About
Carpenters first.
Builders second.
Tallowwood Building Company has been putting its name on Coffs Coast work since 2019.
Steve Nicholas
The bloke who quotes it
is the bloke on the job
Steve started Tallowwood as a chippy doing the work most builders sub out — staircases, hardwood floors, decks, joinery. The kind of jobs where the finish is the whole point.
Getting the builder’s licence changed the scope, not the approach. The first full build under it was a three-storey weatherboard house at Emerald Beach that several other builders had already turned down. It took fourteen months, and it won Renovation/Addition Project of the Year at the 2025 HIA Northern NSW awards.
Steve still runs a small crew, still takes on the tricky carpentry himself, and still turns up to the first site visit personally. That’s deliberate, and it’s not going to change.
How we work
Four things we
won’t trade away
None of this is revolutionary. It’s just harder to do consistently than most people expect, which is why we keep the number of jobs low.
One job at a time
A handful of builds a year. Enough attention that nothing gets managed from a ute at eighty on the highway.
The same trades
A builder is only as good as the team with them. Ours are the same names on every job, and they’re good.
Straight answers
If a variation is going to cost, you hear it before the work happens — not in the final invoice.
Detail that holds up
Coastal air is unforgiving. Flashings, waterproofing and fixings get done for twenty years, not for handover day.
The crew & the trades
Jobs don’t get finished
by one person
On the award-winning Emerald Beach build, three blokes were there most days with a belt on and dirty hands.
- Angus Watson
- Ethan Stocks
- Callan Davies
Behind them is a bench of Coffs Coast trades we use again and again — steel fabrication, tiling, cabinetmaking, interiors. Without good trades there is no finished job.
- Barry Smith Engineering
- Concept Tiling
- Sawtell Kitchens
- Natural Habitat Interiors
Recognition
2025 HIA Northern NSW Housing,
Kitchen & Bathroom Awards
How a job runs
You should always know
what happens next week
Five stages, every job, whatever the size. Most of the stress in building comes from not knowing what is meant to happen next — so we tell you.
Site visit
We come and look at the place, listen to what you want, and say honestly whether it’s a job for us.
Written quote
An itemised quote that separates fixed cost from provisional sums, so you can see what’s still open.
Contract & programme
A proper building contract, insurances in place, and a realistic programme with the stages mapped out.
On site
Steve on the tools, our regular trades, and a message when something needs a decision — before it’s a problem.
Handover
We walk it with you, fix the small stuff, and stand behind the work after the truck leaves.
Where we build
Coffs Coast and the
villages either side of it
Tallowwood builds throughout the Coffs Coast — from Emerald Beach and Woolgoolga in the north, down through Coffs Harbour and Sawtell to Boambee and Bonville, and out to Corindi Beach and Red Rock. If your place sits a bit further out, ask us: we’ll tell you straight whether we can service it properly.
- Coffs Harbour
- Emerald Beach
- Sandy Beach
- Woolgoolga
- Sapphire Beach
- Moonee Beach
- Korora
- Sawtell
- Boambee
- Bonville
- Corindi Beach
- Red Rock
- Safety Beach
- Mullaway
Start a conversation
Thinking about a build, a reno
or an addition?
Tell us what you have in mind and we’ll come and look at it. No obligation, no hard sell — just a straight answer on whether we’re the right builder for the job.