How a Contractor Saves Time on a $20 Million Duct Job

Mechanical contractor utilizes DSL3 strut lock assembly to save 10 minutes of time on each drop, adding up over the course of 80,000 drops.

From left to right: Adam Goebel, HVAC Project Manager; Mike Welsh, Project Foreman; Willy Tappe, Project Lead. (Photos courtesy of Weidner Mechanical)

When a school sends a job out for bid, the big commercial contractors come out of the woodwork. And when it’s the biggest school in the state, that number gets inflated. So was the case with the new renovation and addition to the White Bear Lake High School in Minnesota. Those familiar with the area, know that White Bear Lake High School has had an unusual past, with the school having been split into a north and south campus, 10 miles away from each other for over 30 years. The new school will have all 2,500 students under one massive roof, and includes updated classrooms, a new media center, auditorium, and indoor athletic complex, all on an 82-acre site. The $180 million dollar addition and renovation were a large part of the $326 million dollar referendum that passed in 2018.

In 2020, Weidner’s Mechanical Contractors of St. Cloud, Minnesota, won the HVAC bid. The $180 million dollar addition and renovation will include nearly 1,000 VAV boxes, and 3 massive mechanical rooms to house the incredible amount of equipment.

White ductwork

“A job of this magnitude will stretch out till the late part of 2024,” says Mike Welch, the job foreman from Weidner’s Mechanical.

“We are leaning heavily on our suppliers for the products that would not only be cost effective and get the job done, but would also speed up the installation of the nearly $20 million dollar HVAC system, ” adds Adam Goebel from Weidner’s.

Basketball court

One of these products was the DSL3 Strut Lock Assembly, from the Dyna-Tite Division of Duro Dyne Corporation. Weidner’s estimates they will be using 2,500 of the DSL3s during the hanging of the ductwork alone, and estimates each drop will save them 10 minutes over the conventional hanging method of threaded rod, not to mention the hassle of dealing with that much raw material. With nearly 80,000 drops total, it is one of the largest jobs currently using this type of hanging system in the country, and the job of supplying this product went to Tim Speath of Mobile One Stop.

Ductwork

“We work closely with our vendors and contractors to ensure they both have an understanding of what is available to them thru us,” Speath says.

Speed is one of the best ways of saving money on a job, and with the DSL and Dyna-Tite Suspension System, Weidner’s Mechanical Contractors is well on their way to hitting their goal.

“We just can’t afford to have our guys sitting around wasting time, and the learning curve for hanging Dyna-Tite is nearly as fast as the product itself,” Welch says.