Colin ‘Woody’ Williams on steel fixing, Wanna Win a Pool, and the Wild West
The beauty of concrete is in its strength and durability. And the steel is your pool’s bones. Our steel fixer is guided by the design of our structural engineer to tie the steel necessary to reinforce and strengthen your concrete shell.
Meet our tidy steel fixer, Colin. Colin owns and runs Woody’s Formwork and Steel Fixing, which supplies timber and steel for a new swimming pool following the excavation.
‘The swimming pool industry is weird,’ says Colin ‘Woody’ Williams. ‘It’s so small and everyone knows everybody else. All the pool builders don’t know what I look like, but they know who I am. They just know my name and what I do. I have a bit of a reputation I guess.’
‘Most of the boys at work call me Woody, because they think I look like Woody Harrelson,’ Colin says. ‘Everyone pretty much expected me to call the business that. My wife and I named our son Ruben Woody Williams. We thought it was pretty funny.’
A boilermaker by trade, Colin was introduced to the pool industry by his brother, and hasn’t looked back since. In ten years, the company has gone from doing around 30 pools a year to doing around 100.
‘I work seven days a week sometimes,’ Colin says. ‘This year has been especially busy, with the pandemic and everything. No one’s going anywhere, and people want to spend their money on their homes, so they can enjoy it, and feel safe.’
On the daily, Colin makes the long commute from his home in Appin to work on sites around NSW.
‘It’s the wild west,’ Colin laughs. ‘It’s pretty good out there. Freezing in winter! We have a couple of sheep, chickens for my daughter to run around after. A horse.’
We reckon formwork and steel fixing is an art – every bit of steel is bent and shaped by hand on site depending on the unique requirements of the pool. Colin oversees every project he takes on, which is why he’s run off his feet most of the time. But he likes it that way.
‘I try not to advertise or get out there too much,’ Colin says. ‘I end up knocking people back. I just like to stick to the regular builders and service them as best as I can. That’s my priority.’
At Cronulla Pools, we use Woody’s Formwork and Steel Fixing on almost all our projects. Like us, Colin is totally obsessed with getting the little things right and treats every project as if it were his own. He’s definitely built a reputation as one of the most reliable and experienced in the business. He says he gets a kick out of watching a client’s dream pool come to life.
‘It’s pretty good to see just an ugly hole in the ground, and when we’re finished it’s the shape of the pool,’ Colin says. ‘That’s pretty satisfying.’
Legend that he is, Colin is donating his time to tie the steel for the winner of our Wanna Win a Pool Competition.
‘It’s always good to give back to people,’ he says. ‘We’ve got the opportunity to help someone and that’s pretty good. It’s only a bit of time and money from my side, plus it will be fun. You know, when I talked to the other trades we said – we’re looking forward to it. We’d do a couple of these a year if we could. Yeah, I’m really looking forward to it.’
To learn more about Wanna Win a Pool click here.
