FLORIDA TILT, INC.
HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA

Zoning delays caused serious problems for the planned 200,000-square-foot Super Target Store in Miramar, Fla. Ray Cartaya, co-owner and director of construction for Miami-based Florida Tilt, says that the Target Corp., Minneapolis, doesn't put its projects out to bid--it selects and invites contractors to construct their buildings. In the state of Florida, for example, only three tilt-up contractors are allowed to build for Target stores, and they are kept busy. One consequence of this arrangement is that a delay on one project can cause delays on other scheduled projects. The problem for the Miramar store centered on the order for structural steel, which had to be placed well ahead of the expected permit issuance date. "If a building isn't ready for structural steel when it arrives, Target moves its steel subcontractor to another project and it could take as long as 6 months to get them back to complete this work," says Cartaya. So Target approached Florida Tilt, wondering if it was possible to make up for the time lost in the permitting process. "When your company motto is 'exceeding our client's expectations,' it's hard to say no," he said. "So we worked out a plan with the owner, and I agreed to serve as the project manager representing our company. Target agreed to pick up overtime and other costs related to the condensed schedule." The goal was to stay with the original opening date for the store. In order to achieve this, all of the subcontractors agreed to much tighter scheduling constraints and to working out the resulting coordination issues. Florida Tilt initiated a two-shift crew operation and started working 7 days a week. Its sister company, Florida Concrete, a pumping, placing, and finishing company, provided finishers and pumps 24 hrs a day for 28 days. The concrete producer, Adonel Concrete, Doral, Fla., provided concrete whenever it was needed--day or night. Even the city of Miramar got involved, agreeing to provide inspection service on demand, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Once an area was fine graded, Florida Tilt formed the slab and Florida Concrete started casting the floor, which was bulk-headed into five long strips. After the first strip was cast, Florida Tilt started constructing wall panel forms. Cartaya said that for a good portion of the job, excavation, grading, forming, placing concrete, and lifting panels were all happening at the same time. Constructing additional casting beds to speed up the construction of panels is a current trend in tilt-up work. Areas that will eventually be used for parking can be used for this purpose, but disposable casting beds are increasingly being used, too. To construct a casting slab, contractors typically fine grade an area using laser guided grading equipment and place a 3-inch thick-slab without reinforcement. When all the panels are cast, the concrete is removed and recycled. Florida Tilt used casting slabs for this project. To aid the work of other trades on a project, tilt-up contractors sometimes place panel braces on the outsides of walls. To accomplish this, weights or "dead men" are used to anchor the braces. On the Target project other trades needed access in the grocery section of the store, so Florida Tilt braced those panels on the outside. The finish flooring for Target stores is vinyl tile, which is impermeable to moisture transmission. The floor flatness ([F.sub.F]) specification is 35 (minimum local value) to avoid the appearance of ripples in the finished product. But the most significant issue is the moisture level in the floor at the time of the the installation. It's a significant problem for tilt-up construction because floors are cast before there is a roof to provide protection from rain. Under these conditions it's easy for water to run into control joints and saturate the bottom of a slab, increasing the time needed to reach the proper moisture level before finish flooring is installed. The use of an impermeable floor covering necessitated the use of a vapor barrier, which was placed directly under the concrete for this application. The fast track nature of the project helped because the floor slab was exposed to the possibility of rain for only 45 days, leaving approximately 45 days for the slab to achieve the proper moisture content (the slab was tested for moisture content before the finished floor covering was installed). Florida Tilt placed the last panel 31 days after they arrived on the jobsite, and then went on to do site work. By that time, ironworkers had already set 50% of the building's columns and 25% of the roof joists. Roofers followed immediately behind joist erection. Approximately 90 days after construction began, the building was turned over to the owner. Owner: Target Corporation, Minneapolis. It also provided the architecture and engineering for the project. Tilt-Up Contractor: Florida Tilt Inc., Miami. It also supplied the lift engineering for the project. At Florida Tilt Inc., our goal is not only to help you design and build your project, but to make the process easy and enjoyable for you. We are a full-service design/build company with a wide range of experience.