Industrial Remodeling

Starting with how production runs

Before we talk about walls, we want to watch the work. Where raw material comes in, where it gets cut or machined or assembled, where it waits, where it ships. A shop that grew one machine at a time often has material crossing the floor three times and people walking around a column that has been in the way for years. Owners know this better than anyone. We help turn it into a plan the building can support.

That walk produces a written scope tied to a layout: which walls move, where equipment lands, what each machine needs under it and above it, and what order the changes happen in. Your equipment supplier's installation requirements become part of the scope rather than a surprise on delivery day.

We are honest about what the building can take. A floor poured for storage may not carry a heavy machine without new footings, and a wall that looks like a partition may be holding up the roof. Those answers come before the plan is final.

Older mill buildings in southeastern Massachusetts make good shops, with high ceilings and solid floors, but they come with their own questions: heavy timber or steel framing of unknown capacity, uneven floors, old wiring abandoned in place. We look at those on the first walk and bring in an engineer where the answer matters.

Slab work under equipment

Heavy or vibrating machines often need more than the existing floor. That can mean saw-cutting the slab and pouring a thicker pad with its own reinforcing, separated from the surrounding floor so vibration does not travel. Anchor locations come off the equipment drawings, and getting them right the first time matters more than anything else in that pour.

Trenches for drains, conduit or compressed air lines are common too. We cut and excavate, coordinate the licensed trades who install what goes in the trench, and patch the slab back flush so carts and pallet jacks roll over it without a bump.

Where an engineer is needed to size a pad or confirm what the soil and the existing slab can carry, we bring that in before the pour, not after it.

Floor coatings and sealers often go down after slab work, especially in clean assembly areas or where oil and coolant get spilled. They need the concrete cured and properly prepped, and we build that wait into the schedule rather than rushing it. If a machine is likely to move again later, we can set pads and anchors with that in mind, so the next change is a smaller job.

Steve built this company on keeping customers informed, and on a shop floor that information is part of your production schedule.

Separation walls and rooms for specific processes

Some processes need their own room. Finishing and spraying, dusty cutting, clean assembly, inspection, chemical storage, a quiet office looking onto the floor. Each has different requirements for walls, doors, ventilation and fire separation, and some fall under fire codes that both the building department and the fire department review.

We build those rooms to the drawings and to the use: walls that run to the deck where a separation requires it, rated doors with closers, ceilings that can be cleaned, and penetrations sealed as each trade passes through. A room built to keep dust in or out is only as good as its seams, so we check them before the room goes into service.

Doors between rooms and the main floor are sized for what passes through them: a pallet, a cart, a finished part on a fixture. A door that is six inches too narrow becomes a daily problem, so we check those widths against your carts and equipment before the walls are framed.

Power, air and plumbing with licensed trades

New equipment almost always means new power, and sometimes a service upgrade. In Massachusetts that is licensed electrician work, along with any gas piping and the plumbing for wash stations, eyewash or process water. We coordinate those trades, schedule their rough inspections, and make sure the drops and outlets land where the equipment layout puts them.

Compressed air, dust collection and exhaust are coordinated the same way. Our job is to make sure every trade knows where everyone else is going before anyone starts drilling, so a duct does not end up running through the spot the electrician needed for a panel.

Wash stations and eyewash fixtures need drains and sometimes tempered water. Where floor drains are added, the code may require a separator or other treatment before the water reaches the sewer, and that is a question for the plumber and the town before anything is cut. Lighting matters more in a shop than in an office, and the electrician can lay it out to the work stations rather than to a ceiling grid.

Keeping the line running during the work

Most shops cannot shut down for a remodel. We phase the work so one area changes while the rest keeps producing, and we schedule shutdowns for power tie-ins and equipment moves on weekends or slow days when you can spare them. Dust and debris stay behind barriers, and the work area is cleaned at the end of every day so your people are not working around our mess.

You get updates in plain words as the job goes: what got done, what is next, what the inspector said, and whether anything has changed the date a machine can go back into service. Steve built this company on keeping customers informed, and on a shop floor that information is part of your production schedule.

Safety on a working floor is shared. Our work areas are barricaded and marked, hot work like cutting or welding follows the permits and fire watch your building and town require, and we follow your own site rules on top of ours. When each phase wraps up, we walk it with whoever runs that area, test doors, outlets and drains, and finish any punch items before the space goes back into use. If its not right, Steve wont put his name on it.

See the rest of our commercial work, or browse the gallery for rooms we have finished.