In reality, those positions are few and far between, and still fewer qualify or even aspire to these career paths.

So why limit women to boardroom jobs when there is a dearth of qualified workers in so many skilled trade positions? As many as 80 percent of U.S. construction companies are reporting work shortages, with estimates of over 250,000 job openings industry-wide, according to a 2019 survey by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). And 45 percent say the local pipeline for preparing well-trained and skilled workers is poor.

Construction firms, like businesses across the board, are raising base pay rates and offering signing incentives to draw workers.

“Workforce shortages remain one of the single most significant threats to the construction industry,” says AGC’s Stephen Sandherr, CEO. “However, construction labour shortages are a challenge that can be fixed, and this association will continue to do everything in its power to make sure that happens.”

AGC is lobbying the federal government to increase funding for technical education, allow construction students at career and community colleges to qualify for federal grants, and make it easier for firms to establish apprenticeship and retraining programs. AGC is also advocating for more immigrants to enter the country to work in the trades.

But why aren’t women in America powering the industry?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women make up half of the U.S. workforce – 50.04 percent – but comprise only about 10 percent of the construction labour force. This reality means that construction has limited access not only to the general labour pool but also the overall capacity for workplace innovation, creativity and strategic thinking.

And that female 10 percent of the construction workforce jobs tend to be in design or administrative roles with only a fraction of women working in skilled trades – about 1 percent.

A career in construction isn’t what women typically aspire to, but maybe it should be. There is a massive labour shortage in the industry, and construction trade apprenticeship programs often involve working and getting paid while learning – there’s a lot of appeal right there.

We are in a time of reinvention as the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the ways people work or are willing to work. Similarly, people are questioning the need to enrol in a multi-year college program to have career successes. Why not enter a two-year apprenticeship and start working and earning right away?

Some of the reluctance to enter skilled trades may be influenced by the lack of visible female leadership in the industry, which gives the general impression that construction career opportunities for women are restricted and just not accessible. Also, women are slow to take on jobs that have typically been the domain of men, like jobs with an earned tradition of hard and temporary labour, but even this is changing. Today, construction isn’t just about shovelling or hammering. It is an industry of innovation and technology as robot bricklaying machines and self-driving excavators, for example, are being introduced to overcome labour shortages and improve efficiencies. New tools also optimize workers’ efforts and make physicality less and less important.

Then consider the focus on STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – in the high school curriculum and vocational learning experiences that appeal to women and the next generation of workers. Technology is second nature to Gen Z and Generation Alpha.

There is also a growing acknowledgement that the construction trades need to evolve to recruit the talent and the unique skills needed to remain competitive both in terms of efficiency and attracting labour.

Similarly, the “bro-code” culture of workplace sacrifice for a paycheque seems to be waning. Men are no longer interested in giving up their health, families and marriages to earn a living, and recognize that supporting women in the workforce brings important and positive changes. Nowadays, men are just as likely as women to be involved in child raising or caring for elderly parents. They, too, value jobs that provide the time and flexibility to tend to these personal matters and look after their own health.

Women also contribute important soft skills to the industry that are a huge asset.

“When people think of construction, they think of hands-on building, but there is also a lot of problem solving and relationship building involved,” Jessica Adame told Construction Business Owner magazine. She’s the national outreach manager of McCarthy Building Company, drawing women to build a more egalitarian workforce.

“Women have the ability to approach problems with great communication and bring a bunch of ideas together,” she says.

These changes are making construction work better, easier and more efficient, and at the same time opening doors for more people to contribute. While the reliance on brawn was a major hurdle in the past, now women, including many once stay-at-home-moms, are looking for new opportunities.

Construction and well-paid skilled labour jobs are getting more attractive as technology creates more opportunities and workplace flexibility.

Flexible work, of course, is better for everybody. Construction used to mean being at the job site at dawn and sometimes working until dusk. Now workers can reduce their number of hours on site and get home in time for their kids’ recitals or soccer games. Some work can even be accomplished remotely, and this allows for workers to stay home with a sick child or help an aging relative.

Even with these transformative changes, there’s more to be done to attract women into construction and trades.

Role models, mentors and access to educational opportunities early in life can help break down stereotypes and other biases, ultimately increasing the numbers of women considering trade career opportunities. In construction, women often gravitate to jobs in human resources, marketing, safety inspection or administrative duties, but even more possibilities abound for those interested in the frontline positions such as welding and carpentry.

Progressive companies are also helping to break down the barriers by initiating internships and apprenticeships specifically targeted to recruiting women. The programs are devised to help women access industry skills and simultaneously fulfill educational requirements. For women looking for more career advancement opportunities, management positions are also becoming more available in the construction industry.

And women entrepreneurs are making inroads.

Between 2014 and 2019, BigRentz, a leading heavy equipment rental provider, noted significant growth of women-owned business. During that five-year span, the company saw a 64 percent increase in women-led construction businesses and further noted that 44 percent of the top contracting companies BigRentz served had women in executive management roles. One high-profile example? Evergreen Construction founder and former “Real Housewives of New York” star, Barbara Kavovit, led the team that demolished and overhauled one of the offices of disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein last year.

Yes, women can be game-changers. Diversity ultimately benefits both employers and employees, putting an end to biases and stereotyping in an industry that is foundational to North America’s economy.

“Through widening the talent pool, you simultaneously open your business up to individuals who can contribute toward your overall level of profitability,” says Dee Brown, a Forbes Council contributor and national policy advisor on partnerships and urban redevelopment for the National Bar Association. “Research has shown that businesses that leverage the innovation that can come from a diverse workplace perform better financially.”

Bottom line, expanding your recruitment pool and welcoming women to your operations will not only help solve the workforce shortages in the wake of the pandemic. It could usher in long-term, positive benefits that you might not have anticipated.

The post Level the Jobsite<p class="company">Women in Trades – and Corner Offices</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

I had never come across a construction company with a technology committee until I met with Mowery’s Nick Laeder, Director of Sustainability, Quality Control, and Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing services a short while ago. Establishing its latest task force at the beginning of 2021, the technology committee team supports employees and their new remote working arrangements.

The new committee meets monthly to report on new, possibly useful technologies to be researched and challenges that might be mitigated or avoided with the help of technology. “This company, like none other I have been with in my twenty-year career, embraces and innovates technology and comes up with innovative uses for existing technology, and I’ve worked for some of the top ten contractors in the U.S.,” says Laeder. He also points out that, while many companies expect their staff to be ‘always on,’ Mowery approaches the concept differently by making it fun and providing them with technology that optimizes the work process.

He makes it clear that Mowery most certainly does not use the approach to encroach on its staff’s personal space or family time, quite the contrary. Instead of micromanaging its staff, it allows its people the space they need to live while delivering their best at work, no matter where they work. This means that employees have the freedom to take care of their family responsibilities while working.

“There’s no expectation of desk-watching from eight to five. [It doesn’t matter if] your kid has a doctor’s appointment or a school play or needs to be picked up,” Laeder says. While this may seem like old hat to many companies, Laeder points out that the difference at Mowery is the “full embrace,” of the fact that workers are “just as productive, if not more so, from home.”

The company knows that office attendance does not decide profitability, so this mode of working is embraced with a trust that is often lacking in high-pressure environments. “Nobody even questions it. Whatever you have to do to make your life work, do it. It’s such a welcoming, freeing concept. It makes the workday just so much more pleasant,” he says. “Every one of our meetings is also co-hosted on [Microsoft] Teams, making it easy for everyone to attend from anywhere. Mowery has respect for family life. It’s not like we’re taking conference calls at 6:30 PM.”

This Pennsylvania construction leader prides itself on strong customer relationships underscored by integrity and the latest in technology. It is trusted by industry greats in Mechanicsburg, York, and the Mid-Atlantic states of Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Virginia for quality and top performance on every design-build project it delivers. Specializing in several building types, the company handles everything from preplanning to project delivery for some really big names. That includes Members 1st Credit Union, for which the company worked on their new headquarters; Geisinger Health Systems; Logistics Property Company; Trammel Crow Company, and automotive firms such as Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Mercedes, and BMW.

Mowery is popular amongst national developers, regional healthcare providers, colleges, universities, senior living communities, and automotive dealerships. It provides design-build and reconstruction services, construction management, and specialized project skills where size, design, or construction demands go beyond the norm. Part of its attractiveness is due to the ease with which its client partners can collaborate with its teams. All project information is easily accessible, making the process transparent and efficient.

“There is very little hesitation in piloting a new program here, and we do it frequently. We pilot new technology, new software, new applications. If it can help us, we adopt it across the board,” Laeder says. But its technology also reaches far beyond remote work. Mowery employs market-leading hardware and software at every phase of the design-build process to improve customer experience and its performance.

Design-phase technology includes virtual reality, using Enscape, a tool that allows clients to experience a virtual three-dimensional rendition of their buildings. As visualization can be difficult for many people, this is an invaluable tool to help clients to envision projects. It also aids in decision-making, conceptualizing, and stakeholder buy-in.

“People develop a sense of ownership once they have virtually walked through the space and contributed to the final product. Our customers love it,” Laeder says. In addition, the hardware unit can be prepared and plugged into a laptop anywhere.

Mowery employs drones to do everything from assisting project management to establishing energy efficiency and real-time remote access through live, on-site cameras. Each site is drone-inspected weekly and completed buildings are personally drone-checked by Laeder in his capacity as director of sustainability. Inspections especially focus on heat leaks through the building envelope caused by faulty door and window seals. The earlier these flights inspect a site, the sooner errors can be detected and corrected.

The energy audits use infrared thermographs, and fixing issues promptly during the construction phase of its projects ultimately reduces call-backs by tenants due to temperature-related discomfort. As this has become a trusted part of its construction process, the company has seen a significant improvement in installations. Even on ‘traditional industrial, light-duty tilt concrete wall panel’ buildings used for storage, warehousing, and distribution as typically seen in the northern United States.

“I was surprised how short my list of corrections was,” Laeder says proudly of Mowery’s latest—and massive at 1.8-million-square-feet—project. “It was literally ‘replace two door seals and close a roof hatch.’ It was fantastic.” This highlights that, budget and insulation allowing, older construction methods executed thoroughly can be as energy-efficient as many modern energy-efficient envelope systems.

Its technology committee also has the post-construction process covered. Spherical imagery is derived from state-of-the-art cameras featuring special lenses that enable shots at 360 degrees. Laeder describes how mounting the camera on a hard hat renders the best results. The images are processed on Procore construction management software. These images, alongside time-lapse images (created using HoloBuilder), form part of the company’s photo package.

“This is a very helpful tool for post-construction use. An owner can be standing in a room with their iPad and go back in time to see what the room looked like before the [improvements], new wiring, plumbing, et cetera without having to drill holes and insert cameras. It’s tremendously powerful from a visual standpoint,” he says.

Its team includes an in-house lead architect, plus civil and structural engineers, MEP coordinator, computer-aided drafting professionals, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) accredited professionals, certified healthcare contractors, and several other industry experts. The company’s new direction is evident from recently created positions such as the directorship of sustainability, a special projects team, as well as services such as energy modeling, energy auditing, and sustainability reviews.

Sustainability has always been a part of how Mowery approaches construction. “We treat sustainability not as a function of quality, but quality as a function of sustainability. Which is, I believe, what differentiates us from most other contractors,” says Laeder, who explains how changing the concept changed the company’s mindset.

This translates into better craftsmanship driving improved sustainability, huge time-and-cost savings, and above all, better quality and tighter, more energy-efficient building envelopes. It also results in far fewer call-backs and, therefore, fewer financial losses. The team tests mock-up designs to improve its knowledge of and experience with best-in-class temperature control methods versus material performance throughout every season.

The company is also a leader in waste mitigation. According to Laeder, new construction is one of the main contributors to landfill waste in the country, making reduction imperative. To this end, Mowery works ceaselessly to become as effective at managing materials as possible while keeping up standards. “We’re trying across the board to cut our consumption [and] waste, increase our recycling. Not from a profitability standpoint. It costs money for us to do this. We’re doing it because it’s the right thing,” he says.

This approach landed it a coveted Passivhaus-concept project for Presbyterian Senior Living. The Windy Hill II building project at Philipsburg, Pennsylvania was completed several years ago. Passivhaus originates in 1980s Germany and improves a building’s energy efficiency by optimizing a building envelope’s sealing capacities. The method proved so successful in downscaling the cost of maintaining ideal interior temperatures that it has become a regular feature in many of Mowery’s buildings.

Mowery was founded in 1925 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania by the brother duo of Raymond S. and Clarence Mowery, who each made unique contributions to its legacy. David Cross took over the president’s chair from Don Mowery in 2017. Today, he remains committed to continuing his predecessors’ tradition of keeping strict timelines and offering fine value with the help of the company’s team of industry professionals.

Pre-COVID, the firm enjoyed phenomenal growth, which was not changed dramatically by the pandemic. Despite real challenges such as supply chain issues, it still managed to achieve its second-highest growth rate in its ninety-five years of existence, no mean feat in an economic climate such as that of the past two years. This growth and the broadening of its services have seen its staff numbers grow from around seventy-five at the time of our last interview in 2019 to steadily approaching one hundred today.

“I have been in construction for twenty-three years now,” Laeder says, noting that working at Mowery “is the absolute most fun I’ve had building. I literally enjoy going to work every day.”

Progressive in all other aspects of its business, including expansion into new fields, Mowery retains its signature conservative approach to the future, maintaining its goals of slow and steady growth. The company will continue to shape its future and those of its teams by providing the mentorship and in-field experience its people need to grow and attain current skills.

It is also on top of supply chain issues, coming up with creative solutions to seemingly insurmountable challenges as far as possible. Skillful networking, clear communication, and teamwork continue to prove to be essential, as do correct and collaborative project management.

David Cross was listed on the 2021 Central Penn Business Journal’s Power 100 List, plus the company made the sixth position on the same publication’s list of fastest-growing companies, coming up fourteen positions from last year. Mowery will continue doing what it does best by making a positive difference to everyone with which it works.

The post Better, Smarter, Faster<p class="company">Mowery</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Driven by a desire to create the world’s most modern volumetric mixers and fuelled by superior in-house research and development, engineering, and production teams, ProAll is proud to reveal the development of its Spider 2.0 system designed to once again propel the company to the industry forefront.

“Spider 2.0 is basically the concept of a concrete business in a box,” explains Marius Swart, lead on the development of Spider 2.0 and CEO of 7SalesSteps. For ProAll, Spider 2.0 represents a revolution in volumetric concrete delivery – and in earning business.

“It wants to give the customer who uses the ProAll mixers the liberty to gather customers and serve them online, accept orders placed, dispatch trucks, invoice customers and provide service, follow-up, and backup to these customers,” says Swart.

This includes letting a customer experience equipment performance, including knowing where trucks are located, whether the equipment on the truck is operating as it should, and whether any preventative steps are needed. “It actually monitors every moving part on the truck and allows the owner to interact with that,” Swart says.

If a tank needs to be cleaned and is causing a hold-up, the system would indicate that via an array of dashboard items that can be monitored remotely, allowing customers to look at a truck and see, for example, what temperature it’s running at and how much water it has to mix with cement.

“It’s in this beautiful remote place, but you can interact with it and understand everything that’s going on with that truck,” says Swart.

For example, when the truck has completed pouring and the driver inputs the yards poured, an invoice can be prepared for the customer, and a note automatically sent through Spider 2.0 that delivery has been completed. “The product interacts with the customers and the drivers with side contacts, all through mobile interaction,” says Swart.

While the diagnostics interact with the truck and the dispatch functions with the office and the customer interactions, a third part helps the business owners obtain more customers.

“With this part, Spider provides a marketing function for the truck owners, which allows them to specify what type of customers they would like to reach out to, and in what proximity they would like them to be to the loading yards these trucks operate from,” says Swart.

This means the customer could specify the area within a chosen radius, whether city-wide or state-wide, for example, and be provided with a list of potential users of concrete truck services, such as those in paving; those in pool, residential, and commercial construction; and DOT service providers and utility providers.

The customer could then engage on the marketing side by sending monthly reminders of services provided and encourage people to register and receive information and learn about concrete and any specials available.

“We can build this community where people could learn more about concrete and we’d just stay in front of them,” Swart says. “When they’re ready to react, all they do is click a link on the website, and if they register, they don’t need to do anything.” If not, they can place their order and the entire process then automatically works from the beginning. In essence, he says, Spider 2.0 brings all the elements of a concrete business to the customers, making it as easy and hassle-free as possible.

“It allows companies to grow to a place they can handle,” he says. “There’s only so much capacity in a geographical area. It’s vast and there’s not a single organization that has kept all of it, but we can bring that vast universe of customers to a concrete company.”

If they say they can handle 1,000 more potential customers, ProAll can expand that marketing reach for them, while helping decide how many trucks are needed. “Then all that company needs to worry about is how many internal people they want to have in their business and how hard they want to work,” says Swart. “We feel we can help them understand their customer universe that’s out there.”

While Spider 2.0 isn’t operational yet, ProAll launched the initial version in January at the World of Concrete in Vegas. This featured a working demonstration to show customers the different markets and interactions through a working model. While there are no commercial customers yet, customers are testing various elements.

“Like all of these things, we have enough real-life input from people that use various components, and the diagnostics, dispatch, and marketing pieces have been around for a long time, but not necessarily in the concrete world,” says Swart. “As we feel the temperature of how hungry people would be for all the combined features, we will adjust our launch dates. We’re keeping our finger on the pulse.”

Spider 2.0 has been a huge accomplishment during a truly challenging few years dealing with supply chain issues, which can be extremely difficult for a manufacturer.

“Everyone has felt supply chain issues, but we have thousands of components that go on these mixers supplied by hundreds of suppliers from all around the world,” says Andrew Coates, Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Other issues now include the challenge of buying truck chassis, with all manufacturers sold out for 2022, and sales now starting for 2023: It’s a huge hurdle to leap for a company that builds and sells concrete mixers, with more than 80 percent of those mounted on chassis.

ProAll has had some unexpected achievements, however, with a large amount of growth over the past few years.

“Prior to the pandemic we had 80 to 85 employees, and now we’re 150 plus,” says Coates. “We’ve almost doubled the size of the staff since the pandemic started. From the point of view of revenue and bottom line the company has grown substantially in the last 24 months, and that’s had challenges as well with hiring new people.”

It takes time to train new people, and it takes time for the person training them as well, he adds.

“It’s pretty incredible that we’ve increased production capacity by almost 100 percent in the last 18 months,” he says. “To do that while struggling through supply-chain issues and labour shortages and COVID restrictions and chassis shortages, is a real testament to the team that we have, and what we’ve been able to do in such a challenging environment.”

The construction industry is experiencing a boom, he says, with the concrete industry a part of that. Also, while mobile mixers and volumetric mixers have been around for 50-plus years, they’ve started to see an explosion in the industry.

“We might be growing a little quicker over the last year and a half, but all of our competitors have shown growth as well,” says Coates. “That tells me it could be the industry, but it’s also the adoption of volumetric mixers.”

These mixers improve quality control and quality assurance, allowing companies to take on work that maybe they couldn’t before and complete jobs with high engineering specs.

“I think ProAll is outpacing the boom because of the acceptance of the equipment and the automation of the technology that’s been added to the volumetric mixers,” says Coates.

And that growth is both a challenge and an accomplishment.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Swart says. “It’s great that we’re having growth, but there have been quite a few challenges to that, and there continue to be as we look forward over 2022 and 2023. Outside the COVID challenges that may persist: we also have challenges of introducing new technology to a mixer and then having a misstep.”

Adoption is good, he adds, and companies will all move towards more and better technology, but that doesn’t mean you make the right step. So, as it moves forward, ProAll will continue to listen carefully to customers regarding what they’d like to see on mixers, and where technology or automation can genuinely make their life easier.

“We all know technology is going to become more integrated into our lives, whether it’s at work or at home, but how it’s integrated we don’t know,” Coates says. “When it comes to volumetric mixers, I don’t know what that’s going to look like in terms of the control system in five years, but we have an educated guess and by listening to customer feedback, we hope we implement the right technology.”

It’s this forward-thinking that sets ProAll apart from its competitors, adds Coates. “One of the things we pride ourselves on is building a mixer that has improvements and adjustments built on customer feedback,” he says. “That’s the reason we’ve got to the mixer that we build today versus what we built 10 years ago.”

While Coates believes his competitors have done that as well, he thinks ProAll “blazed the trail,” especially on automated equipment. “We were the first one to do that and we continue to lead the charge there.”

ProAll is looking to grow, expand, and be ready for volumetric mixers to become much more common than they are today, says Coates of this fairly niche product.

“With the growth we’ve seen over the last two years in the industry, I think our [targets] are really lofty because we believe we’re right at the beginning of a shift in the market.” “Volumetric mixers will never replace drums, but we believe they’ll grow to take on a larger share of the concrete space, the ready-mix space.”

That dedication to forward-thinking and customer service is only reinforced by ProAll’s Spider 2.0, a program that allows full control and full visibility of customer business.

“We feel we cannot oversell the importance of giving somebody the ability to run a business like a franchise,” says Swart. “The one thing that’s elusive is for a concrete company to understand the customers. It’s hard.” It’s hard to pre-plan that, while with Spider you can be very planned about how big you want your business to be at what time.

“The casual market hasn’t been touched in the U.S.,” Swart adds. “People still get concrete from a variety of sources, and the volumetric concrete delivered to homeowners and casual contractors – that market is very much untapped.”

“That’s another forward-thinking aspect and no one else is doing that,” says Coates. “We’re hearing what our customers are saying and trying to push in that direction. Both historically and still today it’s something that sets ProAll apart from other companies in this space.”

The post ProAll’s New Spider 2.0 Trucks Pour Concrete and Deliver Business<p class="company">ProAll</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Thanks to its solid reputation in the industry, many market leaders trust Kewaunee to create their laboratories. “Because of our heritage scale, we do it right. We’ve already figured it out. We know all the certifications you need to follow. We know all the pitfalls. We’ve done most of the labs in America,” says Chris Willetts, Marketing Director. Willetts also points out that the company’s scale and that of its processes “lead to quality and reassurance.”

To achieve optimum laboratory ergonomics and aesthetics, Kewaunee Scientific Corporation provides custom solutions tailored for clients in markets such as higher education, healthcare centers, pharmaceutical research outfits, forensic crime labs, industrial chemical fabricators, and research and development labs.

Achieving top-quality equipment, safety, and modernity through development, technology, and design, this niche laboratory specialist offers innovative fume hoods, casework, workstations, surfaces, workbenches, and more with full-service manufacturing and installation.

“At Kewaunee, we pride ourselves on quality and design. The way that we build our products meets a tough specification of the Scientific Equipment and Furniture Association (SEFA), [which] is a unique specification to the laboratory world,” says Willetts. This involves testing furniture performance while loaded with weights to simulate use. Quality control is performed randomly in batches, ensuring consistency throughout the process.

Based in Statesville, North Carolina, the company has a phenomenal reach, serving customers across the globe from its facilities here and in Bangalore, India. Since research demands and protocols are always evolving, the company prides itself on its speed and skill in adapting to international markets and industry needs. Clients benefit from a close relationship where every detail is seen to and they are supported every step of the way.

The company is especially well-known for combining exquisite wood and alternative, less common materials such as aluminum and specialized resin with familiar laboratory elements such as stainless steel. In addition, its powder coating system contains no volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to ensure the safety of both people and products.

“The beauty of Kewaunee is that we’re the only place that [combines] wood, metal, and resin manufacturing on one site. That allows us to combine those materials with accuracy and reliability,” Willetts adds. “This reliability doesn’t only mean the reliability of the product, but also reliability of delivery.”

Tracking the origins and quality of the wood it uses is a priority. The richness of its grain and its strength primary factors, but the warm earthiness it lends to these traditionally spartan workspaces is desirable, especially considering the number of hours people work in them.

After more than a century in the laboratory business, Kewaunee knew to embrace the restrictions that came with COVID-19 regulations, turning it into an opportunity for growth and improvements. One such development included introducing new software that handles product configurations. It also renders complete elevations and drawings as well as three-dimensional files that enable automatic fabrication by way of computer numerical controlled manufacturing.

“We have a team of engineers who can customize elements of standard products to fit [clients’ needs]. With architects’ styling and design, we build a lot of custom elements, so that it fits what clients need,” says Willetts.

The company’s energy-efficient, proprietary Venturi port technology also allows air that typically tends to sit in the corners of fume hoods to move upward and outward with the central air, resulting in improved extraction power over workstations. Some of its most popular products include its range of inventive fume hoods.

To adhere to disability regulations, these hoods have to be in line with eye level. Instead of lowering the unit, as is sometimes standard practice elsewhere, Kewaunee’s ADA hood is on par with the standard hood level but is elongated to look good and balance visually within the greater design. For ease of use, these hoods have handles rather than knobs, while control buttons are positioned lower than those of other hoods.

Extending this flair for design and customization further, the company has created a lookbook with examples of its offerings, technology, and details of its design elements. “Here, clients can read about projects, understand about different product types, colors, and possibilities. We created it so that architects and [other] clients can finger through it and choose elements,” Willetts tells us.

Moreover, Kewaunee offers three dynamic furniture systems that can stand alone or be combined with other fixed systems. These systems adhere closely to SEFA’s strict standards governing the safety of these modular units. An interesting trend that Willetts points out is that more former office spaces are being converted into research laboratories. The current approach is to kit such spaces out with appropriate furniture around the periphery. Then, modular, mobile units are installed in the center to where gas and electricity are supplied through cables via the ceiling. This allows technicians to adapt the space to suit their needs, something at which Kewaunee’s design teams excel.

Its distribution warehouses allow it to store furniture and equipment over short periods for clients that are in the process of constructing labs to allow them to furnish according to their unique schedules. “The idea is that when a lab is getting built, [the client] might want the top floor’s [furniture] this week, and then maybe the bottom floor in three weeks. We can do that rather than having to purely rely on manufacturing to get that done for them,” Willetts says. The service also results in less risk of damage to furniture standing around on unfinished sites awaiting installation.

One recent project was completed for the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Charlotte. The building, built in an L shape, has complex demands over several floors. Ensuring continuity, the same high-end wood features throughout the building, including the research laboratories and classrooms.

“Because of Kewaunee’s size and our eye for wood—which is handpicked—we have a lot of consistency in how we construct,” says Willetts. The company was able to procure large batches of the same color and quality of wood for the entire and sizeable UNC project. The resulting uniformity is breathtaking, and, as the company belongs to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), its wood is traceable to the trees of origin.

Kewaunee Scientific Corporation especially values its teams. “We build the foundation for scientists that create breakthroughs that push the human race forward. [Our people] know the purpose of what they do,” Willetts says. This purpose-based approach to fulfilling customers’ needs has allowed the company to deliver excellence where others were not always able to.

To meet healthcare needs with the increased demands of dealing with COVID, the company has created a new brand as part of its existing menu of products. The Everhutch healthcare furniture and equipment line focuses specifically on the needs of this sector, with products like procedure carts and cabinets. These drug cabinets come on wheels, complete with a range of helpful accessories. “We have looked at all the different problems that customers have. It follows the same quality of our lab casework, so now labs can benefit from [those stringent standards],” says Willetts.

“There is a strong focus on durability and infection control,” he adds, also highlighting the fact that these products are not “a whole bunch of imported elements that are assembled”. Instead, they are locally produced from quality engineered, rolled steel, fabricated and assembled at its facilities.

“Your healthcare cabinet should be loaded and then physically tested. [It should] have this specification. Labs have to meet chemical resistance, load [requirements], and things like that. We’re bringing scientific-grade quality into the healthcare environment,” Willetts says.

Inspired by a strong leadership team with the will to drive the company forward, Kewaunee Scientific Corporation is set to increasingly embrace virtual and augmented reality. It will also continuously advance computer-automated manufacturing. At the base of this is the understanding that collaborative laboratory workspaces are the key to meaningful development.

With its mixture of seasoned and skilled craftsmanship and young up-and-coming talent, the company is perfectly positioned for this. It will, therefore, by solving laboratory problems one design at a time, continue to be a foundation builder for scientists who create the future.

The post Where Style Meets Science<p class="company">Kewaunee Scientific Corporation</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Meeting this need, Gainsborough Waste began its operations in 1994, investing in its first new Mack truck in 1996. A few years later in 1999, the Carls courageously moved forward with the formation of their portable toilet company titled Texas Outhouse, which has become a staple of exemplary service in and around the gulf coast. Fast forward over 20 years with Texas Outhouse, a newly identified market segment led to the purchase of its first high-end restroom trailer in 2016. Quick success in this new market led to the 2017 creation of a new standalone division adorned with its own logo, social media platforms and website, titled Luxury Event Trailers (LET).

Privately held, both businesses are under the same ownership, with Noble Carl serving as Gainsborough’s President and brother Paul R. Carl as Vice President.

With some overlap among employees in areas such as accounting, sales, customer service and maintenance, all entities have a strong company culture, which allows for decisions like purchasing new trucks to be made fast and easily. “It makes a great environment for growing your revenue,” says Larry L. Wheeler, Gainsborough’s Business Development Manager.

Today, Gainsborough has grown to about 30 drivers, half a dozen mechanics, a dedicated office staff of over a dozen, and two dispatchers. On the LET side, the division runs under Special Events Director Craig Ray, who operates the division with an assistant, three drivers, and three technicians.

Pandemic pivot
For some businesses, COVID-19 resulted in chaos; for others, it created new opportunities and a way to step up and help others. Known across Texas for its professional service and ability to handle virtually any customer need, Gainsborough Waste continues to work with customers during the worst pandemic in a century.

With a disaster-relief function in place dealing with crises like hurricanes, floods, and fires in Greater Houston, and providing services to relief workers setting up camp in states like Florida or Louisiana, Texas Outhouse was already well-equipped. Able to provide 200 toilets and 10 roll-off dumpsters in just 24 hours, the company is large enough to respond in times of emergency without affecting its existing customers.

“In the toilet division, we have 17,000 to 18,000 toilets, about 75 pump trucks, and six high-volume tankers,” says Wheeler. “In a small or medium-sized company that has far fewer trucks, that would affect their normal business, so they couldn’t do it.”

At its 23-acre key site at 950 McCarty Street in Houston, the company has masses of room for storage and also has the only private wastewater treatment plant in Texas. Accommodating a Type 5 transfer waste disposal station, the site is also large enough to park about 125 trucks.

Growing through the challenges
Before 2020, hand wash stations and hand sanitizer stations were small business segments for Texas Outhouse – but that all changed with the onset of the pandemic. With COVID-related protocols in place, job and construction sites that previously ordered just one handwash station or hand sanitizer station were now asking for many units. Two years later, demand for units and consumables remains high.

“Instead of just once a week, customers now want you to service them multiple times. It’s kind of a new category that sprang up, and it has really blossomed,” says Wheeler. He adds that about 99 percent of the units are rented on a temporary basis. Customers specify the duration of the job, with stations priced accordingly.

Previously used mainly at construction sites, manufacturing plants, and refineries, these wash and sanitizer stations have seen widespread use at COVID testing or injection sites such as NRG Stadium (previously Reliant Stadium) in Houston, where there may be hundreds of people in line at any one time.

Along with delivering and setting up these stations, Texas Outhouse drivers also handle cleaning, water tank and paper towel refills, waste disposal, and more. “It’s a big part of the business across the United States. People who used to manufacture a small amount of these products are now manufacturing a lot, and a lot of new companies have sprung into business.”

Luxury Event Trailers has also shifted gears during the pandemic. Pre-COVID, it was the company’s fleet of 50 luxury trailers – outfitted with high-end amenities such as marble, wood finishing, air conditioning, and piped-in music – that was in high demand, rented by wedding planners and other customers.

Now, the company’s fleet is growing into a more diverse mix of sizes and interior formats – enabling LET to answer the call for virtually any requirement from both existing and new customers.

Lockdown on price
Despite the industry-leading quality of its range of offerings, LET keeps its pricing largely in lock-step with its local competitors, whose fleets are usually composed of far less expensive models, often with many accumulated years of wear and tear.

“We also service brick and mortar stores and restaurants during restroom renovations and water/sewer outages,” says LET’s Craig Ray. “Chemical plants and refineries are another common customer of ours, in addition to school districts and film production companies. The list goes on.”

During the early days of the pandemic, the market for LET’s rentals shifted. Although customers hosting events like church gatherings and barbecues sometimes put things on hold because of social distancing, the healthcare market skyrocketed. “During COVID, the Texas Outhouse division and Luxury Event Trailers just boomed completely,” says Wheeler.

Now that special events are opening up again, the company is being called upon for luxury trailer rentals, and still has equipment at COVID sites.

None of the company’s 50 trailers are brand-identified, a deliberate move on the part of LET. “If somebody’s having a million-dollar wedding, and they hire us through luxury event trailers, they don’t want our name splashed on the side, they want it to look generic,” says Wheeler. “When people go in, they are shocked at how nice they are.” See LET luxury trailers at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxrACtzNhyI.

Looking to the future
The team at Gainsborough Waste, Texas Outhouse, and Luxury Event Trailers looks forward to the future and a post-pandemic world. LET has reached the point where it not only leases out trailers but now has a business segment selling new and used units.

Gainsborough Waste and Texas Outhouse are both expanding, and on the lookout to acquire smaller toilet businesses and roll-off companies, and when the time is right, a site to build a new transfer station.

Along with frequent updates to its website, the company uses a marketing firm to promote itself and is active on LinkedIn and social media sites like Facebook. In keeping with the company’s spirit of genuine Texan generosity, it often answers calls for help from competitors.

“We’re big enough where, if our competitors get in trouble, they’ll call us and say, ‘Hey man, I need a couple of your roll-off boxes, can you help me out?’ or ‘I need 100 toilets,’ or ‘I need 50 ‘handicaps’, can you help me?’” says Wheeler, “and we absolutely help our competitors. It’s been a really great way for us to grow in this market.”

The post Always Moving Forward<p class="company">Gainsborough Waste</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

The company performed projects in dredging work and dock wall construction for its first few years until landing a large contract for the City of Milwaukee in 1921 for work on Jones Island, a man-made island encompassing the wastewater treatment facility for the greater Milwaukee area. This project is remembered as the one that established McMullen & Pitz and enabled it to ascend to the next level.

Oliver McMullen left the business less than a decade after its inception, selling his interests to contractor Emil Weber but keeping his name on the banner. Weber would become the company’s secretary-treasurer, and Arthur Pitz took over running the company with Weber until the former’s death a decade or so later, with Arthur’s son Willott taking his place.

Willott ‘Bubby’ Pitz fully took over as company president in 1959 and remained so until his death in 1997, a period noted for bringing the company forward into the modern age. During his three decades as company head, Pitz is credited with introducing newer models of cranes, hiring a new staff of engineers, and landing contracts for new projects for marine infrastructure (i.e. barge work, dredging) and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Willott’s son Erich eventually took over for his father in 1997 and, unfortunately, passed away himself in October 2020. Until Erich’s children can take over management, Vice President Ted Jennejohn is working to bridge the gap between the two generations, as McMullen & Pitz still stands as a family-owned company with over one hundred years to its name and a pillar in its community.

It has always operated as a small company—today sporting around fifteen employees—but it manages to compete successfully with hundred-million-dollar corporations on construction bids. This competitive spirit gives its customers the personal touch of a small business without losing out on large-scale construction services.

The company’s family name has also given it a lasting positive reputation. “We put the results over the profits,” says Jennejohn. “If we did our job, the profits will be there.” Close, personal attention is what he feels separates the company’s approach to customer service. As a client’s main point of contact, he meets one-on-one to develop solutions and offer support from beginning to end. He finds that many customers like the single point of contact approach to service, and it inspires the company’s mission to be as good as its word.

Over the past few years, McMullen & Pitz has increased its revenues by around 50 percent, allowing it to invest further in its equipment, its employees, and the business overall. This success has also permitted it to move forward in modernizing its equipment and approaches, which improves both employee and customer satisfaction.

These upgrades are always necessary, especially where the marine industry is concerned, because a lot of the work is underwater and has obstacles such as low visibility. This is one of few companies in the construction industry with the experience and equipment to overcome these challenges as well as the ability to self-perform nearly every job without the need for multiple subcontractors, making it an in-demand solutions provider for its market and area.

McMullen & Pitz continues to keep busy, with its recent projects ranging in size and complexity. One of the company’s most recent involvements was upgrading the terminal for The Lake Michigan Carferry, the SS Badger. The terminal, an extension of US Highway 10, connects Wisconsin to Lower Michigan across Lake Michigan and is a key piece of state infrastructure. The SS Badger itself is also one of the last steam-powered ships in existence, imbuing it with significant historical and economic value.

The workforce had to rebuild the crumbling dock terminal during the winter of 2020 to be ready for May. The $4.3 million job is the largest single contract in company history. The complex project went swimmingly as the company completed its work on time and within budget, amidst a lot of public attention.

Other successful projects include a contract in the fall of 2019 for the City of Wausau to upgrade its wastewater system pipelines under the Wisconsin River. This was done while dealing with record rainfall levels and a short project window, challenges the company met on time to the delight of the community. McMullen & Pitz also continues to work with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, including a recent project involving the installation of over four thousand feet of steel sheet piling along the Fox River. This project also faced material procurement challenges and difficult underground conditions but was also completed ahead of schedule, a feature that is a signature of the business.

These approaches are nothing without an able workforce, and Jennejohn feels that the company’s relatively small size is what helps it nurture this type of atmosphere. “If I hire someone, I am committing to them as they are making a commitment to me to do a safe job,” he explains. “We rely on each other.”

This commitment helps to deal with external challenges such as an ongoing national labor shortage in the construction field. With McMullen & Pitz’s low turnover rate, Jennejohn is relieved not to have to look for workers who may prove unreliable when the existing workforce is so experienced. He continues a commitment to both customer and worker that has been a company value for over one hundred years.

Over 2022, McMullen & Pitz will investigate expanding its foundation services. Currently, not much drilling work is done by the company, but as equipment continues to be modernized, new machine attachments allow for deep foundation and geotechnical work. The company wants to expand its services to take on any job necessary in the industry and even larger projects.

Jennejohn notes that construction will always have a constant flow of ups and downs, especially when factoring in recent developments like national inflation and widespread material shortages, which can make procurement and meeting project schedules difficult. Long-lasting relationships with trustworthy vendors are always a great help to mitigate such challenges, and Jennejohn credits the company’s business relationships for helping to deal with these problems head-on.

The goal of McMullen & Pitz is not to expand too rapidly as the company is unwilling to sacrifice quality. Instead, further expansion will permit the company to accept more projects and bring its brand of construction solutions to more customers in need. “From land-based construction, to marine construction, to dive work, we can wear a lot of different hats and provide a lot of different services,” says Jennejohn, summing up the company’s multifaceted approach to the construction sector.

The post Over a Century of Diverse Construction Solutions<p class="company">McMullen & Pitz</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

“We do projects from beginning to end,” so clients do not have to “hire two or three different companies to do the job,” explains Denis Ricard, Director of Human Resources.

If a client wants to establish a cell phone network in a remote area, in addition to setting up the telecom infrastructure, Groupe Madysta can construct transportation routes to the site. “We are able to build roads to access the sites where towers are erected. We do all the civil engineering associated with that,” says François Houde, Vice President of Business Development.

Groupe Madysta can install and replace telecom towers, transmission lines, antennas, and connectors, and put up protective fencing. The company excels at underground tasks as well, installing, testing, and maintaining buried fibre optic, co-axial, and copper lines. Its construction and roadwork services include excavation, road resurfacing, formwork, tree clearing, and building foundations.

While telecommunications work remains central, the group has branched out in recent years. New firms under the Groupe Madysta umbrella work in manufacturing steel components, air-conditioning, ventilation and heating, electrical services, and wired and wireless engineering, among other areas.

Whether the work is telecom-related or not, most “is done by our own crews. We are not doing a lot of sub-contracting,” says Houde.

Clients are centred in Québec, Ontario, and the Atlantic provinces, but the firm can take on assignments anywhere in Canada. “We’ve had some projects in Alberta. We hope to deploy across the country soon,” says Ricard.

Two companies in the group—Gesma Telecom and Madysta Constructions—have ISO 9001:2015 certification. While these two firms obtained ISO certification to meet client standards, every company operated by Groupe Madysta strives to achieve ISO-level benchmarks, says Ricard, adding that, “All internal processes about quality are the same, for all companies.”

Maintaining high standards is vital, given how the group does business. When a telecommunication project is announced by a government agency or private business, companies are typically invited to place bids to receive contracts, says Houde. To preserve the privilege of being invited to bid, firms like Madysta have to maintain the highest level of quality in their work. “If we have success today, it’s because our customers are confident we will do a quality job,” he states.

This confidence arises out of the core values of quality, health and security, and family spirit that all Groupe Madysta companies follow. “It’s really important for us to have an environment where people feel at home,” Ricard explains.

He says that the firm has no problem with employees taking time off to deal with family matters—say, taking a child to the hospital. In the best family tradition, Groupe Madysta encourages open communication among its staff, and management officials are available to anyone who wishes to speak with them. President and Chief Executive Officer Yvan St-Arnaud’s office, “is always open. Everyone can talk to him. There is no restriction about that.”

Groupe Madysta is also dedicated to keeping its workforce healthy and safe. A team working in the human resources department implements health and safety protocols across the entire company. Weekly meetings are held with project and field managers to discuss relevant issues, and there is constant communication with staff in the field via smartphones and tablets. In-person and online inspections are held regularly to ensure that workplaces are following safety rules.

“Sometimes, we do a virtual visit in the field. Everybody has a smartphone. We will do a virtual visit with the guys and say, ‘Okay, I would like to see the safety gate you put in place.’ Or, if there is a crane on the site, can I talk to the crane guy?” says Ricard.

There are also daily ‘tailgate meetings’ centred on risk analysis at work sites. Foremen and other officials review safety and answer questions related to safety issues before the shift starts for the day. These efforts complement training programs for new employees. New hires receive intensive training on health and safety issues prior to performing any work

When COVID struck, the telecommunications sector was deemed an essential service so Groupe Madysta could remain open. The company initiated a sweeping response to keep staff safe from the coronavirus. Masks and hand sanitizer were provided, and a health questionnaire was introduced for all staff entering company buildings at the start of their shifts. Office staff members who could work from home were encouraged to do so. Employees in the field were provided with permits, identifying the company and attesting to their required participation in support of essential services. A new communication program was put in place enabling the firm to email or text notices to staff en masse about health and safety measures.

In addition to its concern for employee well-being, the firm offers workers a group RRSP with employer contributions, deals on cell phone packages, insurance plans, and food and lodging coverage for workers in the field, among other benefits.

The company that became Groupe Madysta started in 1996 as Madysta Constructions Ltd. Madysta was focused from the start on construction and infrastructure projects for the telecommunications clients including Bell, Rogers, Telus and Videotron. Contracts with other prestigious clients like Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Hydro-Quebec followed.

Over the years, Madysta Constructions expanded in size and scale. New companies were acquired or launched under the auspices of Groupe Madysta. Madysta Telecom was founded in 2010 to handle construction, maintenance, installation, and commissioning tasks at cellular network sites. Two years after that, Divem Electrique was launched to specialize in electrical work including lighting fixture repair and replacement, generator repair, electric power system maintenance, and power line installation.

DMC Climatisation was added to the fold in 2015. This company installs and supplies heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, and performs inspections, servicing, maintenance, and emergency services. The integration of Mauricie Refrigeration in 2016 has come to add refrigeration expertise inside DMC.

Other Groupe Madysta companies include MDT Telecom, which provides technical services. MDT technicians can, amongst other things, handle installing and supplying fibre optic cables, network and power equipment. MDT Telecom also splices fibre optic and copper, performs installation and configuration, starts up LAN, WAN, and Wi-Fi networks, and performs verifications and testing.

Another firm called Acier St-Arnaud/ASA makes and develops steel components for construction projects. Meanwhile the engineering firm, Gesma Telecom, specializes in wired and wireless industries, performing field studies and inspections, preliminary and detailed engineering, load calculations, and more.

Given the prominence of telecommunications in modern life and constant upgrades in the sector, Groupe Madysta keeps a very busy schedule. When 4G wireless technology was introduced, “We did work on more than 800 sites in Eastern Canada in one year,” states Houde. “At the [peak] of this project, we had forty teams on the ground, with trucks, ATVs, trailers, and whatnot.”

“We are also doing a lot of activity for fibre network [installation] in Québec and other parts of Canada. There are big programs in Québec [and on the federal level] to deploy fibre to the home (FTTH) Internet networks. We are working on those big projects,” adds Ricard.

The number of workers across Groupe Madysta fluctuates, depending on work conditions. At the peak of the warm-weather construction season, the firm might employ up to four hundred people. Generally, there are around 200 to 250 employees.

Houde describes hiring people as the firm’s biggest non-COVID-related challenge. To fill its ranks, the group actively seeks new employees through newspaper and online ads and emails people graduating from training schools encouraging them to apply for jobs. The company also runs a new talent referral program which provides bonuses to current employees who bring qualified new staff to the company.

While enhancing its core services, Groupe Madysta is keeping an eye open for possible new acquisitions and growth areas. “We are looking at opportunities. I can’t add a lot on this one, but I can say we’re looking right now,” says Houde.

One plan involves the adult children of St-Arnaud and his wife, Manon Brodeur, a company co-owner and advisor. The two members of the next generation are currently completing MBAs at American schools and might be able to assist with the launch of a U.S. operation, says Brodeur.

Regardless of how things work out, Groupe Madysta retains a forward-looking spirit and is eager to keep growing. In five years, the company hopes to be well-established “in West Canada and the U.S. That’s where we want to go,” states Houde.

“And be done with COVID,” adds Brodeur—a wish with which every company in North America would likely agree.

The post Quebec Telecom Construction Firm Eyes Expansion<p class="company">Groupe Madysta</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Taking on projects for clients in government, residential home construction, manufacturing, institutional and other areas, Valcoustics works with architects, engineers, planners, developers, and builders to create innovative, informed, and successful solutions for any acoustical challenges.

“We focus exclusively on acoustics, noise and vibration. It’s a niche field that can be further separated into environmental acoustics, architectural acoustics, structural vibration, and monitoring,” says Michael Lightstone, in charge of project management and business development for Valcoustics. “The business has evolved over the years. We do a lot more construction noise and vibration monitoring and structural vibration assessments than we did before.”

Noise pollution control
Sound drastically affects the quality and outcome of our daily lives, reflected in the many services Valcoustics provides.

From building design – room acoustics, sound isolation, noise and vibration control – to construction noise and vibration monitoring, environmental noise and vibration studies, wind farm noise, and more, Valcoustics has played a pivotal role in noise legislation policies and served as an expert witness before land use tribunals and sometimes the courts.

One of Valcoustics’ key services is developing acoustical procedures, training seminars, design standards, and guidelines for clients Canada-wide.

This includes many initiatives that touch on Canadians’ daily lives such as Environmental Noise Guideline NPC-300 for the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP); the Ontario MECP Offshore Wind Farm Noise Model Assessment; and Acoustical Design Guidelines for Ontario, British Columbia and Federal Courthouse Facilities.

When the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and the Railway Association of Canada (RAC) released the revised “Guidelines for New Development in Proximity to Railway Operations,” Valcoustics was retained to provide seminars for planners and acoustical consultants throughout the country on the proper use of the guideline. When the City of Toronto recently updated its noise bylaw, Valcoustics created a manual for By-Law officers to govern implementation and was also retained to train the officers entrusted with enforcement.

“We also regularly train municipalities on issues of noise, mostly in the context of land use planning,” says Lightstone of the company, which has provided training seminars for staff from the Region of Peel, Mississauga, Hamilton, London, and other cities.

Decades of sound experience
As a student, Al Lightstone (P.Eng.) had a keen interest in sound and acoustics. While at the University of Toronto, he took an undergraduate course in acoustics in engineering school, taught by Professor George Henderson, who also had a busy consulting practice.

Soon, the young Lightstone was working in Henderson’s lab as a teaching assistant, deepening and broadening his knowledge and skills. This led Henderson to expand his private practice that he started in the 1950s, which is the origin of Valcoustics.

Dr. Lightstone has been involved in the field of acoustics with Valcoustics for over 50 years, with 2024 marking Valcoustics’ 70th year in business. Today, the company continues evolving into environmental, architecture and similar areas to meet the needs of clients from the east coast to the west.

And as provinces like Ontario focus on more housing and urban intensification, construction is bustling, with noise fast becoming a critical consideration in terms of urban disruption and planning.

“We are a company that’s always looking to provide practical, innovative, team-based solutions,” says Lightstone, “and we are usually part of a multi-disciplinary team addressing the client’s objectives. Understanding that, we put our best foot forward to make sure that the best possible outcome happens for the project.”

Partnering for project success
Thanks to Valcoustics’ unique experience in specialized services, much of the company’s business is through word-of-mouth and repeat clients. As a business-to-business enterprise, Valcoustics works frequently with government and large corporations as well as with architects and other engineering firms. “We know what we are,” says Principal Engineer and Chief Executive Officer John Emeljanow, who has been with the company since 1989.

Valcoustics has regularly been engaged on large P3 (Public Private Partnership) works in Ontario, including the new Toronto Courthouse and the addition to Michael Garron (formerly East General) Hospital. The company recently participated in Phase 1C for CAMH, The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and expansions/renovations to Mount Sinai and St. Michael’s hospitals.

With Valcoustics expanding its footprint across Canada, works under construction or recently completed include the Abbotsford Courthouse, the Riverview Hospital (Coquitlam), the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops and the Penticton Regional Hospital Patient Care Tower Project, all in British Columbia.

Other large interprovincial projects include the Calgary Cancer Centre (Alberta), the new Corner Brook Acute Care Hospital in Newfoundland, and the Mills Memorial Hospital Replacement in Terrace, British Columbia. Abroad, Valcoustics was instrumental in the Canada Pavilion for Expo 2020 in Dubai, and in design for Four Seasons Hotels projects, such as the Nile Plaza Hotel in Egypt and others. From time to time, Valcoustics has had the opportunity to undertake a variety of projects internationally in the U.S., Europe, Central America, Asia and the Middle East.

“We are expanding our footprint in terms of where we’ll do a lot of work,” says Emeljanow. “Before, although we have done lots of work elsewhere, we were naturally focused on southern Ontario; now, we are expanding across the country. And even though Valcoustics sounds very specialized, acoustics has broad application. We have our toes dipped everywhere.”

Today, in addition to the offices in the Greater Toronto Area, the company has staff in Vancouver, Ottawa, and Kingston with plans to keep expanding.

Essential work
As hospitals and other types of projects that the company takes on were deemed essential, COVID-19 hasn’t slowed down the volume of work.

Not all the company’s doings are directly related to construction. Valcoustics is involved with land use planning processes, as well as pre-design and facility planning and development activities in the background – all related to acoustics.

The company is busier than ever, especially with developers and municipalities initiating projects to address the housing shortfall in Canada. That said, finding good, passionate people to work for the company remains a challenge. Since it is rare to find applicants with an appropriate background, the company emphasizes training, explains Lightstone, who has been with the company since 2005.

“It’s not like mechanical engineering where you have a mechanical engineering degree and can start being productive on day one in a junior job. The acoustics field is so broad and interdisciplinary – for example, involving environmental, planning, architectural, structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering aspects – and we are doing a little bit of everything. There are very few specialized acoustical programs in the world, and obviously there’s lead-up training to get people to where we want them. The broader you make it, the longer it takes to become a specialist.”

Once a client…
The company aims to become involved early on with projects including acoustical feasibility and due diligence studies, noise regulations, secondary plans, land use and environmental approvals, detailed design, noise-control features, and more. As Valcoustics gains new clients, it remains involved with existing clients, a number of whom have been with Valcoustics for many years, some for decades.

One of the company’s longest annual contracts has been with the Walker Brothers Quarry in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Kicking off with initial approvals and acoustical audit measurements, Valcoustics began its journey with the company in 1988.

Another long-term client is Redpath Sugar, a continuing relationship which first started in 1995. Located on Toronto’s waterfront, the Redpath sugar refinery is a major Class 3 (heavy) industry located in an area transitioning from wholly industrial/commercial to a combination of industrial, commercial, institutional and newly built/under construction residential developments, where noise and vibration and land use compatibility are critical considerations.

“We work from rezoning and official plan amendment all the way to the end of construction,” says Lightstone. The company assists wherever it can, including in design, sound isolation, and mechanical noise control. And once construction has started, Valcoustics is there to perform vibration monitoring when required to protect adjacent facilities.

“Acoustics may seem very specialized, but people don’t realize how it impacts our everyday lives,” says Emeljanow. “It’s where we live, it’s how we travel, and it’s where we work, with noise control, speech intelligibility and privacy being relevant in all.

It’s where we play, and entertain, from churches to theatres – noise is everywhere. You don’t necessarily recognize it until you start thinking about it. It’s very broad in terms of what we get involved with.”

The post Sound Advice Sounds Like This<p class="company">Valcoustics Canada Ltd.</p> appeared first on Construction In Focus.

Named for Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind, Borea began in 2006 and has constructed nearly one-third of Canada’s renewable energy projects, leading the charge in this necessary transition.

Over 70 large-scale projects, comprising over 6800 MW of completely renewable energy, have been completed or are in process.

Borea’s staff boasts over 200 skilled and experienced professionals, with an estimated five hundred site employees across Canada. Thanks to its experience and ability in renewable energy, the company can focus its skills on bringing cost-effective, turnkey alternatives to move the nation’s entire energy grid forward.

Putting the ‘new’ in renewable
Despite the pandemic, Borea’s mission to “deliver renewable with care” is moving ahead without interruption. Borea is using new technologies to improve renewable energy as well.

A major recent example is the Suffield Solar Facility in Alberta, owned and operated by BluEarth Renewables, which completed construction in October 2020. Borea was hired as the EPC contractor for the construction of this facility, which utilizes both bifacial panels and solar tracking technology.

The union of these two technologies heralds a bold new development in solar energy and may prove instrumental in future plant design.

Suffield’s location in Canada’s Energy Project is no coincidence. Although Canada’s Western provinces are facing a moratorium on coal-fired power plants, they have a far greater resource available; thanks to the flat terrain, they boast the sunniest weather in Canada.

Alberta alone enjoys an average of 1,900 hours of sunshine in the north and 2,300 hours in the south, making it the nation’s sunniest province—and a natural hotbed of solar development.

BluEarth’s Suffield Solar Facility boasts 90,000 solar panels organized into ten blocks; it will help Canada move down the road toward its renewable energy future and it demonstrates bold new technologies as well.

As their name implies, bifacial solar panels display photovoltaic cells on both sides, substantially increasing their output capacity. But more practically, the bifacial panels mitigate the blockage caused by accumulations of snow. This technology significantly improves the reliability of the solar farm during the frigid winter.

Making light of snow
With many types of solar panels, snow accumulation can at the very least necessitate tedious cleaning, and potentially take whole power plants out of commission. But with bifacial technology, power can still be generated on the panels’ reverse side from sunlight reflected off fallen snow.

This advantage provides enough power and heat through the power generation process to melt the snow and hold power generation steady.

Project Engineer at Borea, Moran Wang explains that as our planet faces the extreme weather that will result from climate change, it will be more essential than ever to maintain a resilient power grid during these events—and bifacial technology can help provide that.

But the bifacial panels are only one half of BluEarth’s Suffield Solar Facility’s new advantages. Panel tracker technology, which adjusts the panels so that they remain perpendicular to the sun on a single axial, helps the panels maintain constant optimal power production. The result is that their output, early and later in the day is superior to static panels, which in comparison enjoy full sunlight only for a limited time each day.

The second function of the solar tracker is to facilitate the snow removal process. Wang explains that, “If the panel detects snowfall, it will be triggered into a ‘snow-dumping’ mode. That makes it more reliable, in the sense of facing a more extreme environment.”

Generally speaking, trackers can increase electricity production by up to 15 to 20 percent, dependent on geographic location, and the bifacial panels produce 5 to 7 percent more energy than traditional panels.

Or as Wang prefers it, “To achieve the same amount of energy, you have a smaller footprint.”

Bird’s eye view
As project engineer for Borea on the Suffield Solar Facility, Wang also oversaw development of the plant’s weather station, Suffield’s eyes and ears, plus another innovation: an aerial drone outfitted with infrared cameras.

“It’s a huge asset,” says Wang, who pilots the drone himself. The bird’s eye view can highlight panel problems instantly, saving time and money during diagnostic procedures.

“We used to spend a huge amount of money to call in actual aircraft with human pilots and human camera operators to do this kind of service,” Wang recalls. “Now, we can use a tiny little drone operated by someone on-site.”

With the success of BluEarth’s Suffield Solar Facility, Wang says he believes the next step in renewable energy is increasing energy storage capacity and reliability; keeping the power flowing so energy grids don’t need to fall back on fossil fuel backups.

“I think one missing piece of the puzzle is making it more reliable,” he says. “From there, we can only improve it.”

Advances in battery technology can ensure wind power and solar continue supplying grids even during night hours or inclement weather, bringing renewable energy more in line with Canada’s ever-increasing energy requirements.

But while the Suffield Solar Facility highlights Borea’s ability to implement new ideas, it is but one of the company’s recent projects.

In Saskatchewan, approximately 10 km south of Herbert and approximately 40 km east of Swift Current, the Blue Hill Wind Energy Project is a 175 MW facility comprising 35 wind turbines with a capacity of 5 MW each. This project called for careful planning, as environmental constraints and hot afternoon temperatures presented some unique challenges, which Borea rose to meet.

Carbon-neutral coming
As Borea continues to advance these renewable energy projects as well as the relevant technology involved, the company is still committed to building a carbon-neutral energy grid in Canada.

“I do think renewable energy is the way of the future,” Wang says. He adds that although wind and solar power are hardly cutting-edge ideas, it is only recently that they have become really practical.

He agrees that with the additions of bifacial panels and tracker technology production, implementation costs may increase, but he argues solar technology is still very much an industry in its infancy.

“With everything in human history, we have to let it grow,” he says. “I’m proud to be at the forefront of this.”

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This proud family business traces its official lineage back to 2003, but founder Timothy McFayden has over forty-five years of construction experience to his credit. Starting as a residential service and repair technician, he branched out into his own business in the 1980s. Son Nick McFayden, now Manager of Business Development at Pro-Craft, says he and his siblings grew up in a unique environment. “We’ve grown up in the plumbing industry, in the sense that it’s always been there,” he remarks. “We’ve grown up in the industry, all of us.”

After Timothy McFayden had begun several successful smaller businesses, Pro-Craft Plumbing was launched in the family garage in 2003. Starting small, with as-needed repair jobs for local schools, the company expanded quickly, gaining its first project over $1 million in 2006. By 2010, the Great Recession had begun to bite but Pro-Craft’s small size helped it change with the times. “Fortunately, we were lean, nimble and still growing, so we were able to adapt,” Nick McFayden says.

After rebranding itself Pro-Craft Construction to operate in a wider market, the company continued to expand and today fields over one hundred skilled and highly trained professionals. In 2019, it finally outgrew its old Yucaipa location and relocated to its present, 50,000-square-foot headquarters in San Bernardino.

A new satellite office in San Fernando has further augmented the company’s service area throughout Southern California, giving it room to grow. McFayden explains that Pro-Craft’s team was now able to consolidate all operations under one roof. “We really started looking at the business as manufacturing and logistics, rather than just a construction company stick-building on-site,” he says.

This versatility has continued to define Pro-Craft’s overarching strategy to “control our own destiny,” as McFayden describes it. While continuing to specialize in plumbing, the company has moved far beyond its roots to handle all phases of construction projects completely in-house. As it owns its equipment, including transfer trucks, in-dumps, and all other relevant equipment, it can be a one-stop shop for its clients without any third-party involvement.

“We’re known for getting the job done quickly and being a resource for the industry,” McFayden says, adding that Pro-Craft has loaned its equipment to peers and even competitors on occasion. Because of this advantage, the company is not tied to any other players and can be more efficient. “When we get to a project, we tend to push the schedule, and it’s very seldom that somebody’s waiting on us,” he says.

Today, Pro-Craft has embraced technologies such as AutoCAD, BIM 360 Glue, Revit, and Autodesk’s PlanGrid, among many others, to assist its continuing evolution. The company continues to offer top-quality plumbing and process piping service for a myriad of applications, including piping for specialized needs such as argon, helium, grease, and both fuel and lube oil.

But in addition to fabricating and installing pipes, company crews can provide services in underground utilities, from backflows to booster pumps and septic tanks. Other services include mechanical, general engineering, design/build, and even fire sprinkler services. True to its rebranding, Pro-Craft has evolved beyond plumbing to encompass all aspects of any construction project.

The company’s work is perhaps best exemplified through its relationship with the local Long Beach Unified School District, for which it has completed many projects over the years. “We’ve completed so many projects in that district that my project manager knows the scope and spec better than the contractors that are hired to do the work,” McFayden comments. Pro-Craft also has extensive experience in medicine and higher education work, with projects at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) the University of Southern California (USC) and the 110-acre City of Hope Medical Center.

But its biggest and most ambitious project to date may be the James A. Musick correctional facility in Irvine, which, when completed, will provide beds for approximately nine hundred inmates. The project has total state funding of over $180 million, of which the company has received $18 million for plumbing throughout the facility. Thanks to its capabilities in prefabricating and logistics, Pro-Craft has built modular rooms at its main facility which can then be transported and quickly installed at the site.

Pro-Craft’s ability to manage all aspects in-house helps keep projects on schedule and within budgetary constraints. In the company’s large warehouse space, many components can be prefabricated and sent to job sites as needed. The estimation department uses real-time, on-screen estimating, analyzing building materials and transferring estimates to the building information modeling department.

“Once we win the project, they already have a rough idea of what materials are needed for a particular project,” McFayden says. Using this planning, Pro-Craft can procure needed materials months or even years in advance, bypassing supply chain mishaps, so components are prefabricated and ready to go when needed. “Nobody’s waiting on us,” he says, noting that this behind-the-scenes maneuvering sets Pro-Craft apart.

“We’ve done it so efficiently that it doesn’t affect our price, so we can still competitively bid on projects.” The strategy not only keeps Pro-Craft competitive but also increases profitability.

In a world dominated by pandemics, safety procedures, and supply chain shortages, Pro-Craft provides a rock of stability in the construction industry. To deal with the obvious risks on worksites, the company takes a proactive approach to safety which balances work progress with worker safety. “If we fail to be proactive, we’ve failed to look ahead,” McFayden says.

“Failure’s not an option,” he says. “We’ve built a culture of people who will do whatever it takes to get the job done.” He says that he and his team are always on the lookout for prospective hazards. “What are the hazards? What can slow down production or get somebody injured?”

Pro-Craft is committed to both employee safety and responsible job advancement. On the latter front, its project management team stays in continuous contact with clients and suppliers, monitoring potential problems and ensuring projects stay on track. McFayden says that everyone, from management on down, pursues a common goal of working safely and efficiently and, in the end, making it home to their families every day.

“At the end of the day, they’re working under the same premise,” he says. Setbacks and failures, he continues, are treated as learning opportunities. “All you can do is look for a solution.”

The result is a unique and award-winning company culture that McFayden says emphasizes both proactivity and productivity. “Proactive is the culture,” he remarks. “It’s healthy; it’s collaborative, team-focused, solution-driven… and to do all those things, you have to be proactive.” Its safety protocols have earned the company Gold and Platinum standards from the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) STEP safety benchmark tool, while its current Experience Modifier Rate (EMR) of 0.74 places the company considerably above its peers.

As a result of its commitment to its employees, Pro-Craft has enjoyed little turnover, and many of its more senior employees have worked with the company for the entirety of their careers—a rarity in the modern workforce. “They stay because of the culture; they stay because of the values,” McFayden says. This seniority has inspired others to do the same while being continually trained by their more veteran colleagues.

McFayden states that Pro-Craft is a company where talent truly rises to the top. “The best performers are looked up to and looked after,” he says. “We always look for that rookie that shows talent and promise and try to shape them into the next ‘Best Employee.’”

As Pro-Craft approaches its twentieth anniversary, the company is well-poised for the generational shift that comes with long-lived family businesses. From simple plumbing beginnings, it now offers five trades, with the experience, infrastructure, and personnel to back it up. With its balance of progressive strategies and employee safety, plus its rich and growing experience in prefabrication, the company is open for business across California and beyond.

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