Be Prepared
The 2000 construction season here in Ohio and other northern locations is all but over. This brief respite presents an excellent opportunity to effectively plan projects for 2001 and beyond.
Project owners and developers who prepare now will realize significant benefits over their counterparts that wait until next spring. Contractors are anxious to build backlogs and aggressively bid for work they can begin early in the year before the inevitable crunch hits in the late summer and fall months. Shorter lead times, better service, and lower costs can all be achieved by planning and ordering now.
We offer a full range of services to assist our customers throughout the planning phase of a project. On-site consultation with our staff from Canton or our representative, John Schussler, AAE, CCIM can be arranged to assist with site planning. John is about to complete six years and 2000 hours of construction time on his two seat Pulsar XP fiberglass composite homebuilt. He will cruise at 145 MPH with a 700 mile range from his home in Memphis to share his twenty years of airport development experience with our customers. He specializes in Airport Master Planning, Airport Leasing issues, including negotiations and financial planning for private development.
An important, but often overlooked stage of planning is a review of proposed construction details with local building code officials. Out engineering staff can work with those officials to clarify acceptable foundation construction, fire code requirements, etc. to minimize costly surprises and resulting change orders with contractors. Out staff can also write technical specifications and prepare CAD drawings for bid packages.
We encourage you to take advantage of these services now to effectively prepare for your next project.

Meet the Staff
Over the years, many of our customers have taken advantage of our factory-direct steel erection capabilities. Those who use our erection services once have found several reasons to demand our crews on subsequent jobs. A single-source for manufacture and installation of the hangar eliminates coordination and responsibility concerns for owners and developers of these projects. Our crew members are experienced erectors of our hangars and doors, which results in a more efficient and accurate installation. Most importantly, our customers know if a problem arises, our field personnel are available on short notice to make on-site adjustments.

Of course, these services can only be made available by having dedicated, hardworking individuals in the field. One such employee is Tom Carroll, who heads up one of our steel erection crews. Tom was born and raised along the Ohio River in Wetzel County, West Virginia where he developed his strong work ethic. Today, he and his wife, Connie, live on the Ohio side of the river on a 116 acre farm in Monroe County. Tom enjoys outdoors including; hunting, fishing, and especially raising a ruckus on his Honda three-wheeler.

Featured Project
The West Memphis Municipal Airport Authority, in Arkansas, is about to move aircraft into seventy new T-Hangars supplied by Fulfab. This project utilized two separate sites on the east side of the field. Five 12 unit Model LK42's were constructed along with one 10 unit Model LK48. All units feature our electrically-operated bifold doors, full-height interior partitioning and galvalume plus roofing. Our erection company, T-Corp, erected 275 tons of steel on this job in three hot and humid summer months under the direction of Tom Carroll. Frank A. Rogers & company of West Memphis was the General Contractor and Garver Engineers of Little Rock provided design services to the Authority. Lynda Avery, Operations Manager at the Airport, says pilots are anxious to move into their new accommodations. She has tenants for all seventy units and a waiting list for more. Linda is pleased with the installation and tells us the Arkansas Aeronautics Board visited the project and came away impressed.

Fire Separation Walls
One of the more complex issues we deal with in T-Hangar construction today involves the subject of fire separation walls. This is a complex issue because of the various building codes in force across the country.
The three major building codes are the BOCA National Building Code (BOCA), the Standard Building Code (SBC), and the Uniform Building Code (UBC). All of these codes have an occupancy classification and a construction type classification for T-Hangars. The new International Building Code (IBC), first published in the year 2000 and designed to bring uniformity to building codes, also has occupancy and construction type classifications.
All of these codes contain provisions for maximum allowable fire areas depending on the occupancy and construction type classifications. The allowable fire areas are as follows:
BOCA---14,400 sq. ft.
SBC----16,000 sq. ft.
UBC----12,000 sq. ft.
IBC-----17,500 sq. ft.

All four of these codes contain provisions to increase the allowable fire area depending on the frontage (clear space) around the building. The maximum possible area increases range from 75% for the IBC to 150% for BOCA.
While most building plan reviewers will check for compliance with one of the aforementioned codes, there is another building standard which may or may not be applicable. The National Fire Protection Association publishes a document known as NFPA 409, Standard On Aircraft Hangars. This document restricts the maximum fire areas to 12,000 square feet and has no provision for an allowable area increase. If the Fire Marshall is part of the plan review process, this standard will likely be the one that governs.
When fire separation walls are required, normally a two hour rated wall constructed of metal studs and Type X drywall is used. Typically these walls run from the floor to the underside of the roof sheeting.
Local code authorities always have the final say in interpreting the building codes. We are always available to provide whatever assistance we can in helping our customers obtain their building permits.

Maintenance Guide & Checklist

We recommend that you inspect and lubricate your Fulfab T-Hangars and bifold doors at regular six month intervals. Reproduced above is our maintenance checklist with procedures that should be performed on each bifold door hangar unit.

Each procedure is referenced on the checklist with a drawing number which will help you to locate the parts requiring your attention. We can provide copies of these drawings to you free of charge.

Any worn or damaged parts should be reported and replacement parts secured before the doors are used further. Fulfab maintains a complete stock of replacement parts.