Salem Arbys Project – 2007

BEFORE.

Your basic aluminum sliding window. Not unlike what you would find in a home.

AFTER.

You might not think that the difference between reaching up and manually opening the window as…

BEFORE.

…compared to the window opening-up automatically would translate into that much savings in…

AFTER.

…time, and thus money, but when they say FAST FOOD, they apparently want it “dispersed” as fast as the food is made.

Keizer Arbys Project – 2009

BEFORE.

As you can see, this opening had to be widened to accommodate the new window.

AFTER.

BEFORE.

If you look closely at the interior after-shots, you’ll see a BAR of sorts beneath the operable window.

AFTER.

The ends of the bar have motion-sensors. When an employee steps between those sensors, the window slides open automatically.

Unless we’re in the drive-through fast food business…

…it’s probably difficult for most of us to realize how much time, and thus money can be saved simply by eliminating the need…

…for an employee at the drive-through window to have to reach up and manually slide it open. And then to close it, as is…

…probably required by those governing the food service industry to keep the food preparation area separated from exterior contaminants.

Thus it is that most of the drive-through business has converted to automated windows.

Now days, an employee need only move close enough to the window to trip a motion-sensor that triggers a motor…

…to automatically open the window for them as they lean out with the food already in hand. Step away from the window, and it…

…automatically closes. For us, the greatest challenge installing one of these units, assuming it’s ordered to the correct specifications is…

…dealing with cosmetic issues related to the footprint of the original window assembly. That’s where the techniques we’ve developed over the…

…past several decades comes into play so that the installation doesn’t look like an afterthought.

Gresham Arby’s – 2009

BEFORE.

AFTER.

BEFORE

AFTER.

Lake Oswego Arby’s – 2006

Not exactly certain what happened to the “BEFORE” shots on this project, but we were unable to locate any.

But of all the ARBY’S automated windows we installed, this was the only one that wasn’t RED. This was also the only automated window that employed the use of a more traditional motion-sensor mounted up on the wall above the window.

We also installed an automated window at the “Aloha” Arby’s in 2007, but they have since ceased to exist, so we were unable to go back & acquire some AFTER SHOTS for this portfolio. As you may or may not have noticed with all these Arby’s projects, each building was…

…constructed differently. Some had stucco siding, some brick & some wood construction. The interior finish materials varied as well. The point being that we can contend with all the potential variables, including rebuilding the opening, if needed, as we did at the Keizer location.

It’s not unusual for our company to be called upon to install doors and windows…

…spec’d out and ordered by a general contractor on a job we weren’t even initially a part of.

The most important reason for this might be said to be having to do with all the lawsuits related to products…

…not properly installed and flashed, and the consequential water damage that has occurred.

Besides the benefit of nearly 3 decades of experience, we’ve been formally trained by a number of the largest door & window manufacturers.

We’ve also taken the Installation Masters certification training, although we found that to be much ado about nothing.

The three most common problems related to acrylic domed or flat skylights…

…some sort of impact, such as a tree limb falling off a tree during a wind-storm…

…which isn’t extremely common, but we’ve seen it. Number two is that acrylic…

…seems to grow brittle from the effects of the ultra-violet rays from the sun & begins to crack.

And number three is that the glazing may fail at some point.

Any of these three scenarios can and often does result in water penetration.

Understandably, this is when we are called upon…

…to apply our expertise, such as Brandon, our technician did here.

The American Plaza Towers Complex in Southwest Portland with an indoor swimming facility built in the 1960’s that incorporated the use of natural light.

All the glass in these picture windows had failed and the windows on one side of the bump-up had begun to leak at some point in time, rotting the wall beneath.

This, and the fact that washing these windows from the interior side was near on impossible, all culminated in the powers-that-be investigating the possibility…

…of having the windows replaced with an operable product that would allow cleaning both interior and exterior sides from the roof.

You might click on the photo to get a better view of the elaborate scaffold we had to come up with to span over the pool. Back to cleaning the windows, the only type of window that fit that bill once all the factors were considered, was an out-swing hopper window.

You might say an awning window would work, but you’d just about need to pretty much lie on your back on the roof to wash the interior side on an awning window, given the proximity of these openings to the roof.

Of course, one of the obstacles we ran into was the fact that nobody made an out-swing hopper window.

So we purchased Milgard Aluminum Awning windows and turned them upside down. We came up with our own latching system for use on the exterior. Interior latches would of course, have served no useful purpose.

We field prepped the windows for a weep-hole system in what was originally the top of the windows, now of course serving as the bottom, and we installed overhead drip-caps to deflect wind-driven moisture from gaining access at the top of these windows turned upside down.

Milgard’s sizing constraints necessitated that each array of sash consist of twice as many sash or glass-units as was original.

The National Building Codes demand fire vents for most industrial buildings. Fire officials know that smoke…

…is the deadliest part of a fire. That’s why Section 910 of the International Fire Code mandates the use of…

…automatic smoke control systems in high-piled storage facilities and in most one-story buildings greater…

…than 50,000 square feet. Smoke vents eliminate the need to cut holes in the roof.

One of the first things firefighters do when they arrive at a fire is cut holes in the roof.

Smoke vents automatically open to vent toxic smoke and gases, reduce flashback and lower the building’s internal…

…temperature. Firemen can get into buildings faster to attack the firebase directly.

Apparently, someone at some point in time built these custom brackets (on the right) that subverted the fusible-link system on the original smoke hatches.

These are what the fusible-link devices look like on the new smoke hatches. When the link is broken from intense heat, it releases the spring loaded roller arm to open the hatch automatically.

This was a building in N.E. Portland used to broadcast a television station (Trinity Broadcasting) some years ago. They wanted, or were required to have an entry that met A.D.A. specifications.

This aluminum ramp system is pre-manufactured by Pemko Mfg. Co.. You need only do your math correctly as it relates to the height of the incline to be achieved and the consequential distance required to meet ADA rate of incline, and order the components accordingly from Pemkos Modular Ramp Assemblies. The various components are then cut to length as needed and fastened in place. As you can probably see, the installation of this wheelchair ramp required that the door be cut and a Pemko 216AV door bottom shoe installed.

West Linn Business on Hwy. 43.

Relatively early Aluminum Glass Storefront Doors…

…as typified by single-pane glass & non-thermally-broken doors and jambs.

These particular sets of doors did allow for a Pile Weatherstrip down between the sets of doors…

…though some of it was missing while that which remained had long since been rendered ineffective.

But these Aluminum Doors never did have any weather-stripping on the bottoms.

Such was the lack of concern when oil and other energy sources were considerably less expensive.

Fortunately, we do still have the wherewithal to replace and/or modify the various…

…types of weather-stripping needs that even the oldest of doors and windows may have.

Which is what we did on these doors, including the provision & installation of these Brush Type Door-Bottom Sweeps.

The North Community Policing Center. The Portland Police Bureau, originally named the Portland Metropolitan Police Force, was established in 1870 by the Portland City Council. The Council appointed Phillip Saunders as its first chief of police, in charge of a force with six patrolmen and one lieutenant, at a time when the population of Portland was 9,000.

The first member of the force to die in the line of duty was Officer Charles F. Schoppe, who was shot to death in 1874 while trying to disarm a drunken saloon patron. On April 1, 1908, the bureau became the first in the United States to hire a female police officer, Lola Baldwin, who became the Superintendent of its newly established Women’s Protective Division.

In 1915, the “Metropolitan Police Force” changes its name to the Bureau of Police. Four years later, the bureau becomes the first in the USA to use a police radio. Sybil Plumlee, also considered to be a pioneer in the field, served in the Women’s Protective Division from 1947 to 1967. In 1985, Penny Harrington becomes…

…Portland’s first female chief of police, and the first to head a major U.S. police department.
— Wikipedia
The object of our attention here today pertains to a double-entry set of hollow-metal steel doors with bulletproof glass in them shown here in the main entry. These doors are extremely heavy. Probably in excess of 300lbs each.

It seems likely that the weight has somehow played into the through-bolts, (A.K.A. sex-bolts) that hold the bottom-latch of this Von Duprin Model 35 vertical-rod panic device…to pull right through the door, leaving a fairly large gaping hole.

There is no longer any material into which to fasten the latch to this spot on the door by means of your stereotypical fastener.

And so it is that we decide to WELD the bracket to the door. After making several stabs at finding a viable way to clamp the bracket to the door, success is achieved.

The type of continuous-hinge on these doors (A.K.A. a piano-hinges), as well as the weight of the door,…

…makes removing the door less than practical.

So the work is performed on-site with the door still hanging.