Frame for the future

D.A. Whitacre Construction Inc. started as a residential general contractor in 1978 and has evolved into a specialized framing contractor for commercial and industrial projects. Attention to detail and adding value keeps the company in work.

After one year in college, Don Whitacre decided construction was his calling. In 1978, he opted for a hammer instead of a backpack and hasn’t looked back since.

Whitacre, president and CEO of D.A. Whitacre Construction Inc., in El Cajon, California, started as an apprentice with a Colorado contractor doing ground-up construction jobs. After three years, he took a side trip of sorts – to Antarctica – to do construction there and to figure out what he really wanted to do with his life.

After his eight-month stint in the frozen tundra, he returned to his native area in San Diego and started pouring concrete foundations and framing residential homes.

Over the years, his business, which he operates with his brother Bill and wife Vicki, has changed dramatically. Today’s projects involve intensive, tightly scheduled commercial and industrial jobs that require more than a pneumatic nailer and a circular saw to complete. The firm employs more than 300 people, working on many prestigious projects in the San Diego area, ranging from award-winning SeaWorld exhibits to the Arco Olympic Training Center.

The firm’s work consists of 30 percent roof and floor structures for tilt-up buildings, 50 percent commercial, multi-story residential, church and assisted living centers, 10 percent commercial renovation work and 10 percent public projects.

Whitacre believes the company’s success stems from its ability to work closely with general contractors and as important, designers and engineers to complete projects on time and at best cost.

Commercial and industrial framing projects require more organization and attention to detail than residential framing work, says Whitacre, and he believes the company’s success lies in its ability to add value at the engineering phase of the project.

“Although we are a subcontractor on commercial and industrial jobs, we often work as closely with the engineers as the general contractor does,” he says.

“Rough framers are rarely called in on the design phase of a project, but we often work with design engineers to find the most cost-effective way of doing things. For example, engineers ask us which is the best type of structural and seismic hold-down to use in multi-story buildings. We have helped them understand that the lowest-cost item may be the most labor-intensive to install. Lowest cost is not always the best cost.”

Eye on safe work practices
Whitacre’s first interest is in crew safety, and fall protection continues to get greater emphasis. Under new California OSHA rules, a fall protection plan must be implemented to protect workers. The new regulation allows the agency to implement a multi-employer citation where all contractors on the jobsite with workers exposed to hazards can be fined. “If a jobsite gets cited for a fall hazard or accident, the contractor that created the hazard, subcontractors with workers exposed to the hazard and the general contractor, which is the controlling contractor, can all be fined. It behooves us to have a complete fall protection program on the site,” says Whitacre.

Increasingly, Whitacre says contractors are addressing fall protection at the front end of the project. “It used to be that everyone would chip in to cover it as construction continued. Now it’s planned for under the general contractor up-front,” he says.

D.A. Whitacre workers go through a training program if they will work at heights greater than 7’. “They must be certified to work off the deck,” Whitacre says. Workers purchase their own safety harnesses at a substantial discount through Whitacre’s supplier. “We want them to have a financial stake in the equipment, but not so much that it’s a financial burden.”

D.A. Whitacre’s enforcement policy for fall protection and other safety violations is straightforward and fair. “We have a series of increasingly serious citations for workers. The first offense is a verbal warning; second is a written warning; third is a day off without pay, and the final step is dismissal,” Whitacre says.

“For us to be successful, safety is our No. 1 priority, followed by schedule and profit. We find that most injuries happen when workers feel the pressure of a schedule and cut corners on safety. If we can plan correctly so workers aren’t rushed beyond their limits, safety becomes a much more manageable issue.”

Project showcase: Rebuilding Hotel del Coronado luxury from the inside out
Renovating a five-story century-old building can bring on distinct challenges. Keeping the facility operational throughout the process adds layers of complexity to an already difficult project.

When D.A. Whitacre worked with general contractor Swinerton Builders to renovate the 116-year-old luxury Hotel del Coronado, they knew they would face these challenges, plus many more as the project progressed.

As the framing contractor on the recently completed $21 million project, its job was to structurally rebuild this wood, five-story, 389-room Victorian hotel from the inside out.

“From a subcontractor point of view, a renovation job is more risky. It depends on how well the project is managed. On new construction, you may see 25 to 50 change orders. On the Hotel del project, we saw nearly 250 change orders. To accomplish the job with that many change orders, it takes good problem-solving skills from the owner’s representative, general contractor, architect, engineer and subcontractors. It really takes a partnership philosophy to make it work,” he says.

The hotel’s foundation is built on sandy Coronado Island which is just west of San Diego. Settling over the years has taken its toll. “The building was in good shape but there is hardly a square or plumb wall in the place,” says Kip Brandt, D.A. Whitacre’s framing foreman on the project. “Trying to square up the walls would be impossible and would ruin the fine woodwork throughout the building. As we started demolition, we worked closely with the structural engineer who stayed onsite throughout the project. Some of the situations were impossible to predict until we got into the work. Remodeling over the years caused their own sets of problems. We were constantly figuring out ways to fix problems we uncovered,” Brandt says.

To stabilize the building, the foundation was excavated and reinforced with buttress walls and grade beams. A steel frame was built into the 13,500 sq. ft. Crown Room, which has a 33'-high ceiling covered with tongue-and-groove, rib-vaulted pine paneling. The steel relieves the pressure of the wide spans, which was slowly pushing the walls out. The Grand Ballroom was renovated in the same way.

Installing the steel frame in the expansive Crown Room had its own challenges. The roof was entirely removed and over 3,500 pieces of the beautiful wood paneling had to be numbered and removed piece by piece. Due to space constraints, the steel frame was assembled offsite, then installed using a 180-ton crane with a 195' boom. A 52.5-ton HVAC unit was also installed before the roof was put back in place. Only then was the restored paneling put back in place just as it had been before the renovation.

In other parts of the hotel, the floors were pulled up, structural beams were installed to reinforce and tie the building together from the foundation to the roof, then resheathed and refinished to match the hotel’s Victorian style. “This was done on every floor. We encountered some beautiful wood; we found 8"x16" beams 40' long without any knots,” he says.

To match the old lumber’s dimensions, crews used rough lumber and any salvaged wood from remodeled areas. Over 250,000 bd. ft. of new lumber and 4,000 cu. yd. of concrete were used in the upgrade.

In basement shopping areas and other key locations, steel moment frames and plywood shear diaphragms tie the building together to meet seismic requirements.

To attach the building’s frame to the beefed-up foundation, the crews had to work in very tight quarters, installing universal foundation plates that fastened the side of the sill plate to the side of the foundation. “We were working in the bowels of the building in some very tight areas. The Simpson plates made the work possible,” he says.

“We had no laydown area on the site, so materials had to come off the truck right onto the job. With only one construction elevator on the outside of the building, all materials had to come into the building through it. We worked closely with suppliers to time deliveries on an as-needed basis,” he says.

Throughout the upgrade, the hotel remained open. “We could start work only after 8 a.m. to minimize disturbing guests. Every day, we adjusted our schedule to accommodate events taking place at the hotel. Plus, we had to stay on schedule to keep the amount of time areas would be out of service to a bare minimum,” recalls Brandt.

Today, the renovation is finished and by Brandt’s estimates, the Hotel Del will last another 100 years.

Project showcase: City Walk no walk in the park
D.A. Whitacre has a lead role in the development of City Walk, a five-story, city-block residential project in the heart of downtown San Diego. The all wood-frame complex will provide 109 high-end living spaces to help meet the growing demand for downtown housing. D.A. Whitacre crews are completing the rough framing work.

“On this job, it’s all logistics. This is a project going up without any staging area on site,” says Jeremy Vitale, jobsite foreman. “We must closely coordinate deliveries so material comes off the truck and right to the spot where it’s needed. We even work with vendors so the material comes in on the trucks staged in the order we need them.” A tower crane makes precise material placement possible and efficient.

Because of the tight space, Vitale gets daily material deliveries, as opposed to other jobs where materials arrive weekly or all at once. “The schedule is a challenge. You must think at least a week in advance and make sure the crews are on schedule,” he says.

The luxury condominium is being built in five sections, with the first section nearing completion. “This project has 17 different floor plans and no section is like another section. You must watch the plans closely and stay on top of every step,” he says.

The project uses all TJI joists and laminate beams. Studs used on the first two floors are engineered lumber. “We need the laminated studs because of the strength needed to hold up the five floors above,” he says. They routinely cut the laminates with a chain saw or a 16" radial-arm saw with a carbide-tipped blade.

“We’ve been using the new Paslode Positive Placement nail guns to fasten the straps and hardware to the laminates,” he says. The tool’s nose probe accurately locates the strap or hardware hole and guides the fastener as it drives it into the workpiece. It shoots heat-treated nails that are less likely to bend and ricochet, especially in laminates.

Published in the July/August 2002 issue of Contractor Tools and Supplies magazine.

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