Project Duration: November 2019 – May 2021
Contractor: D.E. Harvey
Design Firm: Abel Design Group
End User: Corporate (Confidential) Office
In the fall of 2019, we got an email about one of our favorite types of projects: feature walls. There were two designs. One design was a single feature wall for the main reception area only. That wall was 38 feet long and 13 feet tall. The other design would be replicated twice on each of six floors. The size of those 12 walls would be 8 feet wide x 10 feet tall.
We utilized services or products from the following vendors as part of the package: Bayou City Coatings, Metal Supermarkets, Chesapeake, Houston Hardwoods and Architectural Metals. Below is a list of the major milestone dates for the project.
November 1, 2019: We got the very first “we need some help” email from the design firm.
November 12, 2019: Kick off meeting with the design firm to hear about their vision for the project. We had some back and forth conversations for a week or two after this.
March 2, 2020: Received the Invitation to Bid from the general contractor for this project.
March 12, 2020: We turned in rough pricing for the project to the general contractor.
October 5, 2020: The GC delivered to us a sample of the fiber optic cable the client wanted to use in the project.
October 8, 2020: Second meeting with the design firm and the general contractor to finalize the design and materials. This meeting was almost exactly a year after the first meeting.
November 16, 2020: The general contractor sent over a bulletin (a change to the original scope of the project) for us to price.
December 4, 2020: We had a phone call with the general contractor to go over pricing, our standard policies and procedures.
December 8, 2020: We walked the jobsite with the general contractor for the first time.
December 12, 2020: We turned in revised pricing for Bulletin 3 to the general contractor.
December 23, 2020: We were formally awarded the project and sent the paperwork and insurance requirements.
January 16, 2021: We issued shop drawings to the general contractor for one level that had a unique condition.
January 18, 2021: We issued shop drawings for the remaining 12 matching conditions and sent finish samples for the powdercoat and wood color/species submittal.
January 20, 2021: All shop drawings and submitted finish samples are approved.
January 19, 2021-March 1, 2021: Materials are ordered. Fabrication begins on 14 support posts which are later sent off to powdercoating. During this time, Houston endures a major freeze event which creates an initial delay of a week and domino effects for many weeks afterwards.
March 2, 2021: Support posts are picked up from the powdercoater and delivered directly to the jobsite.
March 4-5, 2021: Our crew installs the first set of steel posts on Level 8.
March 6 – May 18, 2021: Fabrication of steel components continues in the shop. Fabrication of wood begins. Simultaneously, installation of steel and wood occurs each time the fab shop completes materials for a floor. For the 12 smaller feature walls, we were able to install two floors of steel in 8 hours of time and one floor of wood in 8 hours of time. For the larger feature wall, the steel took about 16 hours of installation time. That design did not include any wood. Once all of the steel and wood fabrications were installed, we began cable wrapping. The cable wrapping took about 6 hours per wall unit (for the smaller feature walls) and there were two wall units on each of the 6 floors = 72 labor hours of cable wrapping for the smaller walls. The cable wrapping on the large wall took a total of 24 labor hours.
NOTES:
This project was about 50% fabricated in the shop and about 50% fabricated onsite during installation which is why installation occurred over 10 weeks.
In addition to the challenges created during the freeze, we ran into a major issue with our wood supplier not shipping the full amount of our order. That would have been a challenge all by itself but then they weren’t willing to step and fix the issue in enough time for us to meet the deadlines we were contractually obligated to meet. Under intense time pressure, we had to find another way. We did. 😊
