Canyon Springs HS A&D Bldg Modernization

A modernization project is never a problem for Mike’s Custom Flooring. What made this project extra special for us was not the aggressive completion timeline but the potential risk involved with installing a moisture mitigation system, self-level, and highly visible flooring in such a short timeframe. There was no room for mistakes, redo’s, or “well we didn’t know that would happen!” We were awarded this project with one of our long-term and respected customers, a well-known GC, and the top architectural firm in our marketplace. This project involved modernizing the original Canyon Springs HS campus building consisting of 25 classrooms, 13 attached hallways, the Library, the Administration and Counselor’s offices. This project got off to a delayed start due to material and freight issues during the pandemic, so the project was extended 3 months past its deadline into Summer with a hard stop date of September 4th., one week before the first day of school. Two months before the job started, we were given a 4-week timeline to complete 26,000 SF of Concrete Grinding, Moisture Mitigation, and Self-level with Koster VAP 2000. On top of the floor preparation, we were contracted to install 14,000 SF of Patcraft Carpet Tile, 12,000 SF of Patcraft LVT pattern in hallways, 100 SY of Patcraft Sheet Vinyl w/ Self-cove, and 12,000 LF of Rubber Cove Base. Our labor budget was as follows: Total Man Day needed: 345 Total site days available: 20 Total Installers per day: 17.25 2- 2 man Grinding Team 2- 4 man Moisture Mitigation/Self-Level Team 2- 2 man LVT Installer 2-1 man Rubber Base Installer OMG..Impossible!!!! This might have been possible in a 2-story building or separate buildings where you could break up the work into several different crews. But this building connected all classrooms through a labyrinth of hallways that were to receive LVT flooring with an accent line running throughout! We immediately responded to the GC, that this was not enough time to properly complete all processes involved with installing this flooring project. The GC asked for solutions because they swore they had no more days available in their schedule (of course!). And this of course fell on the last month of Summer when our schedule was already impacted, so more guys weren’t really an option. 1. We needed to reduce the Man-hours. We needed to do less work. We asked if we could put the library off or change some of the areas to Carpet Tile. No Go! Accepted Solution: We proposed not to Grind, Mitigate, and self-level the carpet areas, but use Shaw Lokdots or High Moisture glue instead. After weeks of deliberation, conversations with the Architect and owner, and some significant savings the Owner agreed to use Shaw lokdots and 60 man-days were removed from the schedule. 2. We needed more hours to work on this project. There was just not enough time in 4 weeks, it didn't matter how many Installers we had, this had to be laid in a linear fashion because of the Accent line. Accepted Solution: The GC agreed to give us 5 Saturdays to work and 12 hour days Monday-Thursday. This essentially gave us 13 extra working days in order to complete our work. All of which would be paid through the savings from Solution 1. 3. We needed to work faster, without burning out our installers! So we looked to our manufacturer’s for solutions. Accepted Solution: We used an additive to the Epoxy barrier to speed up drying time, and we used a special self level to cut drying time in half. This allowed us to complete both of these processes in a full 12 hour day and overnight, instead of two days and two nights, which was important because we never got enough floor space to work (1500-200 SF every three of 4 days) on! Total Day needed: 385 Total days available: 33 Total Installers per day: 8.63 2 man Grinding Team 4 man Moisture Mitigation/Self-Level Team 2 man LVT Installer 1 man Rubber Base Installer Totally Doable!!!! We accepted the schedule with high hopes of meeting this challenge, but there were many hurdles standing in our way. Electricity was terrible; poor spider boxes tripped when we used too many grinders and HEPA vacuums simultaneously. There were power cords everywhere; other trades were in front of us and behind us. If we left an area for a day to dry, we would come back to drywall mud, ceiling tile crumbs, and paint overspray on our new self-level! Two weeks into the installation, we contacted the GC and said there was no way we would finish by September 4th; there was just way too much construction traffic. It didn't matter if we had 20 guys per day. There wasn't enough open floor space to produce a quality project in such a short window! Two days later, they said that school doesn't start until September 12th, that the days before were for teachers to prep their classrooms. They finally realized that the building would be incomplete and that teachers couldn't move into half-completed classrooms and buildings. So we had one more week to complete our project. We finished the day before school started, and the final project came out amazing. The teachers, administrators, and District were very thankful for our dedication to our work! We are all so proud to be part of this project, and Summer Vacation is never long enough!