This design build project is a 40,625 square foot addition to an existing facility and is being constructed for our long time friend and client, Dave Berggren. The original 60,125 square foot facility was constructed by T.W. Frierson in 2011-2012 by Michael Massey and Dan Taylor. Other projects completed for Dave include the Ashley Furniture Homestore and the Furniture Connection retail stores.
Project Challenges
Connecting to an existing facility presents several challenges. We had drawings for the existing building, but you never know if it was built exactly per those drawings or if the building moved or settled over time. We had to field measure the existing building to verify that it matched what the drawings showed so that we could make sure the addition matched.
Site Logistics — There is very little room for lifts and material staging around the perimeter of the building. When roofing, we couldn’t get a crane set up on the back side of the building to stage roofing material, so we had to load the material on the front side of the roof and then carry the roof sheets to the back.
Weather! We have lost over 10 working days due to snow, ice, rain, wind, etc. With this site being in an industrial park, it is very exposed to weather and is one of the windiest sites we’ve ever been on.
Canopy Installation — We are installing a 10’ x 65’ canopy on the front of the building which has presented unique challenges. A 10’ projection is large compared to most canopies we install and will require substantial bracing. There are openings for louvers in the concrete tilt-up wall, which has required close coordination to strategically locate the braces to make sure they don’t land where an openings are. In order to do this, the canopy supplier decreased the angle of the braces so that they would all attach below these louver openings. Decreasing the angle caused the required pull-out strength of the anchors used to attach the canopy braces to the tilt wall to increase from 2000lbs per anchor to 3600lbs per anchor. The wall is full of rebar, so drilling into the wall to install the anchors is not going to be easy.