May 8, 2017

Meet Vladimir Kolarik of Original Builders in Gwinnett

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Vladimir Kolarik.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Vladimir. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
11 years ago I decided I need change in my life. I packed my bag, left my home country Czech Republic and came to Atlanta knowing only basic phrases like how are you, thank you, please, where is. Today I run construction company with two states builders’ licenses

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
No way! Didn’t know anything about wood construction and also language barrier was issue. I started to visit evening English classes after work 3 times a week and after one year when I finished all levels and was nowhere to go I started to study GED. I’ve had high school diploma from my country, but always wanted to know system here. I finished my GED in one year by taking all GED tests just in one day.

I passed all except Social studies. After one week, I passed Social Studies also. At the same time crisis came. I was working only year before crisis came and now what. You are still unknown, just some experiences, not too good with language and my employer closed his business. I decided to start on my own. It was tough. With language barrier, hardest part in beginning was receiving phone calls, which is first thing you have to do right. Lots of time I did not understand what client says, lots of time they told me address and I couldn’t spell so fast as they were talking, so address where I should go for estimate was incomplete and lots of times I felt embarrassed to ask again.

Life was hard, especially when I was without work for almost three months, and at the same time, someone broke in to my work van parked on driveway and stole all my tools. It was hardest time, no work, no tools, no money. That time only my wife hold me up, she had two jobs, I was helping her at her evening job, cleaning schools and we got married. Our wedding was short, very cheap, no wedding dress, no friends, wedding meal was pizza in restaurant and wedding evening we spent at school cleaning. Sad time.

After additional few moths, I started working at night shift in Office Depot. Going to work at 2am leaving 1pm, and because people started calling little bit I was taking projects in afternoons and evenings so sometimes I slept only couple hours a day.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Original Builders, LLC – what should we know?
We are Original Builders. We started as one man show – trim carpenter – from scratch and we are still known for this between people. After known lot of trim, I started to play with idea build our own cabinets. I loved idea that there is no limit of design and details same as sizes. After cabinets, I learned about hardwood floors. So basically, all about woodworking. Few years later I wasn’t alone anymore, had 5 guys with me, because I never stopped improving. That time, we were building our first house under GC supervision. It was a challenge, but successful. House had more than 7000sqft.

That time we started to work with big beams – usually called “timber” and year later we built timber house in NC mountains.

In following years of residential construction we have been hired as subcontractor to help with commercial project. Phipps Mall renovation. We have replaced approx. 2400 linear feet of interior railing from wood to stainless steel and glass. That time we were temporarily team of 20 people.

As a company we are proud for many things – residential and also commercial projects we did, but mostly that every challenge what has been thrown to us we always succeed! We never had client who would complain about our work ethic, quality of work or time of finish. We never fail and we will not. Everybody knows in construction always things happen, something unexpected and that’s why we are here to solve problems and still finish in time or ahead. All of this plus thinking ahead and detail orientation is what helped us in past years to be where we are now.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My good friend Vladimir Jezek who showed me trim works at beginning at my first months in America. We became very good friends and BIG THANKS TO MY WIFE who always stands by me!

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