Construction Update #12 (last one!)

Yes, indeedy, this will be the last Construction Update entry. We are almost done, and from here on it's just a lot of finishing touches before we are ready to open. A lot, though.

The Eldo gang have been cruising, and are just about done, right on time. They have a few lead anchors left to install, a few hours of training for us on care and feeding of the beautiful walls they have built for us, and then they'll pack up their truck and head off to build someone else a gym nearly as nice as ours. :-)

Steve and Mark from Asana are now on site, installing our padded floor. See the photo below for a peek at their work in progress. The custom modular pads in the advanced bouldering area are now in place, and they're working on the 6" blue carpet stuff now. That should all be in place by the middle of next week.

Some of the other construction has taken a little longer than planned to wrap up, but there too we are down to finishing touches like soap dispensers and toilet paper rolls. Yes, after about 3 1/2 months of construction, we now have indoor plumbing! There was much rejoicing.

We are holding our initial staff orientation day on Sunday, and then we'll be routesetting like mad, and doing a million other things to get ready for opening day. We're certainly on track for the competition on the 27th, and we are hoping to have a little preview before then, but can't announce anything until we get past the required inspections and have approval to open our doors for business. Stay tuned!

This will be the final Construction Update, but we'll continue to post updates on our opening plans and everything else that is going on in the gym.

Here are a couple of recent shots of the last bits of work.

The stalactite, before it got painted.

The custom modular pads in place in front of
the advanced bouldering area, and the open cell
foam is going down in the rest of the north side.
The foam gets cut out to make room for the
slackline posts, and we'll have foam inserts/caps
to cover the holes when the posts come down
(for example, to make a nice large spectator
area for the Tour de Bloc comp).

Construction Update #11

We're in the home stretch now. Eldorado has just over a week left, and the non-climbing construction is just about done as well. Here are the latest updates:

The locker rooms are nearing completion,
with just a few finishing touches remaining.

The reception desk is in place.

The tile is going down; here is a view of the party area.

Dustin had a bunch of boulder problems up
a week and a half ago, but this is the first roped route.

This is the view from under the stalactite,
looking up, taken before all the wood was in place.

This thing is seriously cool,
and larger than I had expected!

So things are still on track, though we keep thinking of a million more things we have to get done before we open. It's an exciting time.

Construction Update #10

I'm off site this week (attending a few Olympic events in Vancouver, including yesterday's impressive gold medal victory by our women's hockey team), so this week's construction update is courtesy of our first guest blogger: Skylar Pais, crew chief of the Eldorado Climbing Walls gang.


The last shape was hung on the stalactite today. That feature just took this gym to another level. We also climbed on the boulder for the first time tonight. Great shape, great setting, and really new holds. I lost some skin!

Construction Update #9

We're nearly done with the north half of the gym. The bouldering terrain has its two coats of paint, and will get its "speckle coat" soon. We're also done putting T nuts in there. The north tall wall with the chimney is partly painted, and partly T-nutted. Here are a few recent shots:



On the south side, the steel is almost all up, and most of the wood is in places as well. The south bouldering wall went up in just two days: the steel on Thursday, and the wood on Friday!



The change rooms are almost ready for their finishing touches. Light fixtures are up and the wiring & switches will soon be completed. The tile (both the ceramic tile in the shower area and the vinyl composite tile in the rest of the change rooms) should go down in the next few days, after which the lockers & plumbing fixtures should go in quickly.

Next week I will be in Vancouver, catching a few Olympic events. I'm going to miss the start of the stalactite, as the Eldo crew puts up the large steel columns that form its backbone, and then build the shell in two pieces on the ground before hoisting them up and welding them in place. And the freestanding boulder should arrive while I'm gone as well.

As usual, there are additional recent photos in our Picasa Construction album.

Construction Update #8

More great progress this week. The Eldorado crew is rocking along! This week we saw the arch completed between the lead room and the front area where the stalactite will soon start to grow. The texture was applied to the walls on the north side, and drilling out of the T-nut holes has begun. I installed the first T-nut and then attached the first hold on the wall! And the hand crack was carved by Chris Pope, who showed us his artistry. Let's just let the pictures speak for themselves:

Chris Pope of the Eldorado crew carved this hand crack for us,
facing the entrance doors. It's intended as a 5.9 (maybe 5.9+?) climb.
First ascent was expected this weekend (as part of quality assurance
by the Eldorado construction crew, of course)

Panoramic view of the north bouldering terrain
after texturing, from a scissor lift above it.

Panoramic view of the north tall wall, with chimney, after texturing.

More photos are available as usual in our Picasa Construction album.

Updated Panorama Views

Last weekend Mark Banas returned to the gym, and shot another set of panorama images. You can view them here. And to see what the space looked like before we started, compare that to the "before" panorama.

Apart from how cool these are, what strikes me is how much progress was made in the week since Mark shot these:

• the drywall now covers the non-climbing areas
• the windows have opened up on the north side, over the bouldering terrain, so there is natural light in there once again
• the steel in the south side is now pretty much all covered in wood
  

Enjoy! Thanks, Mark!

Construction Update #7

OK, time for a few more photos and an update on how the work is progressing.

New windows are making their way in around the high monitors.

The finger crack begins to take shape
on the roped wall opposite the lead cave.

Things are rolling along pretty well. The Eldorado crew continues to push ahead, covering just about all the steel already in place with wood and getting much of it ready for texturing. They were also starting to sculpt the cracks: a 16' high hand crack facing the entrance area, and a full-height (36') finger crack in the wall shown above. The bouldering wall is ready for texturing (the top surface is done, and the sides will get sprayed soon). The steel shapes for the lead wall have been welded together, and with the base plates now attached to the slab floor, more steel will soon be going up in the lead cave.

The non-climbing construction is also advancing well, and moving ahead towards wrapping up at the end of this month. The change rooms are really taking shape, and other work such as electrical and sprinkler systems are going in.

While the construction professionals keep all that going, the climbing professionals have been busy as well! We had a few more shipments come in this week, bringing lots of gri-gris, locking carabiners, various routesetting rigging gear (ascender, pulleys, daisy chains and etriers!), as well as about another 20 boxes of climbing holds! Next week looks like a few more hold shipments and our rope. We're having a good time checking out all the goodies, and Dustin has our holds organized and ready for setting. Can't wait until we have the first few sections of wall textured, painted and T-nutted, so the holds can start to go up!

The other thing that is starting to occupy more of our time is interviewing. We have a steady stream of candidates coming in to talk about the part time positions we have posted.

There are additional photos to peruse in our Picasa Construction album beyond the couple included in this post.

Oh, and one more thing I almost forgot! Here is the last of the renderings sent up by Jason Plumb, our wall designer at Eldorado in Boulder. This is a view from around where the reception desk will be. The stalactite will hang from the ceiling 36' up, and stop about 2 1/2 feet above the padded floor. We can't wait to see that get built!

As usual, click on the image to see it in full resolution. I've uploaded all 4 hires renderings to the Renderings album on our Picasa page.

Construction Update #6

Here's a quick update and a few more recent photos. Things continue to move ahead well.

The lockers have arrived.
There will be 52 lockers (half height)
in each of the men's and women's change rooms.

The Eldorado crew surprised me with this nice bonus:
a solid ladder behind the walls, to provide safe and comfortable access
to the two tiers of scaffolding behind the walls.

This isn't a terribly exciting photo,
but what it represents is pretty exciting.
The letter Ls painted on the floor mark where lead lines
will be placed on the climbing terrain.
Eldorado is installing metal plates
to which bolt hangers will be mounted,
spaced a few feet apart along the metal structure
above each of these points.
Dustin was pretty stoked to be able to specify
where we want each of our lead lines,
and our gym will have a lot more leadable terrain
than most gyms
(just about every wall, except for the slab section).

These photos are from late last week. We saw really dramatic changes in one day today:

• lots of drywall got installed around the change room areas
• lots more wood sheeting got nailed up on the climbing structure in the south half of the gym. Seeing the wood covering the steel makes the forms stand out more clearly, and suddenly makes it feel more like a climbing wall!
• the window replacement reached the north half of the gym for the first time, so there was natural light pouring in above the bouldering terrain for the first time in weeks!

There is still plenty of work left to do. the non-climbing construction (change rooms, reception area, plus the general work on electrical, lighting, heating and plumbing) will continue for the rest of February. By then the north half of the climbing terrain will be complete, and the south half will need just another couple of weeks to finish up.

The boulder from Boulder

A quick update on one of the cool features we're putting in the gym: a freestanding boulder. Here are a few shots of the early construction of it, which is happening at Eldorado's facility in Boulder, Colorado:


The boulder starts as a stack of 8 1-foot thick pieces of foam, glued together. It's been carved into its rough base shape. Next cement texture will be applied over the foam base, and that will be hand-carved to form all the holds. We decided not to install T-nuts for modular holds on this (although Eldorado is quite capable of doing that), because we want this to just sit in the middle of the gym and look like a real rock, about 8 feet high and 8 feet in diameter. It's intended as an easy boulder for kids and beginners, and a warm-up for more advanced climbers.

Construction Update #5

Another good week, and I'm feeling like things are really under control. I figure it's the eye of the hurricane, and more crazy stress lies ahead. In any event, I am enjoying the feeling of being on track, and thinking we know what we're doing.

Here are a few shots of what has gone on this week:

Framing for the storage room near reception.
This is where the dishwasher, water heaters and storage will go.

The sheeting nearly complete on the north tall wall, opposite the
bouldering terrain. Much of the lath work is done,
including a nice flake on the left edge of the chimney,
and some of the texturing is done on some seams.


Steel has gone up fast in the south bay this week.
Here is the left half of the arch.
Look at the sunlight coming in from behind,
where the window replacement is finally underway!

And here is a funny story. I arranged phone service this week, and asked for a phone number ending in ROCK (7625). There were 4 to choose from, and 633-ROCK had the nicest "ring" to it, so I chose that. On Tuesday I discovered that's exactly the same 7 digits as Climber's Rock has (they are in area code 905). We decided that's a little too much of a weird coincidence, and some customers might actually call the wrong gym by mistake and get mixed up, so I called back and changed it. Our number will now be (416) 398-ROCK, and it should be hooked up, um, this morning. Well, maybe Monday.

Things are rocking now.

Construction Update #4

Progress has been very good in the past two weeks, since I last posted an update. The main bouldering wall is now completely sheeted with wood, and texturing has begun. We got on top of the structure for the first time yesterday, which was really fun. The shapes of this wall look really good, and the photos and renderings don't quite do it justice. Here are a few more shots though:

Left end of the bouldering wall, with one of the hatch doors in place.
The lath is on covering the seams between panels,
and where the grip rail will be built at the top edge.

Dustin is rather fond of the wall...

More steel has gone up on the first of the roped walls as well, opposite this bouldering terrain:

The chimney is at the right of this shot, though it's a little hard to see the shape.

The non-climbing construction is also moving ahead nicely. Lots of important but perhaps not very exciting ducting work has been done. Here's the latest view of the change room area:

Several additional photos have also been posted to the Construction folder of our Picasa page.

Construction Update #2

It has been a good week. The Eldorado crew is now on site, and they have gotten down to work quickly, organizing their equipment, coordinating with our general contractor, and starting to assemble the many steel "shapes" that will be assembled together to create the climbing terrain. I've posted a few new photos to the Picasa Building album. The initial crew of 3 from Boulder is being supplemented by local workers that they have already hired, so the crew should be twice that size by Monday! And all of the Eldorado guys (as well as at least some of the local crew) are climbers; they joined the gang I climb with Wednesday night at Toronto Climbing Academy.

On the general contracting side, the plumbing rough-ins are complete and concrete has been poured to restore the floor. HVAC work continues after a few bumps along the way. It is tricky figuring out how to place ventilation ducts and lighting between the climbing walls in a way that preserves safe clearance and also results in effective lighting, heating and cooling in the space.

Construction Update #1

Work is underway at last! Here is what is going on so far:

• The slab floor has been cut for the plumbing. Guys are digging and pipes are being installed:
• The HVAC work is in progress, with ducts going up:
• The stairway to the upstairs offices has been rotated into its new position. This had to happen to get it out of the way of the entrance doors, which have now been installed. As of today, for the first time we have an enclosed space with doors that can be locked!
• The landlord has started replacing the clerestory windows. The first step in this process is removing the old windows and replacing them with gorgeous plywood sheeting. This does a good job of (temporarily) blocking the natural light. Even better, we have no lighting in the space right now, since the old lights have been taken down and our nice new ones have not yet been installed. We have work lighting to get us through this dark period.
• Eldorado's first truck arrived today and got unloaded. Here we see lots of bags of cement (for the wall texture), and the frames for the wall access doors (to get in behind the wall in a few places) on top. The initial Eldorado crew arrives on Monday to start putting stuff together!

Work Underway: Environmental Remediation

Before we can start building the climbing walls, there are a few things that need to be done in the space, including:

• erecting the demising walls and entrance/exit doors. I'm leasing a part of what is currently a much larger open space.
• rearranging electrical, ventilation/heating and lighting elements
• bringing proper plumbing service to the space
• painting the entire space, especially the wooden ceiling decking
• removing all asbestos materials

This last item is being done first. There are two sources of asbestos: insulation on the steam pipes, and some transite wall panels that were once exterior cladding before the south bay was added on to the building. I had the option of merely containing these materials, which would have been legal and safe, but given the construction to follow (with some risk of disturbing the asbestos), and a general preference to just make sure the facility is completely clear of all toxic materials, I've decided to go ahead with removal of it all. This is being done in partnership with Downsview Park, my landlord, who are also interested in doing the right thing on this issue. They have been more than fair in sharing the cost of this work, which (like many parts of this project) has turned out to be more expensive than first thought.

The removal is under way this week, and I find it very interesting. The removal workers have attached many glove bags to the steam pipes, which will be used to remove the asbestos insulation from around the pipe without any asbestos particles leaking out into the room. I find the sight of so many blue gloves dangling from the ceiling both a little creepy and very comical.