February 20, 2011 - We finally had a great week of weather, and got a number of things done on both the inside and outside of the epic Creative Co-Op.  The metal frame structure for the outside deck was installed early in the week.  Deck work was also done on the balcony outside the Silver Rock conference room at the east side of containers 3 and 4.  With the decks in place, we can start next week on the ADA ramp and exterior stairs. 

We also commenced work on the electrical lines, switches and power outlets for the project.  As Tony installed the main panel boxes under the stairs, Adam sprayed the ceilings black in all the Silver Rock containers.  Being a video production studio, Silver Rock wants their edit suites and interior rooms dark.  This will keep the reflections down, and reduce eye strain from the monitors. Based on a recommendation from the Behr paint sales rep, we selected a deep black latex enamel paint.  This looks like it was a poor choice.  It has now been five days since the paint was applied, and it still has not fully cured.  We have a call into Behr and will wait to see how they handle the problem.

Posted by on February 20, 2011

February 13, 2011 - Yes, it is Sunday morning, but Danny the framer and his crew need to get this job completed so they can move onto another one that kicks off tomorrow. After a long drought in the construction market, the guys are hungry for work, and take it as it comes. At 7:55am the sound of their compressor filled the air and ten minutes later you could hear their nail guns finishing the framing work they started just the day before.

It started off cool this morning, but by mid-day we were at 70 beautiful degrees. The guys completed their work on the trusses over containers 1,2,3, and 4.  Getting them in place over the video production studio would be much more challenging.  They had erected scaffolding, but they had to be reinforced since the were designed to support the weight of a man, not a man lifting 100-200 pounds of truss. The length of the crane boom was too short to position the truss in the exact spot where it was needed, so the framers had to muscle each truss into place.  The goal was to have all 60 trusses set in place by the end of the day.

Posted by on February 13, 2011

February 10, 2011 - The roof trusses arrived today which was exciting and scary at the same time. These trusses were built in Dallas and shipping them was delayed twice due to unseasonable ice storms (remember the Super Bowl?) that hit our area. We thought there would be a third delay (again because of icy road conditions), but we got a call at 6:00am from ProBuild (truss manufacturer) letting us know the truck was leaving their yard.

When they arrived, the trusses were bigger and heavier than I had imagined. When we were working with them in Sketchup, they were easy to move around.  Reality hit when the truck pulled up to the building. The rollback motor that is used to offload them was frozen.  The only way to get them off the truck was to unload them by hand (not an option) or drop them from the bed of the truck to the ground. When the 27,000 pound load hit - the earth moved.  The reality of getting each of these 450 pound trusses on the roof would prove to be a logistics and engineering challenge.  We met with Danny (the Framer), David (our Project Manager), and Adam/Mike our welders and crane operators.  We came away with a plan.

Posted by on February 13, 2011

February 4, 2011 - The week started off nice and warm, but a "norther" blew in on Tuesday and the weather turned very cold. The heaters we purchased a couple of weeks earlier allowed us to get interior work done on the flooring and the studs up in containers 7, 8 & 11, as well as the installation of most of the windows. Our trusses were scheduled for delivery on Friday, but the manufacturing plant in Dallas was closed due to an ice storm. We are hoping to get the trusses early next week.

Danny and his framing crew arrived early Monday morning and immediately went to work installing the 4'x8' OSB sheathing on the east wall of the video production studio. We also asked him to move the garage door header up from 7' to 8', to accommodate larger vehicles and equipment we may need to drive into the studio.They also framed out some of the other doors, and added hurricane clips to the bottom of each exterior wall stud. The OSB board was covered with Tyvek which is a high density polyethyene fabric that is applied to the exterior walls of buildings. Tyvek provides a water barrier between the outer cladding of a structure and the frame/insulation,  It allows water vapor to pass, yet restricts air infiltration.

Posted by on February 05, 2011