|
"Areas like the public entrance had to be painted early in the
morning," Black says. "Sometimes we would have to stop painting
for a day or two for special events. We basically did a lot of jogging
around the aquarium schedule."
Working at an open job site also meant
that lifts would be used instead of scaffolding.
"We had a 60-foot lift on-site the
entire time," Black says. An 80-foot lift was needed for one month to
reach tougher access points, such as behind exterior ductwork. And a
special 36-foot AJ 450 lift - with its unusually small base - allowed
painters access to tight areas not approachable with a regular lift.
"We work with a good lift
company,H&E High Lift, and they really came through for us in this
job," Black says.
Financial constraints were another part
of the picture. The aquarium's tight budget required products with
extremely high coverage.
"The peach and yellow required two
coats, but the bulk of the building was painted ingreen and purple, and
these covered well with just one coat," Black says. "The new
ExteriorAccents did all that we hoped it would do."
As if all of these obstacles weren't
enough, there were the bees.The Aquarium has an educational bee exhibit,
with a full-time beekeeper on staff who provides the insects with access to
the building through a metal pipe about 25 feet up the front side of the
building. Special measures had to be taken by the crew to prevent injury to
both bees and painters while the section of wall was being coated.
"We put a cup over the exterior of
the pipe in the morning to keep the bees from coming out," Black says.
"We'd work for two or three hours, then pull off the cup and run out
of the way. My lead guy got really good at it."
That's just another example of why some
other painting contractors did not want to bid on this job, Black says. But
for B&G Painting, the experience was nothing but positive.
|
