A Newcastle builder who learned the trade inside commercial construction says the habits he carried into residential work, and the ones he is still fixing, come down to planning, numbers and the customer.
Most builders can put up a straight frame. Fewer can say with confidence what their business costs to run this month.
Abanoub Kamel, Director of A to Z Homes and known to most as Aba, is honest about sitting in that second group right now. Speaking with Az on The Good Builder Podcast at The Professional Builder summit, the Newcastle based builder described a business that is growing, a set of habits borrowed from commercial construction, and a fixed cost picture that has shifted faster than he expected.
It is a useful conversation because it is not a success story told in hindsight. It is a builder in the middle of scaling, saying out loud what he plans to change.
A builder with no tradies in the family
Kamel’s path into construction started at a crossroads at 18. He was into IT, finishing high school and weighing up which way to go.
“I could not see myself doing IT for the rest of my life,” he said. “I enjoyed it, but it was very mundane and dry, to be honest.”
Construction was not a family tradition. “I don’t have any tradies in the family, no nothing. But I thought this looks kind of cool.”
He enrolled in a construction management degree and, by his own account, did not enjoy the start. “To be honest, the first two years sucked, they were awful.”
What changed things was work. A job in the commercial sector, he said, “really was like a crash course on what building is.”
Commercial taught him structure, residential gave him purpose
Kamel’s commercial experience was with a subcontractor working under head contractors. He described an environment full of specialists, with direction coming hard from the top.
“We were a subcontractor, and you just got grilled every day by the head contractor,” he said. He acknowledged others may have had better experiences, but for him it was a harsh and unfriendly setting.
The move into residential was the turning point. “Dealing with people, like everyday people, you’re building their dream home, that’s extremely rewarding.”
Today A to Z Homes builds houses, duplexes and granny flats across Newcastle, the Central Coast and the Hunter region of New South Wales, and has recently started taking on renovations. Commercial is off the table. “I don’t want to do commercial,” he said.
The business is set to deliver eight projects this year and is aiming to double that next year. He was candid about the conditions. “Easier said than done with the economy doing what it’s doing.”
The commercial habit worth keeping is the weekly coordination meeting
Asked whether he brought commercial structure into residential, Kamel said there was too much structure in some ways. But one practice made the trip.
“What we brought over with us was the weekly round table meetings that commercial does. They do that very well.”
In those meetings, he explained, each party flags what is coming. A big window delivery next week means the lifting operator is ready and the delivery area is kept clear. Everyone hears it at the same time.
He contrasted that with how many residential jobs run. “I find a lot of resi builders are just, we call the plumber, hey mate, can you be there on Friday? Just doesn’t work.”
His view is that forward notice is the whole point. “You’ve got to give everyone notice. You have to have some kind of system in place.”
For builders who rely on the same pool of trades as everyone else in their region, that is less about formality and more about being the job a trade can plan around.
Fixed costs move faster than most builders track them
The most practical moment in the conversation was Kamel’s answer on what he would change in his own business.
Presenters at the summit had pressed attendees on knowing their fixed costs. That message landed.
“If you asked me that six months ago, I’d give you an answer. That answer’s very different now,” he said.
He listed the reasons in one breath. “Someone resigns, you employ someone new, a vehicle breaks, you buy a new vehicle, a new subscription, everyone’s on AI now. I’m not keeping my finger on the pulse enough in the way of the overheads.”
Even uniforms come into it, he noted, when summer arrives and the team needs new gear.
None of these are big decisions on their own. That is exactly why they drift. A growing business adds staff, vehicles and software in small increments, and the overhead figure a builder carries in their head goes stale.
His plan on returning to the office is to go through the overheads “with the fine tooth comb,” then review them quarterly “and see what’s changed.”
Fixed costs and overheads
Fixed costs, often called overheads, are the costs of running a building business that do not change with each job. They include office and management wages, vehicles, insurance, premises and software subscriptions. Job costs, such as materials and trade labour, sit with individual projects. Overheads are recovered through the margin priced into each job, so an out of date overhead figure flows straight into pricing.
Professional development is part of the job
Az asked why a builder with a degree and a growing business would sign up for a summit like this one. Kamel said he had given it plenty of thought.
“Builders are so good at putting up a frame, getting things done on site. We don’t take our professional development seriously enough.”
He described the presenters as people who had already solved the problems he is now facing. “They’re leading us to water, all we have to do is drink.”
By the end of the first day, he said, his notebook was mostly full. “Every person you speak to gives you a gem.”
He also sees the wider industry shifting. Talking with carpenters at the event, he said the shared view was that the industry is becoming “way more professional.” The old image of builders at the pub or on the pokies every day is fading, and many of the subcontractors he works with are family people running serious operations. “We’re not at the pub every day anymore,” he said.
The session he was most looking forward to was the one on AI and marketing. “I’m really excited to see how everyone else is using AI.”
What makes a good builder is care, not carpentry
Every guest on the podcast is asked what makes a good builder. Kamel’s answer set the technical side aside.
“I think we can all put up a straight frame, a good frame and build a good house,” he said. “I think what makes a good builder is really caring about the end product and really caring about the customer.”
That includes the clients who are harder work. “They’re the ones paying our bills, they’re putting food on the table for our families.”
“If you respect the customer, look after the customer and really care about the product, I think everything else follows.”
“If you respect the customer, look after the customer and really care about the product, I think everything else follows,” he said. “At least that’s been true for me.”
The Good Builder Take
Kamel’s interview is a reminder that growth exposes the gaps in a business before it rewards it.
Doubling volume means more trades to coordinate and more overheads to carry. The two habits he talked about, telling trades what is coming well ahead of time and knowing what the business actually costs to run, are not glamorous.
They are what let a builder take on more work without the program and the numbers slipping out of view.
Steady habits carry a growing business
Kamel’s story is not about a breakthrough. It is about a builder looking at his own operation with clear eyes in the middle of a growth phase.
He brought one habit from commercial work that plenty of residential builders would recognise as useful. He named one blind spot that many growing businesses share. And when asked what matters most, he went straight past the frame to the customer.
Systems, numbers and care. It is the same combination our community keeps hearing from the builders who last.
Listen to the full conversation with Aba Kamel from A to Z Homes on The Good Builder Podcast, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and at thegoodbuilder.com.au.
Frequently asked questions
A to Z Homes builds houses, duplexes and granny flats across Newcastle, the Central Coast and the Hunter region of New South Wales, and has recently started doing renovations. The business does not take on commercial work.
Kamel brought weekly round table meetings across from his time in commercial construction. Each party flags upcoming deliveries and site needs, so trades get notice weeks ahead rather than a last minute phone call.
Small decisions add up. Kamel pointed to staff turnover, replacing vehicles, new software and AI subscriptions, and seasonal costs such as uniforms, all of which shift the fixed cost figure within months.
Kamel says most builders can build a good house. What sets a good builder apart is genuinely caring about the end product and the customer, including demanding clients, because they are the ones paying the bills.
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General Information Only. This article is general information only and does not constitute legal, financial, tax or other professional advice. It does not take into account your particular circumstances. You should obtain independent professional advice before acting on any information in this article. Views expressed by podcast guests are their own.
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