Metal Construction News, July 2019

SPECIAL FEATURE Completing a construction project such as an addition or re roof while the original company remains active in the building is a challenge for even the most seasoned builders and contractors JMJS Inc dba COE Office Furniture Distributor recently completed an expansion and renovation to its corporate offices and distribution center in Smock Pa Completed in August 2018 the 8 million project allows the family owned third generation company to better serve its clients and team members with an expanded and more efficient distribution and office space The company which has been operating in Fayette County since the 1940s is located in Franklin Commercial Park COE was leasing a 127000 square foot warehouse as well as an additional 60000 square feet in Uniontown Pa The expansion allowed the company to consolidate its Uniontown facility while bringing operations that were outsourced to a company in Maryland in house In addition to retaining 43 positions in state the project allowed the company to create 20 new full time jobs Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf when announcing the project said Seeing a family owned company which has been in Fayette County since 1940 choose Pennsylvania to invest in their future means that we have the location infrastructure and pro business climate for companies to grow Additionally bringing outsourced jobs to Pennsylvania where they belong is a huge win not just for COE but for the people of Fayette County Fairchance Construction Fairchance Pa was the design builder and general contractor for the project that consisted of a 210000 squarefoot addition and a 92000 square foot re roof Costabile Construction Inc Uniontown Pa was the site contractor K2 Engineering Uniontown was the engineering construction manager and Circuit Contracting LLC Uniontown was the electrical contractor Project Coordination Adam Franczyk project manager with Fairchance Construction says a lot of coordination and scheduling went into the project as they tried to keep COE up and running during the construction which took just over a year We cut holes in the existing roof and set columns through the existing roof with a crane to set on piers that we poured in the existing warehouse This took a lot of coordination with the owners and workers of COE as it blocked off aisles of product Once the entire new building was completed Fairchance Construction had to strategically demo the existing half of the building This involved the owner moving the product off the racking shelves and putting it in the new building Franczyk says Once they had a space cleared out we would demo roughly 1500 square feet of the building at a time The new pre engineered metal building from Butler Manufacturing Kansas City Mo was nestled 100 feet into the existing pre engineered warehouse structure The Butler Landmark 2000 metal building system measured 690 feet by 300 feet which allowed for 75 foot bays and minimal interior columns For the walls the project uses Butlerib II metal wall panels Additionally Fairchance did a metal over metal re roof using Butlers MR 24 metal roof system with Sunlight Strip skylights installed for daylighting The additional space will be mostly warehouse as well as some small restroom and office areas and a 14 door loading dock When doing a retrofit building project like this Franczyk says its important that the building is not out of square That is one thing we check first off before we start putting any panels or clips down he explains Once you know what you are working with you can make adjustments at the beginning to make sure everything works out at the end The worst thing would be if the building Retrofit Renovations Project coordination scheduling and open discussions are key to successful projects By Marcy Marro Editor 16 METAL CONSTRUCTION NEWS July 2019