Sincerely, 

 

 It was an idyllic setting. A quaint New England town, a soothing brook running through the property, at times a wintry landscape with snow and ice on nearby trees. Sanford & Hawley, Inc., had a beautiful backdrop for its lumber and building materials location.

Sanford & Hawley, CT

 

And the community of Unionville, Connecticut, wanted to make sure it stayed that way.

 

That's why, when it came time to renovate the 126-year-old lumberyard, Sanford & Hawley chose Sunbelt. It was the perfect choice to uphold the integrity of the surroundings and satisfy the client at the same time.

 

Sunbelt Sales VP Clint Darnell explained the formidable task: "It was an irregularly shaped property, and there were tight architectural controls in the town. It was residential area with a historic house close by. There was a stream running through the facility. The grade had a one foot drop, and it was in a floodplain. We also had to connect to older buildings made of wood."

 

The project was a daunting job, but Sunbelt created a solution. "Once Sunbelt designed the building's structure, the overhangs and footprint, we provided a rendering to the town," Darnell said. "The town gave feedback. It needed to look more like a barn to keep that small-town Connecticut feel. An architect was working on exterior elevations, and we worked hand-in-hand with him to give the town something they would approve."

 

It might look like an old-fashioned barn on the outside, but on the inside, it's a state-of-the-art lumber and building materials storage facility. Sunbelt constructed a 195-foot long cantilever-supported, single-aisle drive-thru building. It is equipped with Sunbelt's own PowerBin automated lumber storage system, as well as a pallet rack system for drywall and palletized product storage, an A-frame rack system for moulding and trim storage, and mezzanine and catwalk access to upper bin levels. Sunbelt also provided layout and product slotting to maximize storage.   

 

 Sanford & Hawley President Bob Sanford said the renovation has transformed the business. "This has made us incredibly efficient for our customers," Sanford said. "We have a very thorough inventory of goods under one roof and the materials stay clean and dry."

 

Sanford said the layout of the building provides customers an easy in-out. "Our old building was like a maze, kind of a hodgepodge. Now, the customers drive through for pickup and the associates load in what they need." Sanford said the facility will help his future business, as well. "As the economy continues to recover, our employees will be able to serve more customers faster."

 

Sunbelt used two superintendents to oversee the project, one for the construction phase and one for the PowerBin and racking phase. Employees were trained on the rack system, so they could become skilled at loading the pigeonhole bins equipped with heavy rollers. Sanford called the system "efficient" and "labor-saving," and said, "It reduces the potential for employee injury, and because the forklift is loading for a shorter period of time, the free flow of traffic is greatly enhanced."

 

The PowerBin and the new Sunbelt structure also has saved Sanford & Hawley money. "We've had a dramatic decrease in spoilage of goods. Normally, wood has to be culled because it gets wet, sun-baked or weathered. But in a closed drive-thru building, that's not the case. We've had next to none."

 

Darnell spoke about working jointly on the project with a civil engineer and architect. "We were dealing with metal, steel and wood. We had to do different things to make them 'marry.'" Sanford said, "Sometimes we changed our minds a bit, but Sunbelt worked with us; it was a great collaborative process." Not only that, but it stayed within the budget. "I was utterly shocked and very pleased they did the project for what the estimate was," Sanford said.

 

Those closest to the project aren't the only ones who have branded it a success. Sanford & Hawley's building won a Home Building Industry (HOBI) award for the "Best Commercial Rehab/Adaptive Re-Use" from the Connecticut Home Builders Association. Joanne Carroll, the Publisher/Editor of Connecticut Builder magazine and producer of the awards told Sanford: "The judges were suitably impressed with the challenges you faced, and the manner in which you overcame them. The appealing result combines history with state-of-the-art technology."