The CTL success story began in an unfinished basement when two friends took a risk, pooled their resources, and launched their own independent tile and natural stone distribution company. As longtime industry insiders, co-founders Gerry King and the late Tom Fielding had the skills and experience to make a go of it – but little else. “It was an incredible leap of faith,” King remembers. They supplied Tom’s basement-turned-office with two telephones, a Smith-Corona typewriter, and plywood with sawhorses from Home Depot to create a makeshift sample area.

The founders wanted to build their own body of work and take it to Atlanta’s architects and designers. “Most distributors want to fill demand, but we wanted to create demand by working with the A&D community to help them solve design challenges with the best natural stone, porcelain, ceramic and mosaic products we could secure,” King explains.

Instead of using the title Sales Representative, the founders opted to use the term Architectural and Design Consultants, highlighting the fact that these team members would boast a design background or an understanding of the importance of design and the designer’s personality. These architectural and design consultants would “consult with the A&D community, listen and understand the challenges of a given project, and then respond with a group of visuals – whether it was a limestone visual with a slight surface texture or a concrete visual with a smoother texture,” King says.

“Atlanta is a city where you have to pay your dues,” says King. “Having been born in the northeast, I wasn’t familiar with Southern hospitality. We were greeted kindly by the local design community; however, similarly with any new company, business was slow [at first]. It wasn’t until our third year that we could add to our team, and it was close to four or five years before we could add more.”

As they say, slow and steady wins the race; the team continued to build relationships – and business. Today the company employs 200 people and has expanded from its Atlanta base to serve 30 markets throughout the country, from Portland, Oregon to Boston, Massachusetts.

The founders’ innovative vision has garnered industry respect as well as business success. In 2016, CTL won the prestigious North American Distributor Award awarded by the Confindustria Board of Directors in collaboration with Italian tile manufacturers. This recognition “raised the eyebrows of our competitors and really put us on the national map,” King shares.

As CTL continued to expand and prosper, the team worked hard to maintain the culture that the original founders established. “The culture that I tried to create at Ceramic Technics is a profound appreciation for the energy and the efforts that our entire group brings to the company,” says King. The result is an inclusive environment where all contributions are valued and recognized. “We believed that all individuals were an integral part of the company’s success.” says King. This attitude has earned the loyalty of the staff for several decades. The team refers to themselves as the “CTL family.”

CTL has continued to prosper even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges, the company has grown in multiple commercial sectors over the past year. “The demand for evolution has never been higher,” says President Kory Bowling. Giving the current state of the industry, the team dedicated time to reassess and streamline internal operations to promote future success. When Bowling joined CTL in October of 2019, he had left a Fortune 500 company to spearhead the growth and development within Ceramic Technics.

Bowling brought Operations Manager Brian White on board in June of this year to apply his organizational skill sets to CTL’s warehouse operations – “With over 20,000 SKUs of different tiles and 25,000 square feet of warehouse space dedicated to samples alone, an updated organizational structure was necessary.” This enables the company to stock and stage all its samples, “making it more efficient for our coworkers, our sample family, and our warehouse family, and supports our external operations as well,” shares White. “Maintaining such a large selection of sample inventory allows CTL to provide to our clients quickly and accurately.”

With limited opportunity for “in person” interactions this year, the team has diversified how they promote products and reach clients. This has required a significant reassessment of the company’s digital platform to ensure all clients have access to new products. The effort has included an increased emphasis on social media, exploring a vast variety of digital content as well as a new website that will launch in 2021. “It has never been this important to be digitally accessible,” says Digital Marketing Manager Courtney Fetterolf. “We understand how profoundly powerful connection is, regardless of social limitations.” In addition, the company is increasing its web presence via the third party site Material Bank, the largest material marketplace in the architectural and design industry.

A huge focus this year, and moving forward, has been to deepen relationships with the contractor community. CTL has hired experienced outside sales consultants and assigned customer service agents to focus their efforts on contractors, realigning the company “to be more front facing” with new and existing contacts to nurture “a direct relationship,” says President Kory Bowling. “This will inevitably create a more sound and reliable alliance between CTL and our contractor community.” With a direct point of contact for each client, working with the CTL team is easier, more efficient, and more pleasurable than ever before.

These relationships will be increasingly important – and mutually beneficial – as CTL expands into new subsectors of the commercial industry. Doug Rain recently joined the team as the Vice President of Sales, assisting in the diversification of professional relationships and strategy – specifically multifamily, adult living, and healthcare sectors of design and development, all of which the company expect to grow quickly in the wake of COVID-19.

With over 50,000 square feet of space in the company’s warehouse – and an expansive 2 million square feet of readily available inventory – CTL is ready to provide solution to any and all sectors. After building lasting relationships, a strong company culture, and growing steadily for 32 years, CTL has overcome the challenges of 2020 and is well placed to continue growing into 2021 – and beyond.

The post Building Business through Relationships<p class="company">Ceramic Technics</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Created in 2013 from the merger of two companies — Reimer Alliance International, makers of the Reimer Mixer, an industry leader in volumetric concrete production, and Pro-Ject, formerly Westward Ltd., manufacturers of a variety of agricultural, ranching and lawncare equipment — ProAll’s rich history extends back to 1959 with roots stretching around the globe. Based in Alberta, the company’s new assembly facility boasts top-notch manufacturing, engineering and design capabilities, perfectly positioned to provide mobile concrete mixers in high demand around the world.

ProAll’s numerous achievements in the industry include being the largest supplier of volumetric mixers to the United Kingdom and unveiling the Commander control system in 2016, which revolutionized the industry.

“The Commander control system is an automated system that takes a lot of the operator error out of the equation, due to the automation of things like water:cement ratio which traditionally was controlled by the operator and is now is controlled by an onboard computer,” explains Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Andrew Coates.

Considered both innovative and revolutionary, the Commander control system makes the Reimer Mixer the most high-performance mobile mixer in the world, ensuring consistency through cutting-edge hydraulics and digital controls.

“We’ve done a complete overhaul of our mixers, so even visually, if you were to look at a mixer that we built in 2015 and compare that to a mixer that we built in 2016, they’d look quite different,” says Coates. The company also made a number of upgrades that provided advantages to the bins and the hydraulic system, creating industry-leading results in terms of efficiency.

Last year, ProAll sold eight mixers to the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) which currently utilizes them for their own internal public works department.

“There’s a lot of concrete poured in NYC, sidewalks and curbing and fenceposts for sign posts, and they’re trying to move toward doing that internally instead of paying private contractors,” shares Coates.

Another successful project involving the use of Reimer Mixers can be found in Mexico City, an area prone to potentially devastating earthquakes. ProAll’s Reimer Mixers were the only equipment capable of performing the challenging task when special earthquake-proof elastic concrete was needed to construct vertical columns of a 25-storey skyscraper, The Torre Glorieta.

Following a massive 1985 earthquake that devastated the region with more than 400 buildings destroyed and 3,100 others damaged, and 9,500 people killed and more than 30,000 injured, the city has been tireless in its attempts to guard against a subsequent quake, utilizing advanced engineering techniques and strict building codes. This means buildings constructed using material other than traditional concrete, which offers less flexibility during a quake.

To combat this, elasticity is needed to absorb impact energy, using a type of concrete known as Class One. But transporting a large amount of this type of concrete to the middle of the highly congested Mexico City provided its own unique challenges, namely time constraints.

“You have two hours with traditional Ready Mix to unload the concrete before it goes stale, and in this situation logistics dictated they wouldn’t be able to use traditional Ready Mix,” Coates explains. The volumetric mixer allowed the driver to set up a sand pile and a stone pile with a cement silo and pour the entire building right on site with one mixer. “That was certainly a standout project for us to see somebody use one volumetric mixer that allowed the builder to reach those elastic module values for that size of a project.”

One of the many advantages of the volumetric mixer is that it can sit for three hours and the concrete is always made fresh, adds Coates, so you can go out and do your first job and pour two yards of concrete for a small sidewalk, and then go and pour eight more yards for a completely different application. That versatility removes the strict timeline required with Ready Mix, allowing for flexibility on the job.

The past year has provided a mix of highs and lows for the company, as it has for many around the globe with the pandemic upending so many lives and livelihoods. When everything started shutting down last March, ProAll was forced to lay off about 85 percent of its staff, says Coates. In April and May, the company was down to a handful of employees coming into the office, but things have turned around greatly in the ensuing months.

“It was, to be quite honest, a little frightening,” says Coates. “But we now are at 125 percent of what we were in terms of staffing on March 1, so not only did we call back everyone who was laid off, but we increased our overall staff by 25 percent as we continue to grow. We’ve had tremendous success from July on, and by the end of June we’d called back all of our staff. We expect to be at 140 percent of what we were at March 1 last year by March 1, 2021.”

Coates attributes this incredible upswing in business to a number of factors, including government investment in infrastructure and homeowners turning to renovation projects while in quarantine.

“We saw a lot of pools and hot tub pads and patios being installed, and homeowners doing a lot of landscaping projects that they may have put off in previous years, or may have had the capital to do because they didn’t take that summer vacation that they were planning on taking. It was probably a mix of all these things,” says Coates.

While people are spending money on their homes and the government is spending more on various projects, it’s not one specific sector or even one geographical location ProAll has seen thriving. “It’s been fairly equal across the board in North America – in Canada and the U.S. – that most of our increase in sales has come from in the last six months.”

The company also built four mixers for the U.S. Navy, and is building nine mixers for the United States Air Force – projects that helped ProAll gain confidence in calling people back to work in May and June.

Going forward, Coates stresses that the team’s Commander control system and exemplary after-sales service will continue to set ProAll apart from its competitors. With a head office in Calgary and a location in Dallas-Fort Worth, the company can service customers on both sides of the border, even through the pandemic.

Environmentally, although the cement industry doesn’t traditionally have the best reputation, ProAll competes in this area by offering reduced waste after jobs.

“If you require six yards of concrete, usually you’ll need to order eight yards to make sure that you didn’t miscalculate, or that you’re going to have what you need to finish the project, so that last two yards of concrete will be wasted,” says Coates. “But with a volumetric mixer like ours, you only ever create what you need to use. So if you need 6.25 yards, they pour you 6.25 yards and the rest remains on the mixer in a separated compartment so it can be used in the future, and doesn’t go to waste.”

ProAll has also embraced an innovative software platform this year, a GPS system for truck dispatch and fleet management called Spider. Designed to help monitor fleet when managing multiple job sites and a lot of equipment, the ProAll Spider utilizes real-time data, allowing optimal performance, efficiency and productivity.

“Customers with 10 or 20 mixers can track all of their trucks, see which ones are pouring, and see where they are on an online platform,” says Coates. Using the Spider system in conjunction with newer mixers, or the Commander series mixer, also allows for diagnostics right on board. “Your dispatcher could essentially see if you were having an issue, and could see which hydraulic valve or which part of the electrical is malfunctioning.” For bigger companies operating multiple mixers, the team is able to manage issues from one spot as opposed to having 20 drivers all trying to troubleshoot problems that may arise over the course of a year.

This coming year also brings a new mixer product to the company, the G95 Gunite mixer. Gunite — a type of concrete typically used to repair overpasses, or employed in the southern part of the U.S. to build pools — is pumped in dry through a line pump with water introduced at the injection point. “Gunite is different than concrete in that it’s only cement powder and sand with water introduced at the end,” explains Coates. “We’ve built a mixer specifically geared to gunite with the intention of targeting pool builders mostly in the southern U.S., as that’s where gunite is the most popular.”

Although the pandemic threw ProAll a curveball this year, the company considers it a huge accomplishment to be where it is now, bringing staff back within 60 days of the first layoff and continuing to grow steadily since.

“I think there was some trepidation around how fast things would come back and how long they’d come back for, and if there would be a second wave and a second shutdown,” says Coates. “I think if a second wave was to hit now and shutdowns start to become more widespread across the country, certainly we’ve been taking precautions as a company with masks and hand sanitizers, and hopefully it won’t necessarily be as long-standing.”

Moving forward means being better prepared and knowing more about the health risks and precautions required for safety and productivity, says Coates – something that ProAll is fully committed to.

“This has been a crazy year for everyone I think, but certainly from a business standpoint for ProAll, it’s been a rollercoaster ride going from 100 percent staff to 15 staff and now to 125 percent,” says Coates. “If you and I had had this conversation on May 1, it would have been a much different conversation. But it’s a good problem to have. We’ve certainly been experiencing some growing pains, but it’s better than the alternative.”

The post Building on a Solid Foundation<p class="company">ProAll International Manufacturing</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Quality road and paving surfaces are easily taken for granted until one is met with potholes and other potentially hazardous defects from shoddy. This is why some of America’s largest retailers like Walmart, Home Depot, Wholefoods, and Target trust All County Paving to deliver project management, asphalt surfaces, milling, and sealcoat solutions to ensure their customers’ comfort and safety.

Other clients include real estate investment trust Welltower, Kimco Realty, and the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens as well as homeowners’ associations, residential and commercial property and management boards, asset management companies, municipalities, general contractors, and project managers.

The company’s traveling crews are based at its two divisions in the state of Florida. Its national department is based at its Delray office while it also has an office in Orlando. From here, crews serve clients across the country in places like North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and further afield. In having national capabilities, the company belongs to the industry group The Pavement Network, from which it can obtain industry best practices and attend annual meetings to plan for the future with like-minded companies across the nation.

All County Paving was brought to life by Mark May who established it as M&M Asphalt Maintenance, Inc. in the 1990s. Neil Ortner was the next owner, followed by Ken Goldberg and Jeff Cohen who purchased the company in 2009 and changed the name to M&M Asphalt Maintenance, Inc., doing business as All County Paving.

The company’s integrity and respect have created real results. It has welcomed so much business in recent years that, just over two years ago, streamlining its operations for ongoing growth was crucial to its health. First up were a Lean Six Sigma business analysis and restructuring processes that would eventually improve its overall efficiency by an estimated 45 percent. It is also now using customer relationship management tool Salesforce to improve its service delivery while its Bid2Win software ensures that its estimations team offers accurate pricing assessments.

Today, the company boasts nearly twenty-five new operational systems – all putting the right people in the right places at the right time and ensuring that everyone is clear about what is expected. The investment has paid off, and management is proud.

Introduced to the firm by Blomberg Consulting, the new operational systems are backed with an entrepreneurial operating system (EOS) that equips managers with the skills they need to take ownership of outcomes in a whole new way, so they become a part of the business, rather than simply working for it. While 2020 was a sticky year for around the globe, the men and women at All County Paving effectively implemented four new software systems, made several changes to operational systems, and dealt with the unique challenges presented by COVID-19.

“Our people are really bright. We’ve had so many great resources here that we weren’t using the right way. Now that we have a plan in place and a process to identify their talents, we’re able to hone in on what they can do for the company. This has helped us tremendously,” says Samantha Evans, Director of Business Process and Communications.

“What makes [our people] so great is that they each view All County Paving as if it was their own: putting careful details into the customer experience while watching the bottom line and profitability so that the company can be successful as a team,” Evans adds.

And this is not mere talk. The company’s seven to ten percent growth is astonishing, especially considering the huge changes and challenges the past year has brought. While its services are always in demand, irrespective of depressed periods in the economy, there is no doubt that setting its processes straight is delivering huge financial gains.

This company’s work is as solid as its product and its commitment to outstanding construction, service, and integrity, has positively changed the rough-and-tumble stereotype for which the asphalt paving industry is sometimes known. “We aim to provide the highest level of customer service resulting in an unparalleled end project,” says Ken Goldberg, President and co-owner. And, as the holder of a general contractor’s license with a combined thirty-five years in the industry plus all Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) requirements and certifications, this company certainly knows its field.

The company is well-accustomed to receiving accolades; it has been recognized on Pavement Maintenance & Reconstruction magazine’s list of top contractors for six consecutive years since 2014. It also won ‘Best Paving Job’ at the National Pavement Expo & Conference in 2019. But, more than all these awards, All County Paving’s greatest recognition is for its flagship projects.

One of its greatest projects was the Turnpike AET Phase 8, a paving project of just under 140 miles, stretching from Palm Beach County to the Osceola County border, Florida. The project was done in collaboration with Traffic Management Solutions when the highway was upgraded to a completely electronic tolling system. Then there was the State Road 9 (Interstate 95) bridge deck replacement, a project on which All County Paving performed asphalt resurfacing of fifty lane miles of the I-95 in St. Lucie County, Florida.

The Hard Rock Stadium mentioned earlier – home base of the Miami Dolphins, National Football League (NFL) – was another of the company’s great victories as it demanded all of its skills: project management, drainage, earthwork, paving, curbing, sidewalks, sealcoating, striping, and signage, all in anticipation of this year’s Super Bowl in February. Finally, another big moment represented itself when the company milled and paved 160,000 square yards for the Boca West Country Club’s homeowners association.

Adding to its great workmanship, service, and customer care, All County Paving takes its communities’ wellbeing to heart, and many charitable organizations and community projects benefit from its largesse. It offers its services where needed as well as volunteering time and money to worthy causes. Some of its beneficiaries include the local Boys and Girls Club, Habitat for Humanity, and Toys for Tots. The team also lends a hand at Food for the Poor, Inc. as well as Breast Cancer Awareness 5K events.

As if COVID-19, new operational and software systems, and other major changes are not trying enough, skilled labor and employee shortages, legal issues, and insurance coverage take their fair share of solution-finding each year. While its new EOS system goes a long way to solve these with its ‘right person right seat’ approach, the team has to remain vigilant to prevent and deal with any legal issues that may arise in a typical, high-stakes construction environment. To this end, thorough systems and procedures afford its employees, clients, and their clients the best protection.

And with its goal of becoming a $170,000,000.00 market leader and innovator, All County Paving is building ever bigger and better roads and more beautiful neighborhoods. It is, in its owners’ words, a company “where team members work because they want a career, not just another job.”

The decision to transform has changed its future forever. “Through Lean Six Sigma and EOS, we have made great strides as a company. Change is never easy, but continuing to assess the progress made over weeks, months, and years helps to solidify the hard work and push to continue to strive for excellence,” says Goldberg, proudly.

The post Paving The Way<p class="company">All County Paving</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Founded by Ed and Liz Slater in 1993 in San Gabriel, California, before moving to Costa Mesa in 1994, Slater Builders is now a woman-owned business serving Orange County, Los Angeles County and beyond. All projects are treated with equal respect regardless of size, from the reconstruction of Mayfield Junior School’s 900-square-foot chapel, to the building of the 57,000-square-foot One Subaru Dealership in Hayward, California.

Liz and her husband Ed started the business 27 years ago, when their third child Hannah was born with disabilities that required costly surgeries. Ed was in the commercial real estate business and Liz had owned a tennis retail shop, and both had to make some tough but necessary decisions.

“Hannah had her brain surgery before she was two,” says Liz. “It cost us a lot of money outside of health insurance, so we sold our house, a car, and our boat. Ed wanted to get into a different business, and his family had always been in construction – his dad, his grandfather, and his great-grandfather. So we decided to start Slater Builders.”

Hannah is now doing well at 31, and four years ago her family started a nonprofit called Mae House, in honor of her middle name.

“It’s a home for developmentally disabled women, and it’s going awesome,” says Liz. “It was very trying at the time, but looking back at everything, God was leading us and it worked out great.”

Embracing a mission statement centering on quality construction delivered on time and on budget, Slater Builders is committed to earning clients’ trust and respect while building solid, reliable partnerships with employees and subcontractors.

“I was thinking about what brought the company to where it is today,” says Liz. “It’s taken a lot of hard work. We’ve really been blessed with great clients, we’ve had wonderful projects over the years, and I really believe – most importantly – we have such a great team, including wonderful people here like Kim Harvey, our Project Manager. Over the years that’s made all the difference.”

It is these kinds of relationships that have strengthened the company as it continues to focus on the future. Years of invaluable experience coupled with extensive construction skill sets means Slater Builders can guarantee quality work on any type of project it undertakes. Recent standouts include the $20 million, 88-unit senior living facility in Midway City.

“We provided extensive pre-construction services as well as construction on that project,” says Kim. “That’s part of what got the company to where it is today, by being a full-service, very customer-focused type of firm. We do repeat business with repeat clients.”

One of the company’s larger projects, the 200,000-square-foot industrial metal buildings in Desert Hot Springs are pre-engineered metal buildings that will accommodate 20 future tenants, and include mechanical, electrical, plumbing provisions and structural building foundation.

“We provided full turnkey services, a design-build approach on that project,” shares Kim. “That was one of our bigger projects, around $16 million, that we completed a little over a year ago.”

Currently, Slater Builders is working on a large commercial remodel upgrade and tenant improvement project in Newport Beach worth about $13.5 million, featuring extensive structural upgrades, an all-new glazing system, new roofing, new exterior panels, and all-new interior tenant improvements.

Kim is also project manager on the upcoming Subaru Auto Dealership in Hayward, sitting just under $25 million, a build that involves both extensive site work including a large retaining wall, along with the new Subaru dealership itself.

“Some of the projects we do involve a lot of repeat work with some of our best clients,” she says. “We do a lot of faith-based school and education facilities, and we’ve been doing a number of medical office buildings recently as well.”

Typically, Slater Builders has at least 20 projects going on at some stage of development, adds Liz. “We’ll have a few in pre-construction and several ongoing, and the rest just finishing up. We keep pretty busy! It’s great; it’s a good problem to have.”

On the customer side, Slater often gets involved very early on in projects, even in early conceptual design, doing pre-construction design assist, budgeting, scheduling, and constructability reviews. On some projects they’re also the design-builders, bringing in a design consultant team to perform full design and construction.

“The level of service we give during the pre-construction phase as well as construction is that we can provide design and value engineering input, and the owner knows what the budget’s going to be early on for the project,” says Kim. “It helps us with establishing procurement on long lead materials and staying on top of schedule as well. We’ve been pretty successful at it.”

All companies face obstacles, of course, and for most, this year’s biggest has been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Liz feels Slater has managed to turn the negatives into something positive, however.

“We really believe that we’re a better company now than we were before COVID,” she says. “We’ve had to adapt with our field operations and Zoom calls and meetings, staying safe per CDC guidelines. We’ve all really communicated well and we’re in our office, so we’re lucky that we’re an essential business.”

While the pandemic has impacted the company’s backlog of work with projects that would have started in the last six months subsequently put on pause, Kim says it’s great that the company managed to maintain its staff throughout that effort, a testament to Slater’s employee devotion.

“I think employees showed flexibility in the beginning when a lot of the office staff worked remotely, but really the jobs didn’t miss a step,” she shares. “Management continued forward, and honestly, remote communication helped with my job in Northern California. Everybody was on Zoom calls, so in one sense it made that project work more efficiently.”

Kim attributes the company’s ongoing success to its family-oriented mentality, especially during trying times. “The balance of work-life culture is reinforced here, and I think that really helps when situations like COVID come up. We’ve got a great team of people that work together to help each other out.” Most of the jobs under construction remained active, with field staff adapting as seamlessly as possible. Changes have created additional tools for some flexibility to help when things are remote, including communication tools for sub-contractors and clients.

That communication and commitment has created robust growth at a good pace for the last four or five years, says Kim, allowing the team to take on larger projects for the mid-size firm. They’re currently pursuing some above the $40 million dollar range.

“We certainly have a larger number of higher revenue projects now than ever,” says Liz. “As far as growth goes, I’d say a milestone is to continue a minimum of 10 percent per annum while maintaining the retention of our employees.”

That growth has also come while being a woman-owned company in a traditionally male-dominated field, which has been both interesting and motivating. “We think it’s great working with women, and being a women-owned business certainly has allowed us to grow and attract other quality women to assist in our organization,” says Liz, who adds the company is “strongly” represented by its women employees.

Kim herself has been in construction for almost 30 years now, entering the business first as a civil engineer before transitioning to construction. “I think I expected more resistance, and I’ve almost been surprised how I get the opposite reaction,” she says. “Once you get into projects and people can see your commitment, your level of experience and your effort and teamwork, it’s been a pretty smooth process for me. I’ve always felt comfortable in the construction environment.”

She says although it’s definitely more skewed to men, there are considerably more women now than when she first started in the early ‘90s. “Right now I’m working with a large grading company up in Northern California for the Hayward project, and their project manager is female as well as one of their main estimators, and that’s a very male-dominated field. I think it’s a great industry for women to get into if they have an interest and desire. It’s a great industry for women in general.”

In order to draw more women into the field, education is important, along with sharing available options in college, something that has improved in recent years in STEM, says Kim. “Slater’s definitely one of those firms that have given women opportunity. We need to have open minds and allow people to gain experience and understand there’s not just one path.”

Moving forward during a particularly challenging time is important for the company, as it works to stay safe and profitable. Maintaining staff is a top priority, as well. “Keeping all the folks working for the company speaks a lot to the firm, because that takes a commitment,” says Kim.

Liz adds, “We’ve never let anybody go because of the downturn in the economy or COVID. That’s important to us.”

Loyalty is another key feature for Slater’s success, particularly with their sub-contractor community. “That’s one of Slater’s aspects that attracted me to the firm as well,” says Kim. “The relationships they have, how the company pays on time and is committed to their sub-contractors. I’ve experienced companies that don’t have that approach, and Slater has built up some very loyal and productive relationships.”

Success also comes from Slater’s seamless transition from the pre-construction to the construction phase, lending field experience to estimates as they’re being put together. That cross-training and expanded role benefits both clients and projects as a whole. “And also you’ve got owners like Liz and Ed who are very involved,” says Kim. “The company makes every project a priority and ownership is very accessible to any client at any time.”

In the end, it’s the people who make the company what it is, something Slater Builders takes to heart.

“I really believe it’s our culture from the top down,” says Liz. “We’re pretty much a flat organization on purpose; we like to work as a team. We keep our eye on personal growth for every employee. For the future that’s just what’s really important to us – to have that balance between work and personal life is so important.”

The post Building For The Future<p class="company">Slater Builders</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

“We’ve had quite a bit of growth this last year. We added Charlotte, North Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina; Columbus, Ohio; and Indianapolis, Indiana to our offices, and we’re also looking forward to moving out west and I am planning to start an office down in Florida,” says Tracy Steward, a CMTA partner.

CMTA, founded in 1968 and profiled last December in Construction in Focus, currently has 15 offices and nearly 400 employees in total. The company primarily works on buildings in the healthcare, education, government, and institutional sectors.

Although the firm has long been a leader in energy-efficient design, roughly five years ago, following a series of strategy sessions, CMTA decided to expand its mandate to include wellness as a specialty. The new focus offers multiple benefits; while an energy-efficient building can reduce heating and power costs, wellness design enhances employee health, comfort, and performance, according to Steward.

Regardless of whether a client is interested in energy-reduction, wellness, or both, CMTA takes a hands-on approach to its work. “We like to be involved in the conceptual design phase. We call this our ‘First 30’ because the first thirty percent of a project is when you make or break all your goals for sustainability and wellness,” Steward explains. Working with the building design team, the company “puts together potential opportunities for sustainability, zero energy, and wellness,” she adds.

For a building project, the company might design leading-edge heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems; mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) systems; and combined heat and power (CHP) systems.

Designing a “tight building with a good envelope,” that is well-insulated and ventilated is another good way to save energy, says Steward. “We want a building to use as little energy as possible.” The ultimate goal is to create ‘zero-energy’ buildings that produce the same amount of energy – or more – than they consume. Zero-energy buildings feature efficient insulation, heating, ventilation, and lighting and often generate their own electricity via solar or wind power installations.

Company engineers use software programs to build energy and daylight models so customers can visualize energy efficiency and wellness benefits. Measuring devices can be installed in completed buildings to track metrics such as water and energy use and air quality. This data allows CMTA staff and clients to gauge how a building is performing.

In 2012, the company established the Energy Solutions division to augment its services. “Energy Solutions is our company’s most rapidly growing business unit with 85 staff. It is successful because we apply our high performance energy reduction solutions to the Performance Contracting and Guaranteed Energy Savings Market,” says Steward. “Most performance contracting firms focus on individual energy conservation measures. CMTA takes the same holistic approach to performance contracting as we do to our design; we benchmark a building’s existing energy consumption and compare it to our database of real energy performance. This comparison allows us to fully understand the building’s potential. Based on this understanding, we target a new energy usage rate and design strategies to meet the goal.”

Wellness design can involve windows that minimize glare and solar heat gain while maximizing the amount of natural light they let in. Interiors should be comfortable and, when possible, designed to accommodate scenic views to boost office morale. The choice of lighting is another major wellness component.

“Fluorescent lighting does not support occupant circadian rhythm during the daytime due to its lack of blue light content. We can design our lighting systems based on spectral power distribution so that it is conducive to circadian health during all times of the day. For example, in college residence halls, we prefer to use daylight for high energy stimulus to keep occupants alert during the day, while at night a warmer, less intense lighting strategy is used in order to allow the body to prepare for sleep. This also makes it easier to get back to sleep after a midnight excursion to the common restroom,” Steward explains.

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council is one of the goals for which the company is aiming on the energy-efficiency front. Certification from the New York City-based International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is the wellness equivalent. IWBI inspectors grade buildings on factors such as air quality, lighting, thermal comfort, sound, construction materials, and more. Buildings that make the cut receive WELL certification.

CMTA recently achieved WELL Gold for its new two-story, 25,000-square-foot Energy Solutions corporate office in Louisville. The new office includes LED lighting, glare reduction, and daylight management measures and is the first zero-energy structure in Kentucky to earn WELL building certification.

The firm took first-place honors in the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers’ (ASHRAE) International Technology Awards for a renovation at Mercy High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. The project involved installing new electrical and HVAC systems. Water source heat pumps were linked through a two-pipe condenser water loop system to highly-efficient condensing boilers, and a cooling tower was added. Ventilation was dramatically improved while the illumination was enhanced with LED lights.

CMTA also won a first-place regional ASHRAE award for its work on Ogden College Hall, a science center at Western Kentucky University. The 82,000-square-foot building was built at a cost of $40 million and features excellent air quality – to boost the mental acuity of occupants – airflow, lighting, and internal design. Built to LEED Gold standards, Ogden Hall is also the first WELL Gold-certified university laboratory building in America.

Given such impressive achievements, the company prefers new hires who are “innovative, questioning, curious, willing to challenge things and speak up. Someone with potential for leadership. We want somebody who’s passionate about changing design as we see it,” she declares.

The firm seems to have succeeded in its hiring objectives; the number of personnel has increased from 143 in 2015 to 389 at present. These figures include 120 professional engineers and 40 engineers in training. Steward expects this soaring growth rate to continue.

Even as the company expands its ranks, it remains committed to free-wheeling, open discussion. Every six months, CMTA hosts an ‘innovation call’ with its offices over the phone, says Steward. During these conference calls, staff members at each regional office describe innovative work they have done to spread good ideas around. “I’ll say, ‘What is your big story you want to share with the company?’” she says. “We’re taking office leaders and peers out of their day of designing to take a break for an hour to see what someone else is doing.”

To make sure that company veterans and top leaders do not dominate the conversation, CMTA encourages younger staff to participate during innovation calls. “For example, my team is working on a community center. I had one of my younger engineers host the call with the other offices. He said, ‘What do I do to prepare?’ I said, ‘You’re getting ready to spend a lot of money with a lot of good leaders in this company, so you’re going to be organized and prepared and walk through this precisely so we get as much out of this meeting as absolutely possible.’”

The company used to attend conferences and trade shows regularly, but in-person events have largely been canceled or gone online. “Conferences were always a good way to network and get to know people in the industry. Those events are all virtual now. I’m hoping at some point COVID goes away, and we can all get together,” Steward says.

The advent of COVID has also changed the way CMTA interacts with clients. “We’ve always been very collaborative and in-person,” says Steward. Face-to-face meetings allowed staff to read the room and emphasize specific points with which a customer might be concerned.

Personal relationships help cement working relationships, and this is an important consideration when you are trying to “get people to think and do things differently – things that are more sustainable to meet wellness goals,” she adds. “If someone is on a phone call or conference call with a camera, they don’t have the same impact than if they’re in a room, talking directly to you.”

However, CMTA is flexible and responsive and will no doubt come out of the COVID lockdown with enhanced resolve and new approaches to customer relations. The company certainly has big plans for the future.

“In five years, we want to be a little over double our current size,” says Steward. “We want to expand out west and down south. We also want to continue growing our share of the market in our current office locations. We’re going to continue to focus on high-performance, zero-energy, and wellness. Really, that’s what our purpose and vision is.”

The post Designing for Wellness and Energy Savings<p class="company">CMTA</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Glass is a particular material that Transwall deals in extensively and both Aikens and Executive Vice President, Marc Valois, stand by its continued effectiveness in a workplace setting. Glass is a material that is easy to clean and plays a factor in keeping spaces safe and bright, with Valois adding that glass is the only practical way to get light to the center of a space from exterior windows.

Traditionally, glass is considered a “sweet spot” in the interiors industry for both exterior cladding of a building and because it brings energy into a space, all important factors in any office design. Valois, who has been with Transwall since 2005, says that the volume of work and merchandise has grown substantially along with the company’s client list in the time that he has served there and it is always focused on the future.

Growth to watch
Since Construction in Focus’ previous feature on the company in fall 2019, Transwall’s sales have continued to grow by double digits annually, with Aikens reporting that its sales for 2019/2020 are up 35 percent on 2018.

Indeed, despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company will end 2020 with substantial growth. This appears to be due to several factors – the expansion of its sales force to a more national level; new initiatives like adding a public relations manager; the appointment of a full-time sales manager in Atlanta, Georgia; and a new vice president and general manager in the person of Joe Berman.

Berman’s role is to run the operational side of the business as both part of a succession plan for longer-tenured employees and to help the business into new markets, which Aikens views as “a tremendous advantage for the marketplace and toward future growth.”

A critical year
Valois sees this year as being critical to what Transwall is as a business: In the early days of the pandemic, Transwall only shut down for roughly a day-and-a-half due to COVID procedures but was able to successfully petition for an exemption, allowing it to both establish work-from-home procedures for its administrative staff and for manufacturing workers to continue making product for clients.

Valois admits that a few of its projects had to be put on hold but the company forged ahead and secured several large jobs in the last six months to add to its sales growth; additionally, Transwall’s sales team have worked to keep growth going and to keep up its contact with the marketplace, adding noticeably to overall momentum leading into 2021.

This past year has seen new product offerings and improvements from Transwall, like a new screening product, “LUCID,” which has been introduced to help with blocking COVID-19 in the workplace without losing transparency.

There has been further focus on fine-tuning its “ONE LP” interior glass wall product line with both 5/8” and (potentially) 3/4” glass and enhancing its overall aesthetic. The company has also introduced its “BRIDGE” panel system of double-glazed glass that will further improve acoustic performance, an aspect of the business that has become a major market concern.

Aikens also says that there has been a major internal company initiative to introduce a new ERP (enterprise resource planning) software program, one that will make the business much more efficient and allow it to allocate materials and plan better for raw materials purchases.

The events of 2020 have had a significant impact on how people work and Transwall acknowledges that there is a lot of uncertainty in the marketplace, with companies unsure whether office buildings and settings will be reconfigured on a more permanent basis because of the current pandemic procedures (e.g. staggered employee schedules, and work-from-home measures).

Aikens foresees that there could be something of a shakedown in commercial real-estate markets with high-rise buildings being foregone in favor of suburban offices, so Transwall is keeping its eye on all current and incipient trends and is preparing to adapt as things change.

Shining from home
Amid all the trials and setbacks of 2020, the relationship between members of the Transwall workforce has remained strong. Aikens reports that the company’s employees have been appreciative of the safety measures taken by the company to keep them safe and working, and that the business has not had the problems that other ailing industries have had to weather.

Valois adds that implementing work-from-home procedures has revealed new qualities among the workforce as many employees rise to the occasion and even improve on their usual high-quality work.

Aikens foresees that the company will have to look outside its usual channels and expand its opportunities geographically and even across different industries to keep the workflow going and to keep employees fully engaged but it’s a challenge that the company is more than willing to take on.

Naturally, the COVID-19 pandemic has been at the forefront of the company’s mind as it strives to keep its employees and installers safe on the job. Transwall saw an initial closing of sites in the beginning weeks of the pandemic but, once the work restrictions around the country were lifted, it worked fast to deliver its materials on the jobs that remained.

Travel restrictions have also been a consistent challenge. Transwall has had to lean on resources and independent installation companies at local levels to assist in this predicament.

Material challenges
There have been further challenges on the material side as well, such as some material providers having to shut down and various companies having to deal with coronavirus outbreaks in their facilities, affecting suppliers’ lead times significantly.

Transwall has had to work very closely with its vendors and stay in touch with multiple different suppliers for its raw materials and glass, as well as keeping on top of COVID-19 regulations in its own materials by introducing aspects like automatic and touchless hardware, antimicrobial finishes, and easy-to-clean materials.

Thankfully, these measures and responses have allowed Transwall to maintain its lead times and only added to the company’s continued growth and reputation as a responsible business in a time when customers are looking to play it safe.

Transwall has a further overhaul of its Westchester, Pennsylvania facility planned and is also in final discussions for a complete product overhaul as 2021 grows closer. The company plans to continue establishing itself in new markets with full-time employees so that its clientele can have a Transwall worker present on every job (an aspect of the company that is frequently lauded).

The company will also continue the expansion of its CEU (continuing education unit) courses to A&D (architecture and design) firms nationwide. Although normally done in person, the courses are now offered virtually up to three times a year and have expanded into different geographic regions, reaching more people than before.

PR Manager Britney Simone acknowledges that current circumstances have led to a physical separation between Transwall and its clientele but the company always emphasizes that, “it’s the people behind the walls that make Transwall special.”

So it is of great importance that Transwall continues to create growth opportunities and puts itself in front – and in front of mind – of the next generation of designers so that the name Transwall is synonymous with what is contemporary in the marketplace.

The post Let There Be Light… With Brilliant Glass Wall Systems<p class="company">Transwall Office Interiors</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Headquartered in San Francisco with regional offices in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, BCCI’s reputation as a high-quality, full-service commercial builder spans over three decades.

Its team of professionals is experienced in many facets of commercial construction, including ground-up, seismic upgrades, building renovations, historic restorations, and tenant improvements. Additionally, beyond traditional general contracting services, BCCI’s professional services group offers client advisory, program management, design-build, architecture, permit services, and sustainability consulting focused on the LEED, WELL, and Fitwel rating systems.

With the advent of COVID-19, BCCI instituted enhanced safety protocols and formed an internal C-19 task force to stay up to date on local, state, and federal health directives; monitor supply chain concerns; develop demobilization procedures in case of potential job site closures; manage internal and external communications; and maintain business operations. On March 17, 2020, the Bay Area became the first region in the U.S. to enact widespread shelter-in-place orders, which, as expected, included the shutdown of most construction sites.

Leading the way in safety
During the shelter-in-place, the C-19 taskforce gathered leading industry research and brought on Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) consultant EnviroNova to work with its safety, field operations, and office management teams to further develop its COVID-19 protocols and start planning its return to jobsites and offices. The team continued to monitor the local, county, state, and federal public health directives and COVID-19 guidance, including the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), the WHO (World Health Organization), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to ensure it was operating with the latest information.

BCCI was well prepared when commercial construction was deemed an essential business in the San Francisco Bay Area on May 4. “We had been preparing since the initial shelter-in-place orders in March, trying to find ways to operate safely,” says Kena David, Director of Sustainability.

“We really worked hard upfront to stock up on all those materials that were important to providing a safe environment, such as PPE and cleaning supplies, and it definitely paid off,” says BCCI Field Operations Manager Jim Williamson. When sanitation supplies became difficult to procure, the team at BCCI began making its own hand sanitizer in 55-gallon drums.

Months after Coronavirus first made the news, BCCI continues to build upon its robust safety protocols for its staff, subcontractors, clients, and vendors.

Describing the city’s once-bust downtown as “a virtual ghost town,” the San Francisco Business Times praised BCCI for both its ability to get back to work and for helping other companies with guidelines and other tools, enabling them to reopen their offices safely. Increased cleaning and sanitation, mask-wearing, physical distancing, and enhanced ventilation were all aspects of BCCI’s return to jobsite and office plan. An analysis of ventilation systems and the placement of supplemental Wynd air purifiers in its offices have been key to reducing particles in the air that a virus could bond to. BCCI has recommended Wynd’s standalone air purification systems to several clients as they have planned their safe return to the workplace.

Many business owners have adopted some portions, if not all, of BCCI’s safety protocols. “They really used ours as a baseline to expand upon,” says Williamson.

Further emphasizing BCCI’s pre-pandemic commitment to safety and heightened emphasis today, the company has been recognized with an Excellence in Safety Award from the Construction Employers’ Association six years in a row and with a Platinum Safety Award from ConstructSecure.

Unexpected benefits
While corporate interiors construction has slowed this year, the pandemic has brought about new commercial development project opportunities and a need for facility upgrades. Since there are fewer tenants in commercial buildings due to COVID-19 restrictions, building owners have been able to tackle capital improvement projects which would be more challenging to undertake at full occupancy.

“Owners and developers are reaping the benefits of getting things done more efficiently and more cost-effectively without having to work around their tenants or have noisy work completed off-hours or on weekends,” says Williamson.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus on healthy buildings has shifted from the amenities provided onsite to the increased focus on ventilation, healthy materials, fitness incentives, health benefits, and wellness initiatives. Successfully completing over 60 LEED Certified projects and five WELL Certified projects, the company’s experience in Sustainable Building is unsurpassed. BCCI remains an industry leader in building projects benefiting mind and body, including the offices the team calls home.

“COVID-19 really was a catalyst to having health and wellness be seen as a necessity in the workplace, rather than a ‘nice to have,'” says David. This focus on health and wellness, coupled with energy efficiency, is highly valued by many of BCCI’s clients in the corporate office, healthcare, life sciences, mission-critical, and hospitality market sectors.

The industry-leading rating systems around health and wellness in the built environment are responding to the pandemic and preparing for re-entry beyond COVID-19. Kena David participated in a task force established by the International WELL Building Institute on COVID-19 research, including how the virus spreads and how we can prepare all spaces for sustained health and safety. The outcome of this IWBI task force was to ensure the new version of WELL (version 2) released in September this year included specific measures that help mitigate the spread of infectious disease within buildings. In efforts to make health and safety more achievable for all building types, IWBI also launched the new WELL Health Safety Rating. “The intent is, a WELL Health-Safety rating demonstrates a building has been third-party verified to ensure health and safety through building operations and policies to protect all its occupants from emergency and health risks.”

BCCI is also leveraging features from WELLv2 and ways to prevent transmission, focusing on air cleaning, sanitation, operational policies, and communication to occupants and employees.

“A lot of the protocols that we put in place here at BCCI for our office return are very much in line with the WELL Health-Safety rating,” says David, and the company is currently underway with the WELL re-certification of its headquarters. “We are also pursuing the WELL Health-Safety rating since we already had the protocols in place. That’s been pretty exciting, and we think it will become a common thing for all types of buildings, whether you are a restaurant, stadium, or office building,” she shares.

Moving forward, safely
As the world deals with COVID-19, award-winning BCCI Construction continues to be a leader for its employees, jobsites, and clients. Acknowledging many are nervous about returning to work — be it to a job site or an office — the team at BCCI has ensured that it’s able to answer questions and address concerns quickly as they arise.

“Even though we are working within new safety guidelines and have limitations on the number of staff on-site due to physical distancing requirements, we are still able to be productive by operating with staggered starts and things like that,” says Williamson. “We continue to work as efficiently as we can for ourselves, our subcontractors, and our clients. And we’re able to provide the safest workplaces possible.”

The post Building Relationships<p class="company">BCCI Construction</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

The company was first established in 2006 by expert Construction Manager Luc Quenneville and Chief Estimator Jean Morissette. In the beginning, the company operated as a client-oriented operation offering high-value construction services with a focus on raising quality standards in the local construction industry. By going above and beyond for clients, QMD built a reputation in Quebec for delivering on its promise of quality. This allowed the company to find success in its regional market and it has continued to grow ever since.

Approximately four years ago, QMD expanded its operation by adding a development branch that produces entire projects from start to finish on its own. This newest addition to the company enables QMD experts to closely manage every aspect of a project, from finding and purchasing the lot, through the project’s entire development, and finally selling the product in the end.

The success of QMD derives from its personal approach that focuses on building partnerships with clients. Its team of 100 employees are taught to work directly with clients to ensure that needs are met, and the leadership leads by example by being very hands-on themselves. Quenneville strongly encourages this approach and he strives to keep the company size at roughly 100 employees in order to maintain the level of client care they offer.

Going forward, the team aims to focus their attention on growing markets such as Montreal and Quebec City. They also expect to have more work in the Ottawa-Gatineau region within the next five to ten years as that area continues to grow and reinvent itself. QMD is renowned for high-quality development, and its reputation will surely enable the company to expand into nearby markets with demand for condos and rental properties.

Up to the challenge
Since its inception in 2006, QMD has seen consistent success and growth; in 2020, however, the Canadian construction market has experienced a substantial downturn. The coronavirus pandemic hit the industry hard and QMD felt the impact. Approximately 25 percent of the projects the company had planned for this year have been shelved due to disruptions in financing and cash flow. Luckily, due to QMD’s financial stability and capacity to operate in challenging circumstances, it has been able to minimize the impact. While many competing companies have failed to endure, damage to QMD has not been critical.

For QMD, the most challenging obstacle to construction brought about by COVID-19 has been long lead times for materials. In general, materials now require double the time to be shipped than before the pandemic. Concrete has been especially hard to come by; the concrete companies need two weeks’ notice rather than the usual 48 hours.

On a more positive note, QMD has been able to invest in itself and continue to improve during the pandemic. The leadership decided to turn its focus inward by taking extra special care of its people and making the workplace environment more uplifting in an effort to increase staff morale. Particularly in these trying times, it is important to show employees that they are appreciated and supported by their employer.

The attitude at QMD remains positive and the team has learned valuable lessons from the pandemic that will forever change how businesses operate. For example, providing hand sanitizer in a shared environment has become the norm and it will likely remain that way, especially during flu season.

Key projects
One of the company’s current projects is Solstice Montreal (solsticemontreal.com), a 44-floor luxury residential condominium located in the center of downtown Montreal. With its collaborative partners, QMD began building Solstice Montreal less than a year ago. The $200 million project is 87 percent sold and it is expected to be complete in 2022. “Solstice is just so iconic because it really represents everything that QMD has built,” said Luc Quenneville, President. “It’s personalized, it’s luxury, it’s the finest materials, it’s the best craftsmanship, and it just happens to be right beside the Bell Centre. It’s really in the heart of Montreal and it will be a beautiful feature of this city for decades to come.”

In Laval, Quebec, QMD is working on developing a $300 million condominium project comprising five buildings with 15 floors. The 1000 rental units have been created to form a miniature community within the city. Another condominium project, expected to be complete by early 2021, is a 300-unit rental property spread across three buildings in Brossard, Quebec. Similar to other QMD projects, location was key when choosing where to place these luxury condos. The residents have breathtaking views from units overlooking the St. Lawrence River.

QMD has diversified into a breadth of industrial construction markets over the years, including the pharmaceutical sector. More recently, the company has seen a demand for pharmaceutical production facilities and this month, QMD began the construction of two $100 million projects roughly 30 minutes outside of Montreal. These large pharmaceutical grow-ops will continue to make up part of the company’s portfolio in the future, while another market the company is considering for further diversification is industrial data centers.

Going green
Another objective, over the next five to 10 years, is for QMD to help shift public perception of net zero emissions in construction. “We’re trying to do our best because we believe in [green building] and we see the benefits,” explained Quenneville. “We understand that there’s money in sustainability and that it’s good for the environment – it’s just good for business, period. But the problem sometimes is the general takeup is slow.”

Construction companies across Canada carefully choose what types of materials are put into their buildings to increase efficiency and ensure as little waste as possible. QMD is fortunate because its development branch manages the entire operation and has complete control over its projects. This allows the company to simply set its own high quality standards and make sure its buildings will be sustainable long into the future. The team lives and breathes sustainability: in the office, paperless is the goal; on site, the emphasis is on selective waste management and energy savings, in terms of lighting or ventilation, for example; on the human resources side, public or active transport is encouraged and supported for employees; and all QMD teams, both in the field and in management, are trained in the specifics of LEED®, with several LEED®-accredited project managers on staff.

Earlier this year, QMD was awarded a trophy by L’Association de la construction du Quebec for its economic and social contributions to the region. The construction prizes are usually handed out in April with a crowd and audience to celebrate, which unfortunately was not an option in 2020. QMD still feels fortunate to be recognized for its efforts.

Looking forward
Never content to rest on its laurels, QMD’s development arm has been highly successful in its four years of business and has become a substantial contributor to the overall revenue of the company. The company’s original business model, focused on a personal approach with private clients, has not fallen off; rather, it is continuing to grow alongside the development branch of the company. QMD is still regularly contacted by repeat clients, new business owners, and project leaders who have heard of the company’s receptive and open attitude toward luxurious projects.

QMD believes in forming partnerships in every business relationship that exists. When working with subcontractors, establishing a partnership from the beginning has a big impact on the final product. Cohesion among the team leads to efficient results and QMD is all about efficiency. “By creating partnerships, it automatically changes the sub-trade mentality going into a job, which will increase the efficiency of that job in the end,” explained Quenneville.

With these partnerships driving it, QMD is providing quality construction in the residential, industrial, and commercial markets that are built for luxury and longevity. Ultimately, Quenneville believes that the future of the company will be determined by its ideals of sustainability, transparency, and partnerships. And he has a vision to take it even further: within the next five years, QMD’s goal is to help create a fully self-sustaining community, generating net zero emissions, along the South Shore of Montreal. It is these types of projects that will be integral to a city’s prosperity and it is these types of projects in which QMD Enterprises is unafraid to push the envelope.

The post Built for Luxury and Longevity<p class="company">QMD Enterprises Inc.</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

“We survived and now I believe us to be a very strong player in the field of east coast modular manufacturing,” Bingaman says. Thirteen years after overcoming the housing crisis, the Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania-based company is in the midst of overcoming the new challenge that COVID-19 has brought to the table. And the team is drawing on the same time-tested strategies to make it through on top once again.

Being a family company has given Icon Legacy an edge from the very start. Bingaman believes that personal touch is invaluable. “Whether you’re a supplier, a vendor, a customer [independent professional builder]… you have the ability to interact with key decision-makers,” he says. “The decision-making ability is not three states away or located an hour away down the river in the capital city. We are more adaptable to changing situations. You don’t have a board of investors you have to answer to. You don’t have that ownership being located offsite.”

This hands-on approach allows for excellent customer service – a factor that has always given Icon Legacy an advantage. “We are attentive to our customer needs and you don’t have to go through five departments to get to where you need,” Bingaman says. The management team may even travel, on a case by case basis, to an independent builder’s jobsite to inspect the modules with the builder. “If Icon’s customer, the independent builder, requests management to come walk through the modules of a house, we’re not putting it off; we’re going to address this right away with the builder,” he explains. And the team continues to maintain close contact with the builder throughout the service process. This way everyone can work together to double check and trouble shoot, so every ‘i’ is dotted and every ‘t’ crossed by the end of the process.

Icon Legacy’s product range of modules and building components is another critical asset. “We do everything from log exterior and knotty pine interior on modular construction all the way to very contemporary, very ultra-modern,” by providing the specific upgrade materials and modules designed to incorporate them in the builder’s finished job, says Bingaman. Icon works with the independent builder to provide whatever building materials and modular components they are looking to have added to their order. “And we do everything in between.”

The size of the building can be just as varied. The company’s modular homes range from four-story multifamily structures to 336 square foot “tiny homes.” “We are willing to look and see what we can do for [every independent builder buying building materials from us],” Bingaman says.

In addition, the company offers a variety of upgrades and finishings. For example, a customer might want an imported window brand from Europe or a specialty roof design, “something we can’t immediately source right here in the Susquehanna Valley.” The company will find a way to get the materials and deliver the desired custom product.

Even the company’s standard modular home boasts a higher than standard quality when it comes to fixtures, finishings, and other details. “We have a level of expectation for the dollar that we spend,” Bingaman says. “Icon is willing to provide you more for that dollar that you’re spending because, at the end of the day, we’re [many times] less than a percentage point apart in pricing many times from our competitors.” Offering value-added features at a standard price gives the company a competitive edge in a crowded market.

Some of these details may seem minor, but they add up to make a sizable difference in the long run. For example, the company uses a tinted primer instead of the standard. “It’s not a finished wall paint, but it’s not modular white,” Bingaman explains. The beige or gray paint means “you’re getting something out there that has a finished look.” Extra touches also include the use of quality materials, such as Merillat cabinets; Certainteed exterior finish products; energy-efficient windows by Seven D, Andersen, Marvin and Ply Gem; Shaw and Tarkett flooring products; and the list goes on. Icon’s standard designs include oversized – taller and deeper – corner cabinets in the kitchen with crown and under-cabinet trim, a Moen gooseneck faucet in the kitchen, and handheld body sprayers in the master bath. Icon homes feature crown molding throughout the modules, and instead of MDF molding in the base and casing, the team uses finger joint pine – a better product that “resists damage better,” Bingaman says. The company can also provide custom wiring and blocking for wall hung TVs, wiring to aid in the builder’s installation of whole house entertainment or security systems, and receptacles with USB charging ports. Also, homes can be designed with gas fireplaces incorporating stone surrounds, bathrooms with tiled showers and tile surrounds at whirlpools or garden tubs – all to make life a little more comfortable and convenient.

Exterior doors are another area that illustrates the Icon difference. “For years within the industry it was a wooden jam and a steel door,” Bingaman says. “From day one Icon offered an insulated fiberglass door and the full composite jams,” materials that outlast what had always been the industry standard. “Twelve to fifteen years from now, when that wooden jam is rotted out on the side of the house where the weather always hits, that’s when these things are truly appreciated. That door costs maybe ten percent more than the steel and the wood jam, but it’s saving those homeowners headaches and heartaches fifteen years down the road.”

The company’s modular homes boast superior windows as well. “We’ve also done a higher performance window from the get go,” Bingaman shares. “Pretty much everybody now has to include windows of higher performance and more insulation,” but Icon Legacy was meeting that standard long before it was required. “We try to include a lot of those value-added features; we’re giving you a little bit more right from the start.”

Icon Legacy’s hands-on management, customer service, product range, and value-added features have helped the company survive in tough times and thrive in the good years, and are now seeing the business though another storm. The COVID-19 pandemic has created unique challenges, but fortunately the team has been able to overcome them.

The suddenness with which the pandemic hit proved particularly difficult. “This was unexpected,” Bingaman says. “You didn’t see it coming. All of a sudden the governor of Pennsylvania announced Thursday afternoon at 4:30 effective tomorrow morning all businesses are closed until further notice.” The announcement left the team reeling. “This had been a busy winter, a busy year up to this point. And suddenly we go from that to ‘bang, you’re closed.’ We had to cancel shipments. We had to cancel delivery of building material.” And sensitive equipment had to be maintained despite the shutdown, which created further complications. “We have adhesive sprayers and insulation machines here that have to be turned on 24 hours a day,” Bingaman explains. “The temperature has to be regulated. We can’t just lock the doors and turn the thermometer down to 42 degrees and go home and wait for it to get better; you’ve got to make arrangements,” and schedule staff to take care of these issues.

Making these arrangements turned out to be quite complicated. “We were getting input from two different directions as to what we could do here,” Bingaman says of confusing, sometimes contradictory messages from the authorities. “We had to figure out what was going on.” To try and get answers, the team took “tons of phone calls from our customers, vendors, suppliers, the bank – nobody knew what was going on and how it was going to affect us.” This lack of clarity throughout this process stands out to Bingaman as a major issue during the shutdown.

And then there was the paperwork and red tape. “We had to seek whatever permission we could get to have people coming in and working in the facilities,” Bingaman recalls. “We needed maintenance people here to ensure that we didn’t sustain a financial loss if the sprayers were damaged.”

Manufacturing could not continue without an onsite workforce, but many employees were able to do their jobs from home. The sales team, processing department, engineering and drafting teams, and human resources department were all able to keep the ship sailing during the shutdown. “So we just had a skeleton crew here to keep the heat on, keep the lights on, and keep the doors open to a point,” Bingaman says.

After filing – and refilling – applications for a state waiver to reopen, the company was able to slowly start getting back to business following the peak and decline in infections in April. The team instituted a number of necessary precautions to help ensure the safety of employees, including face coverings, hand washing stations, and disinfecting procedures.

Now that manufacturing is up and running again, business is booming. “In spite of the coronavirus, in spite of these limitations that we all face because of the pandemic, in spite of all that, new home construction is busier than ever,” Bingaman says. “There’s a lot of development going on.” Icon’s customers, the independent builders, are particularly interested in bigger buildings. “A lot of developers are looking to put in larger, multifamily structures, so we’re hearing a lot more from our customer base and even new customers.”

Of course, the team is eager to meet this increased demand. “We’re here to provide materials and service to our customers,” Bingaman says. “We want to continue to provide quality materials and continue to provide Icon’s customers with world-class service, so they can do their job and build new homes or new light commercial structures – whatever they’re in the process of building.”

The next step forward is to further improve Icon Legacy’s facility. “We’re making that investment, confident of the future and in what we have here and what we provide our customers.”

The post A Formula for Success<p class="company">Icon Legacy Custom Modular Homes</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

The advantages of modular construction are easy to spot. Buildings are completed more quickly because the site is prepared while modules are being built off-site. Since modules are manufactured in a climate-controlled environment, not subject to the vagaries of weather or on-site theft, there are fewer delays and construction goes on year-round.

And although some think modular construction is just an assembly line by another name, allowing limited customization, this is not so. A prospective client only has to look at MODLOGIQ in New Holland, Pennsylvania, which constructs one-of-a-kind health care, education and retail projects, each to a client’s unique specifications, while conforming to wildly varying state and municipal building codes, and to all Department of Transportation requirements.

This brings us back to our original question — if it’s so great, why isn’t everyone doing it? What causes failures in the industry? And most importantly, why have Axis Construction and MODLOGIQ succeeded where some others have not?

The answer is both elegantly simple and extremely complex and summed up in one word – ‘synergy’ – says John Buongiorno of Axis Construction, Hauppauge, New York, speaking of the relationship he has with MODLOGIQ and its Director of Development, Jim Gabriel.

“We have a great friendship, and we understand that together our ability to affect the industry is a collective sort of experience,” he says. “We know there has to be a solid connection between the factory and the general construction company. The beauty of it is the longstanding relationship we have and the synergy we’ve developed over 20 years of doing this, plus the burning desire we have to provide our clients with a successful experience.”

Buongiorno, who has 35 years’ experience with several national companies in the modular industry, joined Axis in 1998. The company, founded in 1993 as a traditional builder, specializing primarily in health care, was looking to get deeper into the modular industry and invited him to head up their modular division. One of the most important relationships he formed was with the manufacturer recently rebranded as MODLOGIQ, but which had been founded in Grimsby, Ontario in 1979 as NRB Canada.

“We started shipping buildings from Canada down to New York,” Buongiorno says, and describes how NRB ran into a problem in 2003 when it secured a contract to construct a school in New Jersey, but couldn’t carry out the work because of a Buy American clause. Rather than give up the contract, the company formed NRB USA, “and the formation of the U.S. branch solidified our relationship. Ever since [Axis Construction] has been buying our buildings from them.”

Gabriel takes up the story: In April 2019, the Canadian parent company was sold to Horizon North, requiring the U.S. branch, not included in the sale, to change its name. It rebranded itself as MODLOGIQ, and set out to build on the high standards that had made NRB so successful.

Gabriel has been working in the modular industry for the past 25 years, but two years prior had been approached by NRB USA to become the company’s development director. He had Buongiorno’s full endorsement. “It was an opportunity to come back to my roots,” Gabriel says, “and an industry and product that I wholeheartedly love. In the last phase of my career, this is exactly where I want to be.”

We asked if their collaboration serves as a model for the industry.

“Definitely yes,” Gabriel says. “The model that works is a collaborative model, and in my estimation modular has failed the collaborative piece. It’s not only about working with a general contractor and a company which knows where to pick up when we leave off, it’s also about working with designers, architects and engineers,” he shares.

“It can be a difficult thing to do in terms of being able to ensure the design meets all the requirements of a production model, and that is what we have to meet on the front end. There is no magic to it — it’s really an old model, and we have to think about the end result, what the client wants, and not what we can provide.”

The secret to the success shared by the two companies working together comes back to that word ‘synergy’. It’s about mitigating the cost, the scope gaps and the scope overlaps on the front end.

Gabriel explains, “John and his team are working with our team and we are good at determining what’s needed and communicating it succinctly to our subs, vendors, and suppliers – to anyone involved in the project,” he says.

“We spend a lot of time talking about the scope and mitigating the overlaps and the gaps because if there are scope overlaps the project could start costing more before it even begins. And eventually that leads to change orders than can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars when the subs say they didn’t understand exactly what was required. And the client is disappointed with the result.”

Adds Buongiorno, “It sounds easy and logical but that’s not always the reality. There are many factories that build fine buildings, but the issues begin once they leave the factory. They arrive at the site and are turned over to a General Contractor who isn’t familiar with the process, and then these projects fall apart. Nine times out of ten, the negative press the industry gets is not because the factory did anything wrong, it’s because the construction company they sent it to didn’t know what they were getting into,” he explains.

“As Jim said, there are scope gaps, which create change orders, which increase the costs, cause delays, and start litigation. There are some big players in the industry that have fallen into this trap and destroyed modular’s reputation for years at a time because of their blunders.”

Buongiorno serves on the board of directors of the Modular Building Institute (MBI), the largest trade organization in the industry specific to health care, education, commercial and “everything else except residential, with members around the world. It’s looked to as the go-to-place to find the right information, the right manufacturer and the right contractor. It’s a good organization and we are always looking to push the industry further in the right direction.”

Gabriel is also a member of MBI. He makes the point that what differentiates MODLOGIQ from other modular manufacturers is that most modular applications are created on an assembly line – each module is more or less the same with some variations in floor plan or finishes.

“It’s a great way to get standardized products at a high volume and a relatively low cost, but when talking about the health care facilities we do, whether its acute care or diagnostic imaging, the application requires a certain level of sophistication and compliance that doesn’t fit the assembly line process.”

Because MODLOGIQ is not an assembly line production company it has latitude to simultaneously build large and small structures, with the trades moving from project to project as opposed to having to build almost identical modules at the same speed.

“Companies who use an assembly line model on a consistent basis are really good at it, but if you try to do a custom project in an assembly line it would bring everything to a screeching halt. What we’re doing,” Gabriel concludes, “is not necessarily better but it is better under certain circumstances.”

Once the design process, using REVIT programming, has been approved by the client, work starts in the 50,000-square-foot plant. It begins with fabrication of structural-steel cages with HSS columns and poured concrete floors and extends to full-height glazing, brick, or stone veneers, to sophisticated interior design and to mechanical systems installation.

With up to ninety percent of the work completed, the modules are bolted together horizontally and vertically on the company’s eight-acre site, designed to provide the graded requirements for setting and erecting buildings.

When the buildings have been completed, assembled, and QC’d, they are disassembled, shrink wrapped and shipped on drop-deck air-ride trailers. On site they are lifted precisely into place by cranes, using the built-in lifting lugs at the top of each module, and anchored to weld plates embedded in the foundation.

The collaborative theory sounds great but how does it work in practice? How does Axis Construction deal with MODLOGIQ’s products? The 7,000-square-foot pediatric expansion at the Good Samaritan Hospital on Long Island, completed in 2020 during the worst of the pandemic in New York, serves as an excellent example.

“I don’t know any other group besides MODLOGIQ and Axis that could have pulled it off in eleven weeks,” says Buongiorno. “They weren’t scheduled to put patients in until August, but it was ultimately a month ahead of schedule, on July 4th, when patients went in.”

This was not a stand-alone structure but came with the additional challenge of having to be attached to an existing end of the hospital. A connecting was link punched out of the existing wall to create one building that met all the building codes and state health department guidelines.

“It was even more challenging to get everything mechanical lined up and do it in the height of the pandemic. It was essential that this project was done quickly and done right because the wall we were penetrating into the existing hospital was the COVID wing and had, on any given day, 70, 80, or 90 patients right behind it,” Buongiorno recalls.

“We weren’t able to penetrate into the existing facility until the modules arrived – although we had done some prep work on the exterior – but it wasn’t until they were able to clear out rooms that were supporting COVID patients that we were able to do it. It took a lot of planning and coordination to penetrate the wall, but the pipes were exactly where they were supposed to be in Jim’s building. We were able to complete the job because everything matched up perfectly,” he says.

“We had a couple of hiccups with COVID, when we had to stop work when some of our subcontractors tested positive and we had to sterilize everything, and before that Jim had a stop-work order to deal with in Pennsylvania. So it was a real team effort as he worked with local politicians and government officials to get the guys back in the plant. But without this collaborative effort, working to the same goal and no egos getting in the way, it couldn’t have been done.”

Referencing another project, Buongiorno describes Axis President and CEO Ralph Lambert convincing the board of directors at Molloy College on Long Island that modular was the way to go to build their new residence hall so they could expand their enrollment.

At that stage, the board was not contemplating modular and the college president indicated to Lambert that he didn’t want trailers on the campus. But after a series of meetings, and when he saw a comparison between off-site and on-site construction – that the budget was about the same, but that completion time of the 103-bed dormitory would be a full school year earlier – he was sold.

MODLOGIQ completed 59 modules of Bogner Hall, assembled the three-story building on their site in New Holland, dismantled it and put it on carriers, and transported it to Long Island.

The Vanderbilt Family Health Center on Staten Island, part of New York City’s Health & Hospitals Corporation, is another impressive example of collaboration between the two companies.

“It was the third project we did for them and they have become true believers in on-site construction,” says Buongiorno. “Our first project for them was a small 5,000-square-foot building at the Queen’s Medical Center, then we did a 13,000-square-foot single-story over on Coney Island after Hurricane Sandy went through. Then there was this new medical center clinic on Staten Island,” he shares.

“The project was publicly bid on and the reaction to the Axis/MODLOGIC team presentation was successful. The 20,000-square-foot, two-story facility was built at Jim’s plant and put back together on a very difficult site. There was no space to work as the building takes up the entire footprint other than a small parking lot. So we were dealing with the City, the DOT, the NYPD, and the mayor’s office to secure the various permits, not only to ship the building into the city, but also for lane closures, and we were literally setting the building from the street,” Buongiorno explains.

“There’s a lot of logistical planning in what we do. We use the right trucking companies and the right riggers, so it was a seamless transition getting it from Pennsylvania, through New Jersey, across the George Washington Bridge and then down through the city and over another bridge through Brooklyn and over to the site. Then just as we were scheduled to start setting the building, the street was closed off as the mayor’s office had authorized a film production company to use Vanderbilt Avenue. We had to quickly reorganize and put off the delivery for a few nights, but you have to go with the flow.”

In the end, “It wasn’t a big deal,” he says. “A curve ball got thrown at us and we dealt with it.”

The post Building Relationships, One Module at a Time<p class="company">Axis Construction and MODLOGIQ</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.