Modular Buildings & Construction News

Ramtech has completed the installation phase on a new multiple classroom modular building for Mingo Valley Christian school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The 13,440 square foot facility will accommodate 150 middle and upper- school students in a building layout that includes ten instructional classrooms, two science labs, an art room, and administrative office space. The value-engineered facility includes an R-panel metal siding exterior with wall hung HVAC units zoned for maximum heating and cooling efficiency. Ramtech’s scope of work on-site included the setting of the building on a pad prepared by the school’s contractor, and the installation of the floor carpet after the school performs the bulk of the interior finish-out work. The manufacturing of the modular sections was completed in April, and the project is scheduled for completion prior to the start of school in August. (more…)

This week Ramtech is set to begin installing the buildings for the temporary elementary school campus we have constructed for Deweyville ISD.  This project was the result of the district’s needing to meet the challenge of relocating all of their elementary school students to their high school campus as a result of the Sabine River flooding that occurred in March of this year. The relocatable modular education project is a 36 month lease for 11 buildings. Ramtech finished the manufacturing of the final building at the end of last week. The first building to be installed is an 8,064 square foot eight classroom building.  This will be followed by a 6,272 square foot multipurpose facility which will include an administrative section for the elementary school staff and the District’s superintendent. The building will have nine offices and a reception area, four bathrooms, a large conference room, computer lab, and a library. The other buildings include a 5,120 square foot cafeteria with a full-service kitchen capable of accommodating 150 students, and eight portable classroom buildings. Ramtech is also working on developing an 11,410 square foot pre-engineered steel building which will provide gymnasium space and a maintenance garage. Ramtech will be responsible for all of the site preparation including the soil remediation and the installation of a lift station. Ramtech is scheduled to complete the modular portion of the project prior to the start of school at the end of August.

Ramtech is nearing completion on a large modular building project that we began last year for Humble ISD.  The $1.47 million project included 13 custom portable double-classroom buildings and a 8,820 square foot instructional life skills facility. To meet the aesthetic requirements of the local neighborhoods of the seven sites where the portable classroom buildings were installed, each were built with 20-year composition roofs that were installed at Ramtech’s outside corral. All of the buildings also have upgraded interiors which include birch wood grain paneling and special low VOC carpet. The life skills facility includes eight classrooms and to fully simulated apartments with kitchens and showers. There is also a conference room, three offices, and a teachers work room. All of the facilities were built to meet a 110 mile hour wind load specification and were procured through the Texas Buyboard network purchasing cooperative. Ramtech will finish installing the last portable classroom building for the project prior to the end of July and we plan to photograph the life skills facility for inclusion in our project portfolio prior to the start of the 2016-2017 school year.

 There has been a decision by the Texas Department of Insurance that directly impacts the use of portable classrooms by school districts in the fourteen counties that make up the coastal bend in south Texas.  This decision removes one of the most important aspects for using a portable classroom building, namely its ability to be portable and relocated economically. This decision is based on the strictest interpretation of the International Building Code by the Department of Insurance.  At the center of the issue is the lack of definition and thus acceptance of a building that uses a temporary foundation that does not conform to the established foundation requirements in the building code.  The code assumes that all buildings are permanent unless they are classified as temporary, which the code then specifies a limit of use to 180 days. (more…)

Ramtech announced this week that we have secured a contract for the design, manufacture, and installation of 17 modular buildings totaling 69,776 square feet for the West Independent School District in West, TX.  Ramtech will provide three 10-classroom buildings, four computer and science labs, two locker room buildings, an administrative office, cafeteria, library, and a life schools building that will be used by all grade levels as a replacement for the facilities damaged and destroyed by the massive fertilizer plant explosion that was located near the District’s schools on April 17, 2013.  All of the modular school buildings for the $2.5 million project will be leased through the Texas BuyBoard cooperative purchasing network.  West ISD plans to use the replacement buildings for up to two years or until new permanent facilities can be built.  (more…)

A massive fertilizer plant explosion and a succession of devastating tornadoes have recently damaged numerous residential, commercial, and public facilities in the Texas communities of West, Granbury, and Cleburne as well as the city of Moore, Oklahoma.  Entire neighborhoods including the local public schools have been severely affected, and in many cases totally destroyed. In every area, the issues associated with the rebuilding efforts will present many long term challenges.  Demolishing and clearing out the debris, determining where the reconstruction funds will come from, providing new design documents, permitting each new structure, and then completing the construction of new facilities will probably take from 3 to 5 years.  A major question then becomes, what do these cities and schools do in the interim?  (more…)

Organized as a charter school, Life School serves over 4,000 students at five locations around the Dallas, Texas area. When the school de­cided to expand their Oak Cliff area secondary school, they chose three 7,424 square foot eight-classroom modular buildings complete with connecting deck and ramp assem­blies. Purchased through the Texas Buyboard and built using traditional modular contruction, each facility includes a private office, restrooms, storage area, and individual class­rooms with a computer lab in the high school building. The buildings utilize nine wall-mounted HVAC units zoned for energy efficient heating and cooling, and include factory in­stalled 26-gauge R-panel metal sid­ing on the exterior, vinyl composition gypsum wall coverings, and durable high traffic carpet flooring. We went back out to visit the Oak Cliff campus and caught up with Shawn Thomas, Director of Operations for the Life School. Here’s what he had to say:

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Gary White is Vice President of Sales & Estimating at Ramtech Building Systems, Inc.  He has been in the commercial modular industry for 33 years and is responsible for the management of all sales and estimating efforts across each of Ramtech’s key market segments: Education, Government, Medical, and Commercial.