nman renovation project remains on target

The Inman Elementary renovation is running smoothly.
Superintendent Ron Lorenz said the project has been moving steadily along, and there have been minimal delays.
“When you drive by, you’re going to see that there is some significant progress that’s visible both inside and outside the building. Exterior work is actually nearing completion. Final grading has been completed. The flagpole has been installed, the concrete stoops have been poured. Remaining paving and sidewalk work is finished,” Lorenz said.
Inside, construction is advancing very quickly, and the building is transforming every week.
“You can see pretty significant changes. The door frames have been delivered, which is allowing our drywall installation to kind of pick up. The in-wall electrical inspection was completed, and that’s going to pave the way for mudding, priming, cabinet installation, and those kinds of things. It’s going to start looking like an inhabited space pretty quickly,” stated Lorenz.
 According to Lorenz, the above-ceiling HVAC duct work is nearly complete, the duct work, and the sprinkler installation and the new addition began with ceiling grid installation being completed at the end of July.
“The project’s new air handling unit, we were concerned that that wasn’t going to be here by the end of August. That’s actually been shipped from Mexico at the beginning of July. The unit is enormous. So it’s been disassembled into pieces that are small enough to fit into the building. I think they said 28 inches wide. They need to put them all back together again, so they are sent a factory technician from their facility to us here to make sure that it’s assembled correctly.’
Crews were expected to solder the system on site, put it all together. And in addition to that, the other site work wrapping up. However, Lorenz said there was one change.
“We discussed during our construction meeting that the flooring contractor from our previous company, the company that went out of business, significantly overstated a proposed credit. If you remember, we came to the board and said that there was money to be saved if we abandoned the final flooring in favor of polished concrete. That changed because they miscalculated the savings. Instead of a savings of $16,000, it is actually going to cost us an additional $11,000 to polish that concrete,” advised Lorenz. “We, as a group,  collectively made the decision that we need to revert to the original specifications of the bid and at least make that cost neutral. So we are back now to installing the luxury vinyl tile or the LVT that was already purchased by the previous company and is in their warehouse, as opposed to asking for additional money to polish the concrete in the new edition.”
One of the benefits to that was that it would require very minimal prep work prior to install.
“There may have to be just a little bit of grinding on the new floor to make sure that the transition from the terrazzo to the new tile is as seamless as possible. As for the difference in cost, it seems like it was a miscommunication on what our job was for them to do. When they saw that scope, they realized it was not going to come in at the cost stated.”
Even though the project continues moving forward, there’s a lot of work still to be done in a short amount of time.
“We’re relying on these contractors to get some stuff done. All we can do is roll with them and try to get it done. I really like the front of it, how it matches the brick. We washed it the other day, and it just blends so nice. If you didn’t know something was done before, you can’t tell. To me, it really blends in nice,” stated Lorenz.
Lorenz added that it is pretty remarkable, having just been in the building on a regular basis and seeing it, and has a lot of space.
“Initially, when they were pouring the footings, it didn’t appear to me like we were getting all that much. It just didn’t seem spacious. Now I go in there, and the cafeteria looks cavernous. It’s enormous. So it’s one of those things where I think you just have to keep looking at it, because it does evolve.  I think we’re going to have a good product. It’s a lot of work, and we’re going to stay on top of it. And when it’s all said and done, it’s going to be good for the kids. I think we’re going to be proud of the district to have it. The big windows, the security that we were looking for to get into the building is going to be there. The visibility of the administration to see people coming in, I think everything’s checked. I think it’s going to be a more welcoming space,” Lorenz commented.