Wednesday, January 27, 2021

R. Baker & Son: Taking On Diverse Tasks on Renovation and Construction Projects


Taking On Diverse Tasks on Renovation and Construction Projects

Large renovation projects can be multi-faceted in depth and scope, and oftentimes a variety of small, unassigned tasks emerge as work progresses. Because these unexpected elements can make or break a project, owners and project managers will often turn to a trusted contractor already on the job to handle them. As a multi-faceted contractor providing a variety of services including demolition, dismantling, rigging, plant decommissioning, plant relocation, environmental services, warehousing, trucking, and asset recovery, R. Baker & Son is frequently approached to take on these tasks. Ingrained in the R. Baker & Son culture is pride in everything we do, down to the smallest detail, and we strive to always go above and beyond expectations. Clients entrust us with diverse tasks because they recognize this exceptional level of care.  

A New Jersey pharmaceuticals firm decided several years ago to utilize a large, vacant portion of an operational facility. Twenty years earlier, the building section had undergone partial interior demolition as part of a larger renovation project before owners changed course and abandoned plans to utilize the space. Now, R. Baker was called in to pick up where the earlier work had left off. 

The fact that spaces on both sides of the work area and on the floor below were occupied posed many challenges. A maze of piping, electrical and controls running throughout the vacant space had to be painstakingly traced to identify and relocate live utilities supplying adjacent areas of the facility without interrupting production. Simultaneously, a separate crew of R. Baker &Son millwrights was charged with rigging and relocating process equipment from another building.  

As the project progressed and the customer gained confidence in our capabilities, R. Baker & Son was continually assigned new tasks as arose. Working closely with manufacturer representatives, we received, sorted, routed disassembled, and assembled thousands of pieces of new and relocated equipment. Gantries, heavy duty forklifts, chain falls and come-alongs were utilized to relocate and set up lab equipment from the neighboring building. Baker crew members were entrusted with disconnecting and reconnecting electrical, compressed air, control panels, hydraulics, specialty gases, and sensitive lab equipment, to name a few. Our role was further expanded our when owners put R. Baker & Son in charge of other trades, and we even got involved in moving and set-up of office equipment and furniture.

About R. Baker & Son All Industrial Services

R. Baker & Son All Industrial Services, a Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE), in business since 1935, is a premier specialized contractor operating in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, with over one hundred employees and an exemplary safety record (we have been directly involved in four sites that received VPP OSHA Safety Awards). R. Baker & Son is financially strong, with bonding capabilities over $10 million. Capabilities include industrial and commercial demolition, rigging, machinery- and plant-moving, dismantling, decommissioning, plant and equipment relocation, interior demolition, selective demolition, warehousing, wrecking and razing, millwright, plant reconfigurations, heavy rigging, salvage, environmental services, remediation, decontamination, abatement, and investment and asset recovery.

R. Baker & Son - All Industrial Services
190 Boundary Road
Marlboro, NJ 07746
https://rbaker.com/selective-demolition.php

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Stainless Steel Tank Rigging Project Saved by Plan B


Rigging Project

Progress on a construction site can sometimes be thwarted when new equipment or materials arrive with problems.Sometimes, no matter how much planning went into a project, one or two obstacles can become a showstopper, and Plan B becomes the only option. 

On one recent rigging job, R. Baker & Son was to hoist twenty-four newly-arrived tank agitators into a stainless-steel tank with the motor and gearbox mounted on top. It was discovered, however, that the agitator blade hubs were 0.5” too large to fit through the tank opening due to a machine shop error, leaving the crane and entire rigging team at a standstill. 

Rather than waste valuable time and money, R. Baker & Son did some quick thinking and reassigned riggers and millwrights to prefabricating support brackets and ladders and providing and cutting dunnage to set the 30-ft. tanks on their new pads. We made an emergency call to a specialty stainless-steel fabricator that assessed the situation and made recommendations to fix the problem. The recommendations were presented to the manufacturer and they quickly agreed. The Baker Team provided a small work area and prepped the agitators so two crews of stainless-steel technicians could start making the necessary modifications the next morning. 

The stainless-steel contractor was able to modify four agitator shafts per day, keeping the project moving along. In addition to rigging the agitators as they became available, Baker crew members kept busy installing agitator supports and getting tanks set in place. As a result, the end date for this phase of the project was exceeded by only one day, rather than weeks or months if the agitators had been sent back to the manufacturer for modification. This was excellent news to the project management team as many piping and pump activities needed to commence as soon as tank installation was completed. In the end, through quick, coordinated effort, Plan B made all the difference. 

About R. Baker & Son All Industrial Services

R. Baker & Son All Industrial Services, a Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE), in business since 1935, is a premier specialized contractor operating in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, with over one hundred employees and an exemplary safety record (we have been directly involved in four sites that received VPP OSHA Safety Awards). R. Baker & Son is financially strong, with bonding capabilities over $10 million. Capabilities include industrial and commercial demolition, rigging, machinery- and plant-moving, dismantling, decommissioning, plant and equipment relocation, interior demolition, selective demolition, warehousing, wrecking and razing, millwright, plant reconfigurations, heavy rigging, salvage, environmental services, remediation, decontamination, abatement, and investment and asset recovery.

R. Baker & Son - All Industrial Services
190 Boundary Road
Marlboro, NJ 07746

https://rbaker.com/rigging-services.php