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Building recycling is a trend in the self-storage industry, and for good reason: it can reduce waste, create value and improve the atmosphere of urban and suburban environments, and it has economic significance. With the decrease in the number of suitable construction sites and the increase in land costs, owners and developers have wisely considered retrofitting existing vacant structures.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic will only increase the inventory of vacant buildings. In addition to excess warehouses and industrial structures, the shift from large-scale retail to online procurement also provides new opportunities. However, every restoration of an existing building involves challenges that require unique solutions. These usually only surface after the start of construction.

I recently participated in two such conversion projects. What follows is an overview of the case studies of the development of these self-storages, which do their best to verify the theory of Murphy's law, which states that "anything that can go wrong will go wrong."

The warehouses, offices and showrooms of the now-defunct Dubois Textiles Inc. are located on a busy boulevard in the industrial area of ​​Baltimore. It is located south of the city center, adjacent to the railway line. The site is attractive for self-storage due to its large footprint, adequate parking space, and location within half a mile of the entrance and exit ramps to Interstate 95 (I-95). This highway provides a transportation corridor between Baltimore and Washington, DC, from Florida to Massachusetts.

The 60-year-old complex consists of a 14-foot high warehouse, a complete basement with a ceiling height of 11 feet, a two-story showroom, and an office on the second floor. The developer requested 120,000 total square feet of usable self-storage space, but after analyzing the property, the contractor and I determined that it could not meet our needs. The ceiling is not high enough to add a second floor, and the pillars are not in a usable position.

The solution is to demolish the first concrete floor slab, which then becomes the roof of the basement. We propose to create a four-story self-service storage room by adding two floors and using the existing basement. The concrete columns in the basement are separated by 20 feet. Our engineers designed the new foundation and added additional columns to create a 10 x 10 foot grid. It will support the floor above and enable the floor slab on the first floor to reach a load capacity of 125 pounds per square foot.

There is water everywhere. When we bored holes for the new foundation before construction, the basement was dry, but accidentally bumped into the soil when we dig the foundation. We noticed that there were two large puddles a few feet below the slab, which contained water pumps. As the power supply was cut off, the water pump was no longer running, and water began to fill the foundation from an unknown source.

We believe that there must be a high groundwater level running under a part of the slab. We hired a geotechnical engineer, and he suggested that we dig out the soil and dig into dry soil. Even after we poured the foundation, water continued to seep from the edges of the new concrete. In the end, it flooded most of the basement floor.

The engineer then ordered a water test, and the surprising result was that it contained chlorine. This makes us suspect that the culprit is the leakage of aging urban infrastructure under the main road. Since the city has not responded to multiple requests for assistance, we need a solution. We decided to install more drains, dig an internal trench, and use redundant pumps and emergency generators to drain the water into the external pit. We finally controlled the flood, and today the basement is dry.

The two additional floors above the first floor slab were constructed using typical steel tube columns and 10-foot W8×10 beams, with a metal deck and 4.5-inch concrete slab spanning beams. The outer wall is made of insulated 3-inch metal plates. However, for the side of the building on the property boundary, the regulations require the rated use time of the wall to be three hours, so a 6-inch thick insulated metal plate must be used.

Neighbor issues. Unexpected water is not our only challenge. Although problems with neighbors are common, no one can predict the types of delays and additional costs we encounter. As I mentioned before, the property is adjacent to the railroad tracks. The sporadic traffic on the route includes slow-moving goods.

The exterior wall contractor, who worked on the wall along the property line, placed his scaffolding on the railroad land, keeping a reasonable distance from the track. The railway company raised objections and lodged a complaint. When the general contractor started negotiations, the siding contractor had to stop construction. Bureaucratic paperwork caused a two-week delay. Most importantly, the railway required the general contractor to hire a signalman who was instructed to stop working on the wall and evacuate all personnel from the area every time the train needed to pass. This arrangement resulted in an additional expenditure of US$17,000.

No two self-storage conversion projects are the same. Each one is unique, and architecture during the pandemic creates unparalleled challenges. Refurbishment usually requires immediate problem solving, but the project is a typical example of rethinking, redesigning and redoing.

The site consists of several buildings in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which were formerly a food processing plant. These structures were built in the 1960s and lasted for decades. Usually, it is a steel structure with a concrete slab floor. Taken together, the complex generates approximately 120,000 square feet of usable space. The plan calls for the demolition of the attached two-story brick structure, two silos and small outbuildings.

The exterior wall of the building is an earlier version of 6-inch insulated metal panels. I used a 40-foot-long, 13-foot-high brick wall and bricks as the side wall of the office. The metal wall was poorly repaired and was punctured by several 10 x 12 foot openings. Inside, the steel column structure is reasonable. There is no leak on the roof, but old pipes and HVAC equipment must be removed and penetrations must be repaired.

When I was hired, the owner was my general contractor and had already started demolition. He needs a set of construction documents to obtain a permit. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced a pandemic and Pennsylvania officials announced the suspension of all construction, unforeseen challenges arose. All construction activities were suspended for 90 days. Fortunately, I continued to work on the design and unit assembly because I had enough information to partially create the construction documents. However, all face-to-face communication with government officials ceased.

Scanning is not good. The owner provided a laser scan of the interior of the building by a company in New York. Although the price of $1,000 is a bargain, the scan results did not meet my requirements or the sprinkler subcontractor's requirements. Scanning at the highest possible resolution will produce the best results. When scanning a building, there should be no debris, boxes, furniture, etc. The best method is to scan the interior and exterior without performing on-site measurements. (External scans show elevation, wall thickness, and irregularities, such as walls "beyond plumb".)

I was able to import the scan results into my 3D design and modeling software, but the resolution was too low to accurately track the floor and structure. I had to measure it on the spot. Although all the toll booths on I-95 were closed and there was no food on the road, I went back and forth to the 150-mile construction site several times. In order to accurately measure the external height, I asked a worker to climb on the roof and put down the tape.

During the measurement, I found a space in the office that can accommodate two bathrooms and a meeting room. I also determined the distances of fire exits in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act to meet the regulations and requirements of disabled bathrooms, entrances and exits. I completed the plan and sent the drawings to the permit office for review by local inspectors/inspectors. The demolition continues during the permitting process.

More obstacles. While still undergoing demolition after obtaining permission, we found that exposed steel supports hindered some of the proposed self-storage units. It cannot be removed because it is structurally integrated. After many debates, our structural engineers were able to modify the brackets, which allowed us to continue installing corridors and doors.

The building is continuous, but the floor slabs are on several levels and made of different materials. To make them meet the requirements, we poured 3 inches of concrete cover.

As the demolition is still in progress, new problems continue to emerge. Unlike new self-storage buildings that proceed in the design, permit, and construction phases in sequence, the design and redesign of this type of project can usually continue until occupancy.

In this case, the owners are constantly making changes. At the end of the project, he wanted to install a new external passage to the basement. The change required a second fire exit, I provided a plan, but the concrete contractor installed it backwards. He tore it off and repainted it, and I continued to answer all requests for changes to the plan from the building inspector. Fortunately, he is a patient and understanding person.

As these two self-storage conversion projects demonstrate, problems can run between typical and unprecedented. Many can be corrected by creative solutions, while others depend on external forces beyond the control of the parties involved. As an unexpected predictor, one thing is very clear: Murphy is a visionary.

H. Edward Goldberg is a registered architect and president of HEGRA Architects Inc. in Baltimore. With more than 40 years of experience, he has designed self-storage projects in Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, DC. He has spoken at self-storage and design and construction industry conferences, and has written 14 books on architectural design computer software. For more information, please call 443.690.0403; email [email protection].

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