We are third generation Swimming Pool Renovators. Would you like to know about the history of Local Pool Renovations? Read this article to find out about us.
This is estimated to be a 10 minute read, we invite you to learn about us & hopefully feel proud to hire us to do your swimming pool.
My grandfather Leonardo Rodriguez was born in Argentina in
1927
When he was just 6 years old, he started to work in a farm because his father
passed away & so he had to work with his brothers in order to help the
family survive.
His passion was singing and theatre, he was a very talented singer and actor,
even as a child he would sing in bars to get coins to take home to his mother.
As he got older he continued to sing and perform, he made connections in the
entertainment business and in his teenage years he started working in the
construction industry in Argentina where he also learnt how to tile.
He arrived in Australia after the government had an assisted migration policy
in the early 70s that included and invited people from Argentina, he didn't
need to give it much thought and he came to Australia with his wife Carmen
& their 3 children named, Leo, Alejandra & Veronica.
Leonardo Rodriguez arrived in NSW and immediately started working wherever he
could get any work, he was given many jobs in the construction industry and
they used him for whatever talents he had and the skills the builders could
potentially develop out of him.
Leonardo was asked if it were possible for him to tile a swimming pool and he
said he could, so he was given a project to tile the waterline tiles of a new
swimming pool, he said he enjoyed the work so much, he wanted to do it again
& so he did, he felt there was an art to tiling swimming pools like no
other in the construction industry.
Because of his background in the arts and entertainment, he naturally
gravitated to this type of work and never looked back, he also started doing
the pebblecrete render coping around the top of swimming pools.
Leonardo met another pool builder in NSW that had a swimming pool business in
Melbourne, he was offered permanent work in Melbourne doing swimming pools and
he moved with his family to the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
My father Eugene Galban was born in Spain in 1955, he grew
up in a small town by the sea where many of the residents worked in the fishing
industry.
At just 16 years old, he was a sailor & worked on the ships that would send
containers from one country to another, he did many trips around the world from
Europe to Africa & South America, when he final arrived in Australia in
1974 in the port of Melbourne.
Spain at the time was ruled by General Franco, Dictator of Spain, so when
Eugene arrived in Melbourne he was offered work and accommodation and so it was
an easy decision for him to decide to stay, knowing that he could help his
family overseas with earnings from Australia.
During a weekend in 1977 my father Eugene decided to go out
into Melbourne with friends to the Spanish Club in Johnson Street Fitzroy.
On this night he met a young woman by the name of Alexandra, she is the
daughter of the original pool tiler Leonardo Rodriguez, once they had a dance
and got to know eachother over the course of roughly a year she introduced
Eugene to her parents and they shared the news that they intended on getting
married.
My grandfather Leonardo, had no problem with this, but expressed that he wanted
Eugene to come work for him so that Eugene could learn how to tile swimming pools
and be able to provide for Alexandra and for the security of their future family.
Eugene was working fulltime at a factory and would work weekends learning how
to tile swimming pools with Leonardo. In 1979 Eugene married Alexandra (My mother)
Eugene worked with Leonardo for just over 4 years, he also managed to work night
shifts at a plastics factory at the same time!
After the 4 years my father Eugene decided to go into swimming pool tiling on
his own, he became a self-employed swimming pool tiler during the 80's he
mainly did tiling work for Atlantis Pools in Melbourne, Atlantis Pools was
located in Springvale Road, Springvale.
Eugene went on to become one of the most sought after swimming pool tilers in Melbourne, he worked for Award Pools which is a highly regarded swimming pool building company & he had continued on to expand his knowledge, taking on private tiling work & doing swimming pool renovations.
Eugene had done swimming pool tiling for celebrity clients such as Rex Hunt, Shane Warne & Geoffrey Rush.
When I was a kid in the 80's I remember my father coming
home in his truck, it was a Toyota Dyna, I was always so excited to see my dad and
the truck, I remember I was taken to work with him on many Saturdays to
watch him working, I also remember going with him to the Atlantis Pools head
office in Springvale.
In my teenage years while I was at school, I worked with my father on weekends,
I would always be asking questions and he would also tell me to watch how he does
it, so that I would learn.
I remember the first renovation I helped in, he had to build up the floor of
the swimming pool because the customers didn't want the pool to be so deep.
My father always appreciated art of all kinds & he was always so proud of
the jobs he would do, he would talk about swimming pool tiling as if it were a
form of art, he would mention all the mosaic tiling that there is throughout
the streets of Spain and talk about how art comes naturally to the Spanish
people, he would show me his work with photos he had taken & many times he
would boast about his work when we were at the jobs.
The advice my father always gave me was, there are many tradies
that get into trouble, many tradesmen that get sued, if you don't want to be
one of them, then do every job as if it were for yourself, if you give your
jobs the love and attention to detail you'd give to your own swimming pool,
then your customers will always be happy.
In my 20's I continued to work with him until eventually I was offered a job
opportunity to tile a swimming pool on my own, once that job was complete my
confidence was soaring & I felt so proud, I knew I had to continue doing
jobs on my own as I was just starting a new family with my wife Irene.
Irene was always very supportive, she encouraged me and helped me have the
confidence that was needed to start a business for myself.
I have always been an enthusiastic person, If i did something I needed it to be
big! No matter what I did, I wanted to be the best at it and when i started
planning the business, my first priority was to have good customer relation
skills, I didn't want to be a rough tradie, I wanted to be a professional, I
wanted to be able to communicate with customers respectfully and give them a
great renovation as well as a good friendly experience.
When thinking about what to name the business I was starting, It didn't
make sense to me to name the business a fancy name, like Andrew pools or
tropical pools etc... I wanted to be approachable, I wanted customers to feel
like I was always available, I remember once when i needed a plumber i was
hoping to find someone local so they could help me quickly, when in that moment
I realized I should name the business Local Pool Renovations as a reminder that
I want to always be available to customers and hoped my customers could always
count on me to be around the corner if they ever needed me.
Swimming pool tiler Eugene wit​h his son, Andrew (me)
The original swimming pool tiler, my grandfather Leonardo Rodriguez with me (Andrew) at 2 years of age.
Becoming the best pool renovators in Melbourne
is a long journey, we have always felt that while we have been considered to be one of the best at what we do, isn't
the end goal but instead it is an ongoing journey that doesn't end, it is
something that need to be maintained.
All the years of learning has taken the business Local Pool Renovations to
new heights and in many directions, with the accumulated knowledge that has
been passed on to me from my grandfather & father, I have learnt more and
more about swimming pools, concrete, pool tiling and other pool related
miscellaneous things, we now do swimming pool painting, pool tiling, pebble
interior resurfacing, glass bead interiors, pool coping, removal of quartzon,
conversion of vinyl liner pools into concrete pools & all concrete swimming pool related
repairs.
We are not a jack of all trades, we are a professional in each of
them.
In total that is 45 years of experience this pool renovation business has had
in the making!
We still have the hunger to learn more & grow continuously, we have learnt
many lessons from each pool renovation & repair we have ever done, we are
lucky that we have the hindsight point of view that teaches us where the pool
builders, tilers or renovators have gone wrong in these jobs & we use that
knowledge to not repeat the same mistakes they have made.
We have a great team that love their work & take pride in what they do, we
have an open door policy with our employees, we trust them to make decisions
& communicate with us, in our weekly team meetings we ask them questions
about things they have learnt & we pass on our knowledge to them, our
employees know that they can take a break when they need it, they can have a
day off anytime at all & they can go on holidays whenever they please as
long as we know in advance and it doesn't affect our customers, incredibly our
team works 6 days a week, sometimes on Sundays if required, they are dedicated
& they hardly ever take a day off!
They work very hard, and they are
deserving of our trust in them.
So we invite you
to consider hiring us for your swimming pool renovation and become a part of
our journey.
I hope you have enjoyed understanding how we have grown in the swimming pool business.
0407 666 999