Maintaining Facility Operations When It Matters Most
Acts of God, man-made accidents, existing building infrastructure conditions, or inclement weather can permanently impact operations of your business unless you safeguard your facility before a disaster strikes. Proactive preparation allows you to weather a disaster and recover from it more quickly while mitigating the cost to repair, identify, and cure damages and deficiencies and lessening the time required to resume facility operations. Revenue loss resulting from downtime, facility closure, or interruption of service – as well as safety and liability issues – can be avoided or minimized and often mean the difference between a thriving business and a defunct one.
It is critical to partner with a structural engineering firm that can prepare, respond to, and evaluate at the most critical times and during some of the most challenging situations. Building owners and facility managers who have a relationship with an engineering firm prior to a disaster occurring allow for a faster response time to assessments and property damage mitigation. Tamarack Grove Engineering brings a breadth of experience and national reach through a team of professionals experienced in providing solutions to a host of issues that can render a business inoperable or unsafe. This provides immense value to clients whose locations span coast to coast. TGE serves clients by providing a blanket of engineering planning, maintenance, repair, and restoration recommendations including planned facility maintenance, forensic investigations, facility assessments, and emergency response – all aimed at keeping businesses up and running safely and profitably after a disaster. It’s important for facility managers to foster a relationship with a structural engineer ahead of time so they have time to familiarize themselves with a building’s construction prior to a situation occurring.
Quick Response. When a non-life-threatening situation occurs, TGE can typically arrive onsite within two weeks of an event to create a responsive action plan. When life-safety issues impede a building’s operation TGE expedites response time to be onsite the next day to resolve operational threats quickly and efficiently.
“We respond quickly, both for safety and to keep operations up and running,” said Tamarack Grove Engineering's Doug Hardin, P.E.
TGE’s responsiveness was particularly critical after a call from a national grocery store chain client who reported a leak after a heavy snowstorm. The client requested an evaluation of the site and upon arrival, TGE staff noted an immediate pending roof failure. Their quick response and accurate assessment allowed the property’s evacuation and scheduled repair.
The Unexpected. You can aggressively maintain equipment, assess building conditions, and maintain systems, but you can’t always prevent the unexpected. Planning for the unexpected and creating a specific plan to help you recover is TGE’s specialty. For one retail auto client, a customer hit the gas rather than the brake and crashed into a service bay. TGE responded to assess and initiate the repairs needed for them to resume business as quickly as possible.
Weather Damage. Hurricanes, tornadoes, snow, rain, monsoons, and wind can negatively affect a business’s ability to operate. When devastating acts of nature result in significant property damage or operational shutdown for extended periods of time, it’s imperative to have a game plan in place prior to these situations. By having a pre-existing relationship with a structural engineering firm that knows and understands your buildings can drastically help with responsiveness. Don’t let events that you have no control over impact your bottom line — prepare in advance for the inevitable.
Natural Disasters. While natural disasters are rare, when they hit your business, they can cause substantial damage. For instance, earthquakes, fires, and flooding can impact not only your business but the community around you. TGE prepares a plan to address this potential possibility and minimize the overall effects on your business.
Existing Facilities. Not every operational shutdown is due to weather or a catastrophic event. Aging facilities can cause settlement issues like cracked slabs, parking lot/site drainage, and structural wall cracks that can render your facility unsafe and are expensive and timely to repair. TGE assesses existing facilities to proactively determine immediate repair action resulting in safer facilities for employees and customers while limiting future downtime.
Building Condition Assessments. Existing building condition assessments and as-built drawings reflect current conditions to assist in potential or future property acquisition. Knowing exactly what impediments may exist when redeveloping or selling your property helps you plan and budget for repairs.
Forensic Investigation. Forensic investigation is a chief tool adeptly applied by the TGE team when determining causes of structure failure – which can involve corporate liability as well as financial responsibility. A recent in-depth forensic investigation uncovered the causes of a failing slab that saved a client over $250,000 in repair costs and kept the business fully operational while quashing a pending lawsuit between the business owner and the property owner.
Ongoing Maintenance. It’s more economical and less disruptive to operations to maintain existing equipment such as HVAC, refrigeration, mechanical, etc. on a regular basis than to replace failing equipment. TGE offers ongoing maintenance assessments that can limit often cost-prohibitive one-off emergency repairs.
About Tamarack Grove Engineering
Tamarack Grove Engineering (TGE), a Boise, Idaho-based structural engineering and design firm specializing in the manufacturing, commercial, and facilities markets, serves clients throughout North America. TGE provides responsive, safe, and trusted engineering design solutions with the highest quality and integrity throughout the United States. The firm can help you prepare for the worst and recover quickly from a cataclysmic event, whether it be act of God, weather-related, or human error. For information, contact Tamarack Grove Engineering’s CEO Brian J. Sielaff, P.E., P.Eng.
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