Hal Collums Construction-New Orleans Renovation Contractor

Bi Part Sliding Pocket Doors with Simultaneous Opening & Closing

Nairne — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:47:24 +0000

Recently, estimating a kitchen in an old Uptown New Orleans home, a client asked me to look for hardware for pocket doors. It was not just any pocket door hardware, it was pretty specific and it took me a couple of hours to find it. Needless to say, there were blog posts but none listed the hardware information. I hope this information will help slice a couple of hours of searching for the next person.

The hardware was for bi-part sliding pocket doors to simultaneously open and close if one door was pushed or pulled. The idea was to make it so you do not have to close or open one then the other. After several calls around town, Angelo at Ricca Architectural Salvage http://www.riccasarchitecturalsales.com and Jay Seastrunk at Eskew Dumez + Ripple http://studioedr.com (coincidently found the desired hardware at the same time), handed me over to the HÄfele Hardware tomb. http://www.hafele.com/us/

Here are the HÄfele specifications:

Top Hung System HAWA – Symmetric 80/Z

for bi-parting sliding wood doors
smooth quiet operation
rattle free bottom glide
simultaneous opening and closing of bi-parting sliding doors
special two way suspension
vertically and laterally adjustable
door stop with adjustable retention spring
maximum door weight per leaf 176lbs or 80kg
minimum door thickness 1” or 26mm

Our Office Space Expansion

Grace — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:35:08 +0000

It is time for another office expansion here at Hal Collums Construction and Central City Millworks! It is our goal to create a more efficient workplace in order to best promote communication and increase productivity and staff morale. Our craftsman are working very quickly to finish the job so we can move in immediately.

Expansion in progress

Once the project is completed, our drafting and estimating department will have their own private office. Their job is very detailed oriented and they certainly need a quiet workspace. Central City Millworks will gain more space to better service walk-in customers. The additional space for Central City Millworks is really important because we seem to have walk-in customers for wood flooring, doors, windows, etc. on a daily basis. Our stockroom will also benefit from the expansion. Our inventory manager, Isaias Lopez, will be better able to optimize his stockroom inventory, thus creating an efficient method of inventory reporting.

We are very excited about the expansion of our New Orleans construction and millwork offices. Please feel free to stop by and take a look!

New stockroom in our New Orleans construction offices

Uptown New Orleans Cottage Renovation

Leah — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:45:38 +0000

In 2008, Hal Collums Construction completed a full renovation of a beautiful uptown cottage. The house, which was originally built in 1887, had been remodeled previously and had lost some of its original character. But thanks to a beautiful design, developed by Daniel Zangara at Peter Trapolin Architects, and innovative decoration by the owners, it turned out to be one of the most gorgeous homes we have ever worked on.

This house was featured in The Times Picayune’s Inside Out section last week. Check it out and you will be amazed by the transformation:

Hal Collums renovation in the Times Picayune

Thank you to Central City Millworks who completed all of the new millwork in the house.

Before...

...After!

Renovation of a New Orleans cottage.

Bathroom renovation

Greek Revival Renovation

Leah — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:37:22 +0000

Hal Collums Construction has recently completed a restoration of a beautiful historic home on St Charles Ave. The house which was built in 1861 is a great example of the Greek Revival style. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and even has a name – The Walker House.

Leah Glade - Project Manager

Working on a property of historic significance is always exciting for us, but it does present its own set of unique challenges. We must work closely with the architect and the Historic District Landmarks Commission (HDLC) to ensure that any changes made and any details added are true to the history of the house. Every detail, both interior and exterior, is important. For example, on this job we went through an extensive design process to ensure that the newly milled interior doors matched the original doors. The panels, casings, mullions, stiles and rails all were examined to make sure to be completely true to the originals.

We are very proud of this job and plan on posting additional blogs about it in the near future. In the meantime, please enjoy the following photos of a great New Orleans renovation.

Renovation of a grand New Orleans house

All marble bathroom

Completed double parlor

New Orleans stairwell

Open kitchen area

New Orleans Renovation – Art Gallery Expansion

TNevitt — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:16:19 +0000

In 2008, Hal Collums Construction began a project to expand an existing Julia Street gallery. The gallery project had an accelerated construction schedule due to its grand opening coordinating with the Prospect 1 city wide art exhibit in 2008. So from the start, there was no room in the schedule for any kind of delays. The project was also very labor intensive due to the amount of artistic materials used. The renovation included custom cabinetry (built in our New Orleans millworks shop), specialty art lighting, white stone counter tops, reclaimed heart pine beams for the entry, and one of a kind white resin flooring. Every portion of this New Orleans renovation had a color scheme of white to better accent the art being displayed.

The rear of the gallery has custom work spaces, art storage racks, as well as overhead storage for larger pieces of art. Even the doors are not a typical wood or metal. The two doors in the gallery were made of a custom resin material called 3-Form. We ended up using the left over 3-Form material from the doors to create a custom inset lighting in the opening connecting the two galleries.

Entrance to the gallery expansion

Since the project was being finished right before before the grand opening, the gallery owner had no choice but to start hanging some of the art during the remodel. The owners collection included a Dale Chihuly, which is a very large, hanging art sculpture made up of hundreds of pieces of hand blown glass. This a very heavy sculpture, and a special 1” threaded rod was used in the ceiling to install it. The artist himself had to send one of his assistants down from up north to assemble the sculpture. Working around this Chihuly sculpture during the finish of the renovation brought on a sense of real intensity that was just plain visible.

All in all this was a fabulous project. The finish was strong, and the deadline was met. Not one single install on this gallery was run of the mill. Every single piece took a decent amount of research to execute, especially the resin flooring. Several professional flooring consultants were hand selected to ensure the proper research, and procedure was in the hands of our project manager Thomas Nevitt III. With this information, Mr. Nevitt took all steps necessary to complete the project on time. Eight weeks of long, labor intensive days and countless hours of research helped Hal Collums Construction complete a great New Orleans renovation. We are so proud of the end result that we are posting large images below:

The view in from the front door

Looking towards the front door

Additional space/office

Combination of brick and sheetrock

Storage for prints

Custom cabinets from Central City Millworks

When the appliance is bigger than the door opening!

Bryon — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:03:21 +0000

An event this week reminded me of a crazy problem some friends of mine had several years ago when they relocated from New Orleans to a townhouse in Washington DC. Perry Bird, who was the Director of Christmas In October and his partner Richard Martin relocated to Washington DC, Perry had accepted a job with the National Christmas In July non-profit. I went to visit and see their cool Washington townhouse. “What a great place!” I said, “but why is the refrigerator in the Dining Room?” ” We can’t get the damn thing through any door! Our neighbors came over and we moved it around the block and tried to come through the back and through this door It won’t go in!” I thought that must have been comical since townhouse share their side wall, so to get to the back yard you literally have to go around the block! As I laughed Perry stated that the day they were doing it, there wasn’t much humor involved.

This week a similar situation happened to myself and a client while working on a renovation project here in New Orleans, but before we started moving the large Sub-Zero, Max Mendoza came up with a simple solution, we had some tight corners to clear, so after measuring and everything still looked too tight, Max replicated the large Sub-Zero using the cardboard from the box it came in, guiding the cardboard through the door openings and around the corners, we easily determined that one frame needed to be removed. This saved us so much back breaking moving of the refrigerator twice. I still picture Perry and friends circling the block with their side by side!

Hal Collums / Central City Millworks Recycles

Nairne — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:10:32 +0000

Here at Hal Collums Construction / Central City Millworks, we are trying to do our part to help out by recycling our saw dust. Sawdust is collected through vacuum systems around the mill and collected into a bin and then donated to the LA SPCA’s Rescue Ranch and other area horse barns. The Louisiana Rescue Ranch is run by Lori Wilson. Instead of bringing perfectly good sawdust to the landfill, we take it to be used as horse bedding. Generally, all wood shavings except for walnut, can be used as bedding. Please see attached photo’s of the Rescue Ranch.

Rare & Hard to Find Items

Nairne — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:05:20 +0000

Searching for those hard to find items like window sash weights, old doors, or shutters? You may want to try The Green Project, www.thegreenproject.org, located at 2831 Marais Street, on the corner of Press and Marais at the railroad tracks.

New Orleans Green Project

The Green Project carries a variety of donated items from doors, windows, shutters, window sash weights, door knobs, old glass, ironwork, and light fixtures just to name a few things! This not so little non-profit’s main goals are to keep usable building materials out of our landfills. Other places to find recycled building materials and other unique finds are:

Ricca, www.riccasarchitectural.com, located at 511 North Solomon in Mid-City
The Bank, www.thebankantiques.com, located at 1824 Felicity in Central City
The Habitat ReStore, www.habitat-nola.org, located at 2830 Royal Street, in the Bywater

Water Heaters – To use a tank or not!

Nairne — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:23:58 +0000

Sometimes places are too small to fit a tank water heater. This is when the tankless water heater comes in handy. There is a hierarchy with tankless water heaters, and below are some things to think about. Many thanks to Randy Deslatte of Metro Plumbing in New Orleans, LA.

Tank / Tankless Water Heater Options:

Comparison of water heaters - photo from moreheaters.com

Gas Tank
1. Venting: with galvanized double wall vent pipe out and above roof
2. Pro: Efficient, electricity goes out you still have hot water, recovery is better because it is making hot water as you use it industry standard, comes in all sizes, from a low boy to a tall tank.
3. Con: Requires space, prone to leak, you only get the amount of water in the tank, you have to have make up air to accommodate the carbon monoxide output so it needs venting unless in attic or outside garage
Electric Tank
1. Venting: requires no vent because no combustion, operating cost is more, water recovery is not as good
2. Pro: can fit in confined spaces
3. Con: can leak, if electricity goes out you do not have hot water
Interior Gas Tankless
1. Venting: requires double walled category 3 stainless pipes out and above roof
2. Pro: Most efficient, less space, endless hot water, no standing pilot (flame no on all the time). Only uses energy when you turn on the hot water, if electricity goes out you have hot water
3. Con: Clean once a year with vinegar solution to get calcium out requires pan in case of leak
Exterior Gas Tankless
1. Venting: no venting
2. Pro: Most efficient, less space, endless hot water, no standing pilot (flame no on all the time). Only uses energy when you turn on the hot water, if electricity goes out you have hot water
3. Con: Clean once a year with vinegar solution to get calcium out requires pan in case of leak
Electric Tankless
1. Venting: requires no venting
2. Pro: Good for single fixture point of use, not best for whole house
3. Con: Not the best option because it is an energy hog, but to those of you in electric only buildings with out boilers, this is a good bet if you do not have space for a tank. Power requirements are tremendous. Electricity goes out you have no hot water. Clean once a year with vinegar solution to get calcium out requires pan in case of leak

Gauge – Different for metal studs and rebar? YES!

Nairne — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:11:46 +0000

One of the first things I learned during my career in construction that has continually come up is the gauge of metal studs and the gauge of rebar. Gauge is a unit of measuring, and is completely different for metal studs and rebar!

Metal Studs

When gauge is applied to metal studs the lower the number the harder and stiffer and more load the stud can handle. The higher the number the softer the metal and the stud handles less load.

Thank you Long Supply Co for the image

Rebar

The word rebar is a combination of two words – reinforcing bar. Rebars are steel bars that have ribs and they are placed into a bed of concrete to reinforce the concrete. The ribs bind the bar to what it is planted in. The thicker the bar, the higher the gauge. The thinner the bar, the lower the gauge.

Synopsis for the quick reader.

When comparing 16 to 25 gauge metal studs:

Metal Stud that is 16 gauge is thicker. 16 gauge can handle more load.

Metal Stud that is 25 gauge is thinner. 25 gauge is the lightest or thinnest material available

When comparing 3 to 9 gauge rebar:

Rebar that is #3 gauge is 3/8” thick.

Rebar that is #9 gauge is 1” thick.