-free workplace as the objective, treats mental safety at work as just as important as physical safety, and commits us to the Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023. On site we separate soil, bricks, concrete, timber, green waste, steel, cardboard and plastic for recycling, and salvageable hardwood, aluminium windows and doors go to the local tip shop to be upcycled. Subcontractors are inducted into those procedures and encouraged to suggest better ones. In the office we run plans and specifications through Dropbox and Buildxact at quoting stage, keep invoicing paperless, and use Australian made, ideally locally made, products where specifications and value allow.
Talk to us about a project
Our office is at 4 Prior Street, Centennial Park WA 6330. Ring (08) 9842 9618 or email [email protected]. Do you have a prospective project? Send through the details and we’ll come back with a swift, honest read on scope, program and cost. If you are a tradesperson rather than a client, our current openings are listed under Work with Us.