Early design assistance available

By Tara Loomis
Senior Structural Engineer

Are you getting started on a project and need some help with layout and design, while keeping value in mind? In recent years, a trend toward early integration of the design/build process has developed into what is now called design assist.

Mid-States Concrete is currently able to offer services to our customers – including layout, design, and value – as early as the schematic design phase, helping customers to keep their projects on-time, on-budget and on-target. These services are provided for you through our preconstruction department by Tara Loomis, senior structural engineer. Prior to Mid-States, Tara spent 20 years in the consulting engineering field, which exposed her to a wide variety of building materials and systems. Her vast work experiences make her uniquely qualified to evaluate your projects and propose the precast solution that best fits your project’s needs.

Getting Mid-States on board early, and working through early design phases together, aids in cost efficient element sizing and helps to limit issues during final design, saving you time and money. If drawings are already underway, we can review the drawings and provide any cost-saving comments to ensure an efficient and economical precast layout. If your project is not a total precast structure, we can help with how the entire structure will be framed, calculate loads, and aid in precast sizing that is critical at the time of design development, truly partnering with you to ensure the success of your project. Determining precast element sizing early saves on drawing modifications later. It also eliminates other issues that often arise when element heights change late in a project. Again, this early work can save time and money later.

Another area we can help is with precast details. If you are unsure which is the correct detail to use on a project, or which is most cost efficient, we are here to assist with drawing development and design. Tara can aid in things from building envelope solutions to advanced building efficiencies and performance, which allows clients to maximize investments in their buildings.

Tara’s technical experience, attention to detail, and knowledge of precast efficiencies gives her and the Mid-States team a valuable understanding of how to best support our customers, and ultimately help your project to be successful.

If you are interested in precast design assistance for a project, please contact Mid-States at sales@msprecast.com.

When should I order my precast?

Precast concrete is known for the speed at which it can be erected, but do you know when to order your precast concrete products to ensure you have them for your just in time delivery?

At Mid-States, our goal is to keep our customers’ projects on-time, on-budget, and on-target.  One way we do that is to learn what our customers’ goals are and then understand how our lead times could impact those goals. Internally, that means our team communicates daily about the production schedule, openings for production, and capacity, as well as projects we expect to be awarded in both the short-term and long-term that would impact the production schedule.

When approached about a potential project, the best we can provide is the current lead time at that point in time. However, if we anticipate lead times growing, we make sure to communicate that with our customers so they can make the decisions that are best for them.

Since many of our customers have used precast before, the importance of getting a spot in the schedule is something they are relatively familiar with. Mid-States will only hold production space for a customer once we have been awarded a project. However, when Mid-States is brought on to a project early, perhaps to help with design, we are able to track the timeline of a project, and are able to keep our customer apprised of what the production schedule looks like if they were to award us a contract at that time, versus two weeks from then (as an example).

Production time also varies greatly from product to product, depending on the projects we are working on at that time. While we are generally able to refer to our typical lead times on our beam, column and hollowcore product line, our wall panel schedule usually has a longer lead time.

All this being said, the earlier a customer brings Mid-States on as a project partner the better.  Knowing the construction industry is fluid, however, to ensure you have Mid-States Concrete precast around your desired delivery dates, we encourage an open line of communication leading up to the awarding of the project.

To see how we can help with your next project, contact us at sales@msprecast.com.