Williams Administrative Building remodel

The Meade County School District will soon have a newly remodeled second floor to the Williams Administrative Building thanks to crews from Dean Kurtz Construction. The second floor of the building, located at 1230 Douglas Street, mostly houses classrooms while the first floor houses offices, including the Superintendent’s office. The 7,000 square foot remodel project started around Thanksgiving 2016 and is scheduled to be completed on July 31, 2017.

One of the major changes to this remodel is crews from Dean Kurtz Construction will be putting in an elevator in the building. The building was previously not ADA compliant, and adding in the elevator will make it compliant. They also removed an old bathroom, turned it into a large storage room, and added in two new bathrooms in the space.

According to Project Superintendent Dennis Lipp, the age of the building presents a unique challenge to the remodel. The building was built in 1936.

“They did things a lot different back then than they do now,” Lipp said. “With remodels you always end up with surprises.”

One of the challenges they will have will be to replace the duct work and the hot water system. The hallway ceilings are lower than the classroom ceilings, providing a unique challenge to the remodel. The Dean Kurtz Construction crews have had to cut holes into the walls in order to assist with some of the duct work that they’ve had to do. The roof, however, will be a lot more energy efficient than the old boiler system was, Lipp said.

The crews also worked on changing out some of the windows and the main first level front door, however Lipp added that many of the windows had been replaced in previous years.

Another challenge for the crews in the remodel project included dealing with construction that was done in 1936 that these days would not be done. One of the walls, for example, was built at a two inch skew, meaning crews had to add in some drywall to level the wall out and make it even. Lipp added this remodel was a little difficult simply because of the age of the building and the materials that were used at that time, such as metal lathe and plaster for walls.