According to Nick, a more extraordinary solution for extreme weather issues is to lime treat soil/base to keep it from getting too wet. He decided to look into this option on a previous industrial project he worked on. He found a company to do cement treatment to the soil and found that the price point for this treatment was well worth the result, as it saved the project in the long run. In the end, Nick and his team treated more than 1 million square feet of building slab. The pad was now, as he says, “bulletproof!”

The post Cold Weather Construction Tips with Superintendent Nick Crawford – Part 3 appeared first on United Construction.

Another solution Nick has used is temporarily tenting slab pours and panel pours. This way, he is able to apply heat within the tent to get temperatures where they need to be in order to place concrete or bond breaker on the slab.
Stay tuned for more winter construction tips from us throughout the season!

The post Cold Weather Construction Tips with Superintendent Nick Crawford – Part 2 appeared first on United Construction.

“Safety is of utmost importance to our entire team, and with snow affecting our line of work, safety is especially at the forefront,” said Casey Gunther, Operations Manager for United Construction. “We take no shortcuts and always ensure everyone onsite practices the highest quality safety measures, especially in extreme weather.”

Crews are almost complete with masonry walls for the new two-story classroom building. Scaffolding went vertical this month as well, which you can see depicted in the picture above. Additionally, the structural steel erection will start during the first part of January.

Mechanical, plumbing and electrical upgrades for the existing classrooms continue onwards. The team is working on an afternoon swing shift after school hours with a focus on replacing the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system.

Site crews completed early morning concrete pours at the beginning of this month. We will ensure neighbors are made aware of any future early morning concrete work at the school.

Drone photo by Ryland Sweigard

The post Winter Construction Shapes Up at Swope Middle School appeared first on United Construction.

Up here in our HQ city of Reno, we not only celebrated a true “White Christmas” with the snowy conditions on Christmas Day – we also welcomed more than two feet of snow in some parts of town over the weekend! As such, now is the perfect time to discuss some of our tips for cold weather construction.

Holding about 25 years of experience, Superintendent Nick Crawford has some expert pieces of advice for navigating construction projects during inclement weather, such as snowstorms, that we will be sharing with you periodically during the winter. Here is his first tip:

“Knowing the weather patterns for your specific jobsite – including having a game plan for protecting the site by making sure you have positive drainage on the site – is a must. Snow can be easy to deal with, as it can be plowed and removed from the site, but if left to melt before removal, it poses risks to work already in place. You could end up with melted snow saturating soil that is already over the optimum moisture content. The best solution? 9 times out of 10, plowing the snow is the way to go!”

Stay tuned for more cold weather construction tips from United Construction throughout the season!

The post Cold Weather Construction Tips with Superintendent Nick Crawford appeared first on United Construction.