Chris Walkom has spent 20 years in the construction business, but his last 11 years leading his own company have been the most fulfilling. “I was working in London doing renovations, basements and the like, and fell in love with the challenge of old buildings and bringing new life to them,” he says. He moved to Newcastle, NSW in 2015 and noted no one was specializing in renovations and extensions there, which led him to create his own company, Walkom Constructions. Very quickly, they took on some projects that “put the company on the map” locally. “We started out doing decks and small renovations to older houses. Since then, we’ve evolved to take on projects between $750,000 to $3 million,” says Chris. These days, their primary builds are large scale structural builds and additions and custom new builds. Most of the work are in the inner areas of Newcastle, but they have the capacity to do single large builds around Hunter Valley and the Central Coast. One of these special projects Chris calls the ‘Church Street rebuild’, completed six months ago. He describes it as a large complex renovation and extension in Newcastle overlooking the harbour. “It was a double brick building with heritage features and a cantilever roof, on a hilly site with a ten-metre fall across the depth of the property,” he says. “It was extremely technical with a lot of high-end finishes including a complete stripping of the inside of the ground floor.” They endured setbacks during the 12-month project including an eight-week period of off and on heavy rain. “I enjoyed figuring out the complexities of the structure, constraints around the site and how to access and work with the existing structure,” says Chris. “There was a high level of detail in the finishing which called for meticulous planning and execution.” Capitalizing on the view was a big part of this project, necessitating the addition of large windows and sliding doors. Chris chose an THE CONSTRUCTION SOURCE AUSTRALIA
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