Hutchinson First Church of the Nazarene Construction Update

MASSIVE UPDATE

OK - things have been happening so quickly, that I am WAY behind in updating the blog! Many steps in the process are now complete, and we are well on our way to having a great Christmas present this Advent season! The best way to see what has been done is to check out the Picture Gallery. Here's a brief list:

The outside walls are finished and stucco'ed
The roof is finished and the HVAC systems are installed
The remodeled bathrooms and offices are complete
The inside walls are just about completely drywall'ed and mudded
Electrical service has been established in the new building

Other small task:
The gas line has been hooked up to the new building
The old 55% efficient boiler has been replaced by a new 95% efficient boiler
All data, coax (TV), surveillance camera and phone lines have been run (thanks to Dale Love, Kelly Love, Katie Love, Brian Love, Andrea Nisly, Matt Nisly, Ken Krehbiel, Don Parsons, Pastor Kevin Borger, and Pastor Weston Unruh!!!!)
Sidewalks were poured today
Priming the drywall started today!

Wow - blink, and a lot happens!

Don't forget to check out all the photos for a better description of what's going on.

The deck has been started! For those like me who don't know what the deck is, its the first/bottom layer of the roof. It is made of very long sheets of corrugated sheet metal, and seems very strong.
The steel workers (some great guys, by the way - very good at what they do!) continue to weld the bar joist to the support beams. Pretty soon our building is going to have a roof!
Some misc. observations:
* Large flat pieces of steel have been welded to the support beams in specific places forming large X's in order to give the new structure added strength against high winds.
* The top of the new building is now attached to the gym outside wall via long pieces of angle steel.
* In some places the plumber missed where the wall will be during the rough-in phase (before the slab was poured). The misses have been chiseled out and angled PVC pieces now put the pipe in the correct spot.
* Nathan (with Kenney's Electric), by the way, did not miss any of his rough-in!

Meanwhile, the nursery is starting to look less and less like a nursery. In fact, yesterday it looked more like a sand box than a nursery! Hmm - that gives me an idea for our new nursery... Oh, wait a second - sounds too messy... Now the sand is back in place and concrete has been poured over the new plumbing pipes and drains.

Today's Picture Gallery (23 pictures)
Yesterday's Picture Gallery ( 23pictures)

Construction is moving right along! Steel continues to make the building take shape. It's a slow but simple process. Most of the structure is now up, with the bar joist needing to be welded to the support beams. All total, there are 4,247 pieces of steel (including things as small as bolts and washers), weighing in at 54,261 lbs (not counting bar joists and decking).
The office/bathroom remodel is also moving right along. The bathrooms have been gutted, and several walls have the steel studs ready for the next step. The offices and new bathrooms should be reopened by the end of October!

Today's Picture Gallery (30 pictures)

Fifty-eight days after the slab is poured, THE STEEL ARRIVES! The long (very long!) wait is over, and the only pause left in the process will be waiting for a Sunday in December (or maybe January) for us to move in! I have been told that things are now going to start happening, and not stop until the end. YEA!
Last night a truck with steel decking showed up before church, and was unloaded first this morning by the Design Build Construction Company out of Maize. Then three other trucks showed up, and were each unloaded. It reminded me and Mike Dirking of huge tinker toys! There were vertical support beams, horizontal support beams, roof trusses, decking, and a bunch of things I had no idea what they were for. After all four trucks were unloaded, the next several hours were spent sorting out the pieces. Considering each piece weighed many (hundreds to thousands) pounds, this was not a quick process.
In the mean time, Mike removed the front four feet of the entrance "lid" by cutting it in two foot strips. Each strip weighed 1.25 tons (it would have even been worse if it had not been poured around styrofoam rods), and took a fork lift to remove.
Finally, the celebration time was at hand, and the first piece of steel was attached to the slab! One piece down, 999 more to go (actually 4,246)! Soon there were six vertical support beams installed, with their horizontal beams laid at the foot of each pair. Unfortunately, some safety cables were left back at the Maize office, and nothing could be lifted into the air and left overnight. So we will have to wait until morning. Hey, we've waited this long - what's one more day???
Oh - I think there was more done on the office renovation. I did hear some banging and sawing noises coming out of there today. But I didn't even go in! :) If you have not visited the garden foyer bathrooms recently, make sure you do this weekend. For on Monday they will be closed for six weeks, and when they open again, you will not recognize them!

Today's Picture Gallery (39 pictures)

While the outside sits and waits for steel, the nursery/office remodel is underway. The nursery rooms have been moved to their new temporary location, and the walls in the old nursery gutted. This will provide room for the new, larger restrooms, a family bathroom, four offices, and a conference room.
The large Noah's Ark mural from the old nursery was photographed and being transferred to wallpaper to be hung in the new nursery.
Steel will be here between 7-8AM Thursday, August 24th, so be watching the web cam. Three trucks will be unloaded by noon, and the structure will be started by early afternoon. Then things will keep going until the building is completed! The wait is almost over!!!

Today's Picture Gallery (9 pictures)

Well, the most exciting thing that has happened at the construction site lately is watching the puddles dry in the time-lapse photos, wondering which one will dry out first!
A few things have happened: the new berm wall was poured, and the new light pole base was poured (off camera). Yep - a slow few weeks. Watching the concrete harden and cure. Biting the fingernails. Waiting patiently. Well, at least waiting.
The good news is that our steel order is almost here. It should be here around the 9th of August. THEN things will start happening again, and not stop until we are in!
I'm off to camp for the next week, so someone else please keep an eye on the puddles. So far the score is 3 to 2, with the puddle closest to the camera winning the most times.

Well, for the last week, the only fireworks going on around here have been in the sky. The parking spaces have been finished, and the drive around the new building has its first 3 of 5 inches of asphalt down, but not much more has happened. Stay tuned for more updates!

Today, we are one step closer to having additional parking spots in the parking lot. APAC Shears starting laying asphalt both in the front of the church (creating the new parking spots at the corner of 43rd and Monroe, and around the new driveway that will go around the new building. Laying asphalt is a hot, slight smelly job! The asphalt comes off the dump truck at 275-325 degrees. You can feel the waves of heat coming off the newly laid asphalt from 15 feet away! The men constantly check the depth and width of the new asphalt as the large machine carefully lays it down. This is followed by several passes of a steam roller to flatten and compact the surface. This first layer is just the base layer. The final top finishing layer will be laid on the new parking spots tomorrow, but the new driveway will wait until construction is finished to receive it's finishing layer.
Mike Dierking started constructing the new temporary wall in the south entrance, which means there goes our air conditioned viewing portal. But this is necessary for safety reason (at least that's what OSHA says). I guess we have to trust them (OSHA, not Hutton. We already trust Hutton!).
By the way, some were wondering where my initials were in the slab. Here's a hint.

Today's Picture Gallery (18 pictures)

If I was in Florida yesterday, then today I was at the ballet.
After 32 day of preparation, the slab was poured today in a mere 3 hours. Voegeli Concrete Construction showed up and started pouring concrete at 5:30AM - 30 minutes before the web cam even comes online! And to watch them at work was incredible! I have never seen a construction crew work together so tightly to do such a large job as quickly as these guys. I have to admit, the pastor in me was quickly reminded of Paul writing in Corinthians 12 that in Christ we are all one body, but many parts. These guys operated like a Borg collective, connected by brain waves and operating like one entity! (Whoa - there's a first for me: Paul and Borgs in the same paragraph! Resistance is futile!)
Here is how Voegeli spread over 185 yards of concrete in 3 hours: A huge(!) Schwing concrete boom pump truck from Brundage-Bone was filled in one end by the concrete trucks, and then pumped it up and over to the worksite. The pump truck never moved - it was large enough to reach the entire site from one position! A man with a remote control would "steer" the concrete-producing boom exactly where it was needed, while 10-15 guys started spreading it out.
One guy moved the concrete nozzle where it needed to go. Two other guys would lift up the wire mesh (laid out over the plastic yesterday) and embed it into the freshly poured concrete. Five or six guys had special rakes (kind of like a garden rake without the teeth) and would push and pull the cement where it needed to go. Two more guys took a long (aluminum?) board and smoothed out the surface of the cement.
Then the smoothing operation begun. First a man with a huge sweeper (6 feet wide, 15-20 feet long) made the first pass, taking the concrete to within 1/4 of an inch level. Then big "buffers" started their rounds, making it even smoother. After the buffers, came the cool riding buffers! This is where the ballet started. Six of these were going at the same time in a strange dance that made the concrete as smooth as glass. All we needed was a little classical music and those cool hand-held glasses, and I would have been expecting Swan Lake to appear before my eyes! All the while, other men were "floating" on the cement, smoothing around pipes and pier cap boxes.
After the concrete was smoothed and finished, it was sealed. This sealer will hold in the moisture of the concrete longer, causing curing to slow and the finished product to be harder. The entire slab was sealed, except the area where the 5th and 6th grade rooms will be located. These areas were covered and sealed with plastic. They will eventually be color stained instead of carpeted for a unique look. To finish the job, joints were cut into the concrete slab to give it room to shrink and expand in this wonderful Kansas weather.
Other jobs were happening today as well. Rick's Dozer continued to prepare the new driveway around the expansion. The new city water line trench was started (sorry, Scott, we hit another sprinkler irrigation line), which will eventually go to and under Monroe Street. Voegeli also constructed the forms that will be the new retaining wall.
For those who were wondering, yes - my initials did make it into the slab. Somewhere.

Today's Picture Gallery (38 pictures)

One month down, five more to go!
Today I thought I was in Florida again. OK - not really. The sand was brown, the air was too dry, the temperature was too cool, the breeze too strong, and no ocean in sight. But other than that, I've never seen as much sand as I did today - other then in Florida! 5,000 square feet, or over 185 square yards of it (quick - someone who likes math check my calculations: 15,000 square foot building, 4 inches of sand).
After all the sand was dumped to the side of the new building location, a large bobcat took it one load at a time and spread it where the slab will be poured. And it was not quite as easy as it would seem at first - the bobcat driver had to dodge many obstacles (other larger obstacles) on the way. Then men would level the sand with a board, and then pack it with a heavy - um - well - packer. Does anyone know what that thing is really called???
The final step was covering everything with a vapor barrier (very large sheets of thick plastic), taping it all down, and then covering that with a thin metal grate (another object I could use some help on knowing what's its really called!). All the while Nathan and others with Kenney's Electric were making sure that none of his conduit, floor boxes and such were not knocked over or bent (which it was).
Tomorrow, pouring the cement slab begins at 5:30AM. Who wants to come and watch? I'll be there!
Just not at 5:30!

Today's Picture Gallery (18 pictures)

It happened again. And it probably isn't the last time before it's all finished. We got over 2" of rain in 38 minutes last night (the rain guage read 2.25" total). I felt very bad for those workers who had to come and work today (but not bad enough to get out there and help them when they asked me to). They did their best to remove all the water from the trenches that were dug yesterday, but all that left was mud. Some work was accomplished, thought. A temporary power pole was installed to provide electricity to the work site, and additional sewer lines were laid out.

Today's Picture Gallery (10 pictures)

The pastors and district assembly delegates have returned from Wichita, and all of us from Hutch First Church can be proud of the incredible report that Pastor Kendall gave on our behalf. It was great to be able to stand representing our church while he told the Kansas District, as well as Dr. Porter (one of our six general superintendents that lead the Nazarene church) the great things that God is doing at First Church. Pastor Kendall even plugged the live web cam! I almost thought he was going to pass out pledge cards for the new building...
I could not wait to get back to Hutchinson to see what had happened over the last three days. And a lot had happened! The 3” pipe that would carry the electrical lines from the existing building to the new building was laid in a deep trench starting outside the boiler room (next to the east entrance) and going to what will be the storage closet off of the children’s worship area. The floor boxes in the worship area that will supply electrical outlets, as well as data ports, were also laid out. And Nathan painted an outline of where the greeter’s desk will sit in the foyer, as well as ran electrical and data connections to under the desk. The desk is (going to be) huge! I’ve seen it on paper for months, but to see it in its actual size was amazing!
The plumbing company also has laid out sewer lines to most of the building, connecting it to the existing sewer. It’s funny – I never realized how many times the ground under the building would be smoothed out, dug up, then smoothed out, only to be dug up again! I guess there is only a few more days this will be possible – after that, the slab!
Rick's Dozer spread the remaining dirt that they removed from the original work site to an area just to the east of the new building. This will be under the new playground, and will allow rain to drain away from the building and playground, over the new road (which they started working on this week as well), and off into the field.
Uh-oh – I see thunder on the horizon…

Today's Picture Gallery (24 pictures)

NOTE: Unless a lot of people complain, I am going to stop posting pictures here in the blog, and link specific pictures as I describe what's happening. As always, you can click on the "Today's Picture Gallery" and see all the pictures for that day. Click on any thumbnail for a larger view. Want it even larger? Click the "Full Size" link in the top right for a very big picture!

Today, the footings were finished, and all the pier caps in the middle of the building were poured. One more step completed, 1,000 more to go! Next week the plumbing will be laid out, as well as some of the electrical lines that will be in the slab. If everything goes to schedule, the slab will be poured one week from Monday (June 26). Then we wait for steel. And wait. And wait... ... ...

Today's Picture Gallery (25 pictures)

Things were moving today! Early this morning Voegeli Concrete Construction started working on the pier caps and grade beams. A back hoe with a narrow bucket would dig where the footings would be poured, carefully removing the sand and LVCS from around the rebar found on the top of each of the piers. The back hoe operator is so exact it reminds me of someone using their hands to dig in the dirt, allowing their fingers to go between each metal bar. Only pretend your hand is 5 feet long and 18 inches wide!
After the footing was dug, more rebar forms were placed in the holes, and awaited the 3:00PM appointment with the cement truck. After thick, pink foam insulation sheets were placed on the inside of the footings, the entire hole was then filled with cement and leveled off. It looks like about 3/4ths of the outside of the building was finished today.
Nathan with Kenney's Electric was back, and he and his crew started working on running the electricity from the existing building to the new one. In case you wondering about the path for the conduit, it's going outside.

By the way - the biggest construction project I have ever been involved with is building my boys a sand box in the back yard. If you have any corrections or would like to tell me what something is called (in order to help me sound half way intelligent), please leave me a comment and let me know what I can change or improve!

Today's Picture Gallery (21 pictures)

Today was another slow day. Kenney's Electric started installing the new "Exit" signs inside the existing building. This is due to the fact that you can no longer exit the south entrance, so traffic must be directed towards another exit. As soon as the new exit signs are installed, a temporary wall will be built blocking the south exit (and blocking the view - rats!).
Dan Link from Landmark Architects is still determining the best path for the electrical feed from the existing building to the new building. The easiest/cheapest route would be to the boiler room, then outside along the east wall of the gym. Dan is concerned that this might cause problems when we go to build the youth/teen building. He doesn't want to be prohibited from putting footings/pilings where he needs to due to the fact that there is a buried electrical conduit there. The other route is through the gym loft. This will be much more difficult to run, as well as partially block some walkways/stairways. Hmm... A real nail biter! Which way? Which way???
Tomorrow the pier caps and grade beams should start being poured.

Last night's rain has postponed the pier caps and footings being poured until Wednesday. Nathan Warner was out with Kenney's Electric deciding the best way to route the 3" electrical conduit from the existing power supply (on the north side of the east entrance) to the new building.

All 80 pilings are in the ground! And looking at the leveled site, you could hardly tell that they just spent three days digging 80 holes. The front parking spots now have limestone spread, and are awaiting the asphalt.

Drilling continued, and Rick's Dozer returned and started working on the new parking spots on the opposite side of the church (by 43rd and Monroe). They are adding 30 new (badly needed!) parking spots. 32 more holes were drilled - 25 more to go!


Today's Picture Gallery (78 pictures)

The world didn't end today (thank goodness) despite speculation about today's date, and the drilling of the 80 auger cast pilings started! Here's the process: Hutton Construction marked each of the 80 locations of the pilings and then a 6 inch piece of rebar is hammered into the ground to mark the spot. The crane then moves the drill over each spot and drills a hole to the depth that Terracon has determined is needed to support the building at that location (from 35-60 feet deep). After the drill gets to the desired depth, it is lowly raised up out of the hole. As the drill is moving up, concrete is pumped through the center of the drill into the hole, filling it completely. Then a 20' piece of 1.5 inch rebar is lowered into the cement, along with a rebar form. They are tied off with wire to a 2x4 above the hole, to keep them suspended at the top of the cement until it hardens. They completed 23 holes today - only 57 more!

Many more trucks came in today (I don't know how many because the web cam took a two hour break in the afternoon), and all kinds of equipment started spreading, compacting, and leveling the LVCS. Their goal is to have the entire worksite within one inch of completely level so that the auger cast pilings can be drilled tomorrow (and for the huge crane and other equipment to completely mess up the perfectly level ground). By 5:30PM, they had met their goal.

Trying to make up for lost time, Rick's Dozer worked on Saturday, spreading out 33 more dump truck loads of LVCS.

Compacting the existing ground resumed, and the dump trucks with the low volume change soil (LVCS) started arriving at 9:00AM. Kenny's Electric came out and rewired the electrical line to the lift station (what pumps the "finished" water from the church into the city's sewer lines). Terracon, an engineering firm making sure the foundation of the building is adequate, arrived and found two large sections (each about the size of a semi truck trailer) that were not firm enough to meet their specs. So the bulldozers and back hoe had to dig down about four feet and replace it with trucked in LVCS. In the process, around 2:45, the back hoe found the existing sewer line out to the lift station. Well, at least it still had power, but now the lift station had nothing to lift! By 4:30 the plumbers had us back in business. At 7:00PM, both holes were filled with new dirt, and 29 dump truck loads of LVCS had been spread and compacted.

This morning at 4:30AM, God took care of watering the building. He accomplished (as usual) more in 30 minutes than man did all day yesterday in the form of 1.25 inches of rain. A lot of rain. Too much rain - if you are a building. Now all of that rain is being moved and pumped from the big mud puddle that was the building site yesterday. By 6:00PM it was dry enough to work with. Too late.

Today's Picture Gallery (27 pictures)

There was a lot of activity today! Rick's Dozer finished removing the topsoil, getting it down low enough to start hauling in the the “low volume change soil” (LVCS). The crane that will start the auger cast pile drilling next week showed up today, and men started putting it together. A crew has cut off a part of the cement retaining wall from the berm where windows will be placed in the new building. They have started compacting the existing dirt, but unfortunately, it is too dry to compact. Water hoses have been brought in to help dampen the dry soil. I knew wheat needed water, but I never saw someone water a building.

Today's Picture Gallery (20 pictures)

Another fairly slow day. More dirt was removed and the underlying soil was compacted as much as possible.

Not much happened today - just a few loads of dirt hauled off. Sigh... I guess construction crews get holidays just like I do. :)

After a brief morning shower, work got underway, continuing to remove the topsoil down two feet.

8:00AM things started up again. The remaining asphalt was removed, and then the rocks under the asphalt had to be removed. This took a bobcat a long time, scraping and scraping until all the rock was gone and nothing but dirt remained. The back hoe quickly pulled up the existing sidewalk concrete and loaded it into the dump truck. Mike Dierking, our on-site supervisor from Hutton Construction (and a very nice guy) cut the sidewalk away from the existing building. An old water line was discovered in the berm next to the retaining wall, and it was determined that it was abandoned. It wasn't. Thankfully, after having to turn off the water to the entire church for an hour, Scott Meggers came to our rescue and capped the water line off. At 4:30PM, the back hoe started the process of removing approximately 2 feet of dirt from the existing footprint so it could be filled with the “low volume change soil” (LVCS).

Today's Picture Gallery (29 pictures)

At 7:00AM construction officially started with the unloading of a back hoe. Then it sat. And sat. Finally, 5 hours later (at 2:00PM), the back hoe started pulling up the asphalt where the new building will be built. Unfortunately, it would take ten minutes to fill the dump truck with the broken-up asphalt, and then 45 minutes for the truck to return. Total work: 4 dump trucks filled and hauled off.