Work continues in the warehouses.  With most of the demolition done in the main 40,000 sq ft warehouse, we are now focusing our attention on putting everything back together. Certain areas of the floor in the main warehouse needed to be replaced. We had hoped that we could get away with patching the floors however it was pretty much the same price to take up the existing cement and put down a new floor. We also decided to paint the walls and ceilings white to brighten the area and blend in the various differences created over the years from adding processing rooms. Even though only half of the warehouse has been painted you can clearly see how this has made a visual difference in the overall appearance of the space.

The back warehouse has been quite a challenge. This area had a mezzanine in it which we demolished a few weeks back. This was not a easy task as the walls were 16” thick solid concrete reinforced with #8 rebar both vertically and horizontally. The men who performed the work told me that they have never seen anything like this. We knew the area was built to withstand a explosion but had no idea as to how big of a explosion they were planning on. This was, no surprise, just amazing.   After two weeks of jack hammering and using pretty heavy equipment to break up the walls progress is being seen. This means we have spent 5 weeks just on tearing down the mezzanine. which will hopefully be completed by the end of next week. 

After this we will need to put in a new floor in the back half of the warehouse so it is even with the main warehouse. This will eliminate the ramps and make the space so much easier to use. It will be worth the effort. When done, this space will be 30 ft high and add 15,000 sq ft. clear storage to the 40,000 square foot main section.

Additionally, work will continue with the addition of a sprinkler system and high output energy efficient lighting. Our hope is to have this warehouse ready to be used, if necessary, by mid July.    update courtesy of Ron Hux, 5/16/12

Crews are still clearing out the old and making room for the new.  This project has been actively progressing for 4 months and although progress is typical of a building re-fit, the facts must be stated in order to get a feeling of its magnitude.

The images below represent additional work to prepare sections of the warehouse floor (top left and right) and cutting steel (bottom left) not needed in the rear of the warehouse.

So far, we have removed, and sent to recycling, over 275 tons of concrete and block. By the end this number is expected to be greater then 325 tons. The additional steel being removed increases our total metal recycle to 100 tons of steel, copper and aluminum.