R. Baker & Son Demo Team Completes Plant Demolition

R. Baker & Son recently completed a demolition and decommissioning project at a northern New Jersey plant. The first of R. Baker & Son’s tasks was to demolish a 60’ x 30’ fuel pipe platform, which included valves, filters, etc. Baker team members painstakingly drilled pilot holes to identify lines that still contained oil. When found, openings were cut in the pipes to allow thinning of the viscous oil with diesel fuel, followed by filtered vacuum removal. 

Crew members next assisted in recovering tons of raw proprietary product from a 12’ x 60’ silo that was 47% filled. We worked closely with the owner and environmental team to remove the product via vacuum truck then performed demolition of the silo. An adjacent metal storage building that still contained various crates and drums was slated to be demolished next. The product in the containers was identified by our environmental team, labeled, and removed for recycling or disposal. Lighting, ventilation, building structure, and concrete foundation were carefully dismantled and recycled where possible. 

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 and Anchoring Heavy Machinery and Equipment

An important work scope that is often overlooked on construction projects is the rigging and anchoring of equipment to concrete, steel platforms, curbs, decking, etc. Anchoring should not be an afterthought as it requires availability of materials, labor, and detailed planning, and should be included in the contract whenever possible. 

Rigging and anchoring heavy machinery may be as simple as installing embedded epoxy anchors specified by a structural engineer, but in other cases, such as when equipment is tall or top-heavy, including certain tanks and storage bins, objects require anchors both at floor level and from above. Depending on the project’s location and/or application, anchoring may involve vibration elimination or seismic restraints with the addition of such items as springs or rubber pads. Shims or other types of hardware are often needed to render the equipment level and plumb. When rigging HVAC air handlers onto rooftop curbs, units may require stainless steel tethers to prevent movement due to high-shear winds or microbursts. Rigging and anchoring of instrumentation such as load cells for measuring the weight of tanks is sometimes required.

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-contractors.php

Baker Completes Selective Demolition Project Christmas Eve

Over the recent winter holiday season, R. Baker & Son was tasked with performing selective demolition at a medical manufacturing facility that produced orthopedic titanium parts and hardware. Demo crew members needed to clear all equipment and support utilities in a 20,000 square-foot area which included seven offices, two quality control laboratories, two chillers, two boilers, and one air handler serving a clean storage area with HEPA filtration. 

The project’s biggest challenge was to complete all demolition within the one-week time period between December 18th and 24th, with no interruptions to adjacent departments. The facility was slated to be closed between Christmas and New Year’s Day, during which time new equipment would be delivered and installed. Ordinarily, a demolition project of this scale and complexity would take several weeks, but the client had critical surgical manufacturing orders to fill and could not exceed the time allotted for the project. 

R. Baker & Son worked closely with the electrician, plumber, controls company, and in-house maintenance staff as the start date approached to review and mark up everything that would require removal with bright green paint. Once all disciplines were satisfied that everything had been double and triple checked, the lockout/tagout process began simultaneously with demolition on Friday, December 18th. Baker demolition crews worked 10-hour shifts each day, ensuring that all was cut, capped, and made safe. The selective demolition project was completed just before noon on Christmas Eve – right on time. 

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

3D Rigging Using BIM

R. Baker & Son was recently engaged in a complex project in which we were tasked with rigging and setting numerous pieces of process equipment from more than thirty different vendors. Items ranged from large process skids and tanks to small peristaltic dosing pumps. Project designers used 3-D building information modeling (BIM) to coordinate and build the project virtually to ensure that all of the equipment came together flawlessly once onsite. 

All equipment was placed into the master model, followed by process piping, plumbing, and electrical, which included control panels in varying sizes. Virtual BIM tours allowed owners to accurately visualize the form and function of the future facility. Prior to the arrival of the process equipment, pipes, platforms, and steel supports were prefabricated and installed with absolute laser precision based on the 3-D model. 

Fabrication and installation had to be exact – in many cases +/- 0.25 inches – in order to ensure that the many pumps, tank nozzles, and process equipment would have a precise flange-to-flange orientation when rigged into place. To ensure accurate rigging, R. Baker & Son used the approved 3-D model to transfer the design to the field via lasers to align critical parts. Ultimately, all process equipment was rigged into place successfully with few problems. 

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

R. Baker & Son: 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

Stainless Steel Tank Rigging Project Saved by Plan B

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

Check Out The October Issue Of The Outrigger

Inside This Issue-

CURTAIN WALL DISMANTLING & DEMOLITION EQUIPMENT:

THE BUCK STOPS HERE 38 JORALEMON STREET- OSHA DEMOLITION SAFETY