Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
It might not cross your mind just how important the building blocks of the structures around you in your everyday life are, but Les Fuller of All Coast Aluminium has a few things to say about that. Based in Tamborine but providing safety and security to homes and businesses in areas far and wide through their aluminium gates and other constructions, Les enlightens us on the wonders he and his team can work with this underrated element.
by Kyle Hitchmough
How did you first come to own All Coast Aluminium?
I was a boat builder, working for a company building high-end catamarans out at Jacobs Well. The fiberglass was toxic, so I was looking for something different. I came across an ad in a local newspaper for an aluminium fabrication business. It was a franchise based in Northern Rivers. I ended up buying one of their franchises— biggest mistake of my life. I lasted with them for about three years, and then I branched out on my own. I opened the business in a factory out at Molendinar. That didn’t work out, and I brought the business home to Tamborine. It’s been here 16 years now.
For those who might not be familiar, what is it that you offer?
We mainly make gates, powder coated aluminium gates. We’ve done private and commercial gates. People are wanting to fence off their front yards these days for security, so they have a block wall put up with a gap for a pedestrian gate and one for a sliding or swing gate on the driveway. Sliding gates and panels, that’s the majority of my work. We also make privacy screens, louvres for external window coverings, the occasional shutter job. Balustrades is another product that’s very popular. We offer a full gate installation service, right from the time I go out to meet the client, measure the job, tell them what we can do, they can come back to me with a design they want, I quote the job, we go out and arrange for things like concrete pads for sliding gate tracks, we install the gate, install the motor, I have a guy that works with me who can do intercoms. We offer the full service for the client, they order the gate and we do the whole lot.
Have you had any interesting or unique projects you’ve worked on?
We’ve done some fancy gates as far as northern New South Wales. Right now, a quote’s been accepted for a double swing gate with the latest colour of powder coat that makes it look like rusted steel. It’s for a famous actress. The owner asked us to keep it discrete, but she does television shows and lives in Byron Bay. It’s surprising what we can produce in that little shed.
Are there any trends in the industry you’ve noticed?
The trend has been for most people to select a design using horizontal slats with a spacing of whatever they desire. If they want privacy they close the gap right up to 5 or 10mm. We can do a pool fence style, a curved top rail, fancy with spear tops, all that kind of stuff, but horizontal slats have been the trend for a long time. Another trend, people are using Hampton-style designs.
What goes into an average day’s work for you?
I open up at 6:30. Then I’m off on the road doing quotes, anywhere within the area of Tamborine, Tamborine Mountain, Brisbane, Northern Rivers, Gold Coast… I do quite a lot of miles. Then I come back to process the quotes and email them off. I draw up the plans for jobs that we’ve accepted for the boys to fabricate. My son and I go out and measure for each job that we land, we have to do all the proper checks, angle of the ground, distances, heights, so that when we make the gate it all fits, it’s critical because it’s so expensive to redo something.
As a local, what’s your opinion on the Tamborine area and community?
I love it. It’s a neat community. I came here 22 years ago, I was single at the time, and bought the five-acre property. It’s a rural lifestyle, simple little house up the back, nothing fancy, and it’s nice to come home to. We get to use the locals for different trades. I recently had trees cut down, and a local, Trav the Tree Climber, to do the trimming for me. I’ve got a guy who supplies me with all the steel posts I require, he’s a local, Trevor Henderson, he’s one of the Hendersons along with Matthew who works for me that goes way back, long-term residents whose ancestors settled in Tamborine. Local gas station, of course. We get on really well with the neighbours around here.
What do you think All Coast Aluminium really provides to the area?
A lot of locals come in to buy pieces of aluminium off us. A guy down the road asked me to order in two lengths of aluminium for a motor home he was building. If you go to Bunnings and buy a metre-long piece of aluminium, you might pay $30 to $40 for it. I can buy that same piece in six and a half meters and pay less than that, and sell it for a lot less than those exorbitant prices and save people the trip. It’s all local. All the guys that work for me are locals.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
Once the job’s finished and installed, looks good and all operates well, that’s where I get my greatest satisfaction. I take a photo of each job I do and put them on our website. That’s the part I enjoy the most.
We are always looking for new topics for our blog. If there’s something you like to see more of, email your suggestions to: social@professionalsserendipity.com.au, or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com.
