Temporary Construction Walls: 3 Tough Renovation Challenges… Solved!

Challenge

The second facility is located in a county that doesn’t allow spiral staircases under any circumstances. In order for all six facilities to remain identical, the contractor had to go back and modify the two-story spiral staircase at the first facility, a medical office building (MOB) that features an active atrium area.

Solution

Since the work would be done at night, sound attenuation was less important than having a temporary wall system that would allow for quick-and-easy installation. Austin Commercial subcontracted the temporary containment work to Modern Containment, a STARC rental partner. Co-founder Mike Morton opted to use 13’ LiteBarrier™ panels to contain the two-story staircase.

Takeaways

“Working at height is a challenge,” Morton said. “I think STARC’s system is the only one with individual panels that can reach that height without severe modification.”

Equally important, choosing the LiteBarrier temporary wall system enabled Mike and one other worker to get in and out of the job quickly.

“We were there from 7:00 PM to 1:00 AM. In six hours, we completed 250’ of tall wall on two floors,” Morton said. “With LiteBarrier, another benefit is transport. You can fit so much more in the same space – basically twice as much per cart.”

As a STARC rental partner, Modern Containment owns about 1,000’ of LiteBarrier. Recently, the company began adding RealWall™ to its inventory for customers requiring a heavier duty solution. RealWall provides the same lift-and-drop assembly as LiteBarrier while reducing renovation noise up to 50%. Like LiteBarrier, RealWall exceeds ICRA Class IV/V and ASTM E84 requirements while delivering unmatched durability and stability.

Challenge

Patients are often disruptive. Hagerman needed to find a way to keep both the patient population and construction crews safe, eliminating exposure to any sharp edges, construction debris and dust. Each phase needed to be completed quickly with minimal sound disruption to patients recovering in the mental health rooms.

Solution

Since safety, sound attenuation and the need for a disruption-free installation were paramount, Hagerman and Eskenazi Health facility crews opted for temporary walls from STARC Systems.

Takeaways

Putting up RealWall™ took less than half the time of other temporary wall construction, according to Micah Gill, Project Superintendent for Hagerman. Where it would normally take two days for construction of other temporary walls, Gill’s crews were able to install RealWall and finish the necessary renovations in a single shift – allowing them to move onto the next phase very quickly. “During the 17-month renovation project, we only lost one door panel and one wall panel due to impacts by the patients,” Gill said. “That’s incredible.”

And because the construction noise was virtually eliminated, patients and doctors were able to work every day of the construction process.

“Regular construction walls would not have held up to the day-to-day impact presented by the patients,” said Brian Rednour, Facilities Project Manager for Eskenazi Health. “We bought the STARC systems panels. We have them here at the hospital and our own crews can actually use the panels in future projects in our mental health area, and in other areas.”

Project: Creating additional patient surge capacity at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, the only academic medical center in Brooklyn. The need arose during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, when then-Governor Andrew Cuomo designated SUNY Downstate as one of only three hospitals in the entire state that would treat patients with COVID-19 exclusively.

Team: Alvin Dunaisky is Assistant Director for Major Hospital Projects at SUNY, specializing in healthcare projects. He works with a Design and Construction group of engineers, architects, and interior designers who are responsible for everything from simple office renovations to new buildings.

Challenge

This project raised three key challenges. The first was finding the external space needed to create additional patient surge capacity. The second challenge was to create additional isolation capacity within the Emergency Department. In addition to creating external capacity with tents, UHB sought to maximize interior spaces throughout the hospital. The third challenge the team faced was rethinking existing facilities with an eye towards reducing virus spread. Collectively, these challenges called for speed, creativity and attention to infrastructure requirements, such as allowing for the fact that the Emergency Department and ICUs provide greater access to medical gas stations than general patient rooms do.

Solution

To help contain the spread of infection, the Emergency Department approached Design & Construction for partitions that could be installed quickly in open patient cubicles yet readily removed when not needed. Alvin recalled seeing STARC’s temporary wall system and thought it could be a good option. “It met the highest ICRA and ASTM E84 fire and smoke standards, created airtight separation and infection isolation, and it would go up quickly with no construction,” Dunaisky said. “It’s clean, prefabricated and temporary. We were able to work with STARC’s engineering department to create a rendering of what the finished installation would look like, which allowed me to show how the solution fit the bill with the Emergency Preparedness department.”

Takeaways

First introduced to STARC’s temporary wall systems during a healthcare design conference, Alvin thought the solutions seemed “like a unique solution to a problem we’ve had for a long time, namely building ICRA walls to protect patients and staff during occupied renovation.”

STARC’s temporary walls and accessories – including RealWall™, LiteBarrier™ and FireblockWall™ – are ideal for infection control during a pandemic, or containment during occupied renovations.

Temporary Construction Walls: 3 Tough Renovation Challenges… Solved!

1. AdventHealth

Project: AdventHealth is in the process of building six identical facilities that span multiple counties across Central Florida.

Team: Modern Containment, Austin Commercial and AdventHealth

2. Eskenazi Health

Project: A 17-month-long renovation to Eskenazi Health’s 16,000 square foot mental health wing, the Kathi & Bob Postlethwait Mental Health Recovery Center, located at the Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital.

Team: The Hagerman Group and Eskenazi Health facility crews.

3. SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University

Team: Alvin Dunaisky is Assistant Director for Major Hospital Projects at SUNY, specializing in healthcare projects. He works with a Design and Construction group of engineers, architects, and interior designers who are responsible for everything from simple office renovations to new buildings.

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