Stone Wall - Parking Area

The North Parking lot required a few retaining walls. The "cut" walls were built with the old stones that once supported the building foundation. During renovation, several piers had to be replaced mostly due to water damage. Once the foundation dirt was removed, it was discovered that the piers were supported on poured concrete footings (thankfully...), but they had also intermittently supported the structure with these stones. Most had rolled away from the structure and were loose in the basement. They were cleaned out as repairs were made. Instead of hauling them to the dump, they were reused to create retaining walls. Great work from our stone mason!

North Side Progress

Starting to see the North End come to life. Here's a progress shot, before and...nearly... after....

Interior Paint - School House Windows

First coats of paint are going on the walls and the refurbished school house windows are being installed. About 50 of these windows lived in the basement of Sawtooth for over 40 years. As they were being refurbished, one had been inscribed with a knife reading "I hate you Miss Wilson". I'm sure Miss Wilson is long gone, and the author probably has grandchildren now, but the message lives on at Sawtooth!

The view down the long hall is looking South to North down Front Street.

East View

This is a daytime and nighttime view of the East Side of the building. Windows are glowing and a view of downtown.

North Dock and Garage Doors

The wooden dock on the North End of the building is being replaced with a new concrete dock that will be used as a patio. Glass roll-up garage doors are being installed. This will be a great way to let the outside in during the spring and fall.

Interior build-out & Paving

Most all of the interior walls are built now, and drywall hanging/finishing is going quickly. The concrete floor is being sealed and has a tremendous shine. Paving has also begun.

Walls, Floors and Paint

The interior build-out is moving quickly now. The shell walls are painted, partition walls are going up, and the wood floor is being refinished. The original wood floor that remains is being sanded and sealed while the areas that were repaired are being stained to match the old as closely as possible. Electrical rough-in and HVAC duct work is progressing well. Site work and paving will start this week and should be complete by the end of this month.

Wood Sealer, Drywall and Build-out

The interior wood timbers were coated with a clear sealer. The process deepened the wood color just slightly and really brought out the grain to give a rich appearance. 90% of the shell drywall is complete. The North, South, and East walls all received double layer drywall for more noise reduction. The electrical and mechanical build-out work has begun.

Insulation - Flash & Batt

The insulation of the walls has begun. The envelop is receiving a 1" foam insulation with an R-11 value and an additional 6" of batt insulation equivalent to R-19, for a total around R-30. This is being done for both energy efficiency and noise reduction. The impact was immediately noticeable.

Concrete Complete

The concrete cap is complete and the floor is uniform across the entire building. The finish turned out great, and the reflectivity and uniformity makes the space feel really large. Once it is sealed, it should really shine.

East Side Glow

With all of the windows in on the East side of the building, the sun reflects off of the wood roof deck creating a great, warm glow.

South End Progress

Entry location change and canopy on the South End now complete.

Concrete Pour

The concrete pour for the west half of the building started today. Roof trim work is nearing completion and all of the windows are in. Building is now DRY!

Roof, Siding, and Windows

The roof work has begun, windows are being installed and siding is nearing completion. The building will be dried in very soon, so that the interior construction can begin. The ceiling is being insulated from above the deck. We are installing ISO board insulation onto the existing deck and then "rebuilding" the new deck on top of the ISO. Once complete, it will be a well insulated, efficient system, while preserving the original wood slat roof structure from the inside. We have had a good stretch of dry weather, hopefully it will continue for about 2 more weeks.

Sandblasting Before and After

All of the wood has been sandblasted, an incredible difference. Here are some good before and after photos.

Floor Joist

Yes, it's cliche, but this is a true testament to "They don't build 'em like they used to". For the construction junkies, these are the floor joist where we are replacing damaged wood floor. These joist are ~5" on center. Now days, finding them less than 12" would be a surprise.

Sandblasting

Sandblasting is progressing well. The inside of the building is cleaning up incredibly well! The wood color is amazing. It's great to see this type of progress and the vision we've been working on for a year starting to take shape.

July 30, 2010

Framing work is nearing completion. The beams salvaged from the Georgia cotton mill are installed - see picture, also note the picture of a few beams that were removed... Most of the water proofing wrap is on the building. This gives a little better perspective of what the new building elevation will look like. We also started putting the new metal siding back on the walls.

July 16, 2010

Framing repairs are well underway. Majority of the Sawtooth openings are framed. North and East walls are mostly complete. Reconstruction of the West wall has begun. Several timbers in this wall had water damage and will be replaced. The replacement timbers that we are using were salvaged from a cotton mill in Georgia. We have saved over 300 of the original windows. Some will be incorporated into the building, others will find a new home.

June 30, 2010 - Let there be light!

After more than 50 years, the light from the north facing Sawtooth windows is flooding the building. We immediately recognized the brilliance behind the design of the building with the abundant natural light and breeze moving the hot air out of the windows.

The original windows were operable, and positioned in the ceiling, created a draft to allow hot air out, while the North orientation prevented direct heat gain. This provided a very comfortable work environment on hot summer days before A/C.

June 21, 2010 - Demolition

Demolition has started. We found several treasures in the walls of the building, including a Grape Crush cola pull tab can, whiskey bottles, and copper top salt shakers.

June 4, 2010

The building was constructed in the early 1900’s. It served as the home to General Wax Industries until the 1950’s. It has had a variety of uses since General Wax. The unique sawtooth architecture was used in this period for several reasons. These buildings were typically for manufacturing so the “tooth” design made expansion of the facility easy, because they could build one section at a time. This design allowed for the occupant to orient the window/glass sides to take advantage of natural day lighting to the manufacturing areas.

This is an example of a building’s life coming full circle. The building was designed to provide an environment sensitive to the employees needs for lighting and comfort. These features have long been hidden in this building, and we are re-introducing these to a entirely new generation office tenant.

Demo work began in June. We will follow the renovation progress monthly as this building is re-birthed.