Log Building Manufacturer Re-builds From Fire

Log Home Manufacturer Rebuilds With Fabric Building

(PRWEB) August 9, 2003 -- In 1974 Rocky Mountain Log Homes was established and since it's inception it has helped thousands of new homeowners and entrepreneurs create their dreams. The Rocky Mountain manufacturing plant is located one hour outside of Missoula, Montana and employs nearly 100 people. As the worlds only log home facility utilizing robotics in manufacturing, the company has grown to become one of the largest manufacturers of log buildings in North America. Jim Schueler, owner and president of Rocky Mountain Log Homes, started the company to build secondary log homes, but as the company grew and the manufacturing process became more refined, the customer marketplace expanded. Today Rocky Mountain has played a part in hundreds of commercial building projects and successful developments. Restaurants, golf clubhouses, churches, libraries, motels, ski resorts, dude ranches ... the list goes on.

Recently the company suffered a manufacturing set back. A fire destroyed their manufacturing plant and all the equipment inside. The 12,400 square foot wood and steel structure, which had been up for years, took only a few hours to be completely destroyed by the ravages of fire. Fortunately no one was hurt by the disaster, but the blaze proved to be a pre-cautionary learning lesson for the company. "The biggest lesson we learned was not to consolidate all of our equipment in one building," says Scott Hagen, Rocky Mountain plant manager. "An electrical fault started the fire in the attic, so by the time we discovered the fire it was out of control. All of the equipment was destroyed, the total loss was in the range of one million dollars."

The company had to act quickly to get back into production; a long delay would greatly impact the company's bottom line. "Everyday is money. We needed a building quickly to get our manufacturing plant back into production," says Hagen. Over the span of four days, the Rocky Mountain Log Home executive team researched and made the decision to purchase a steel framed fabric covered building manufactured by Cover-All Building Systems from Bill and Michelle Abney of Cover-All Montana. "We've seen a number of these buildings around over the years," says Hagen. "The buildings are structurally sound and Cover-All Montana was able to deliver a building within a tight timeline."

Bill and Michelle Abney have been the Cover-All building representatives in Montana for over 4 years and have personally been responsible for the growth of Cover-All buildings in almost every industry imaginable. "We have constructed buildings for agricultural, road and salt storage, various commercial and industrial applications, riding arenas, ... you name the application and we've most likely have constructed a building for it," says Bill Abney. "Usually it's when a customer steps inside a Cover-All is when they begin to understand why the building is able to meet the building code requirements for the application and why Cover-All customers are so enthused. You can't help but be impressed. The structural design, the natural lit environment, and the clear span space always amazes people."

Another reason Rocky Mountain Log Homes chose a Cover-All building was for fire safety reasons. "A lot of our manufacturing equipment was destroyed by large falling objects as the building caved in. We didn't want a building that was going to contribute to a fire like our old manufacturing facility did," says Hagen. "The steel walls contained the fire, it became like a 'blast furnace' inside. The heat literally bent and melted one-inch thick steel. The only way to get at the fire was to pull away the outside steel on the sides of the building. The wood trusses of the roof actually contributed to the blaze and eventually caved in and crushed most of the equipment inside. What we discovered about the Cover-All buildings is that the fire retardant (polyethylene) fabric doesn't catch on fire; it simply melts away from the flame and extinguishes itself. It only stands to reason, that if a fire should break out in a Cover-All building, it will be easier to control and far less equipment damage should occur by falling debris. The roof won't be the problem," says Hagen.

What started off with the purchase of just one building resulted in the purchase of three Cover-All buildings. Within the span of three weeks a Cover-All TITAN series building and two Cover-All Utility buildings were ordered and delivered to the site. Install of the new 80 by 160 foot manufacturing facility took only 4 days. The dimensions of the two Utility buildings are 26 by 32 and 26 by 60. The 26 by 32 Utility building required some unique customization to house rounding machine equipment. The 26 by 60 Utility building is positioned in front of the TITAN manufacturing facility and covers a longer rounding machine and holding deck. All three buildings were installed on newly poured cement pads with in-floor radiant heating.

In the span of five weeks since the fire, Rocky Mountain Log Homes was back in production. "The change in our work environment is completely different, the natural light is a huge bonus," says Hagen. "In our old manufacturing facility, we had to use different forms of artificial light to see the grade of the logs, it was always difficult to judge if what we were seeing was accurate. In the Cover-All buildings, we have all this natural light, grading logs is no longer guess work."

It's kind of ironic that log buildings are being manufactured in a fabric covered building but for Rocky Mountain Log Homes, it was the ideal building solution. The large clear span space, the natural light and the ability to deliver and erect a building in a tight timeline made perfect business sense. Bill and Michelle Abney of Cover-All Montana were more than obliged to help!

For more information on Rocky Mountain Log Homes, visit their web site, www.rmlh.com. To contact Cover-All Montana call, (406) 449-6591 or 1-800-268-3768. For more information on Cover-All Building Systems, visit their web site, www.coverall.net.