Martin Horn Installs Sprinkler System at Charlottesville High School

There are a few short weeks every summer when schools are completely emptied of students and their teachers. For Charlottesville High School, this is the only time to accomplish all of the maintenance and renovations needed for the school. This summer, CHS needed to install a new sprinkler system and implement new fire protection zones. Facilities Development project manager, Tim Breitenbach, worried that this would be “the project that nobody would touch” due to the constrained timeline. Martin Horn was up to the challenge!

Before the end of the 2015 school year, Martin Horn was on-site, unobtrusively investigating, designing, and obtaining engineering approval to prepare for the demolition, construction and fabrication work. Once CHS became available for the summer, Martin Horn crews mobilized immediately. To ensure the work would be completed in nine weeks for the start of the 2016 school year, Martin Horn partnered with two excellent sprinkler subcontractors: Liberty Fire Solutions and Virginia Sprinkler Company. Crews from Martin Horn worked in front of the sprinkler companies opening ceilings, and followed right on their heels closing the ceilings back up. Diggs and Design Electric were also on hand to provide connections to the water line and wire the sprinkler alarms, respectively.

By the end of the summer, 1,250 sprinkler heads were installed, over a mile of pipe was laid, and two holes were cut through the building and patched back. Breitenbach attributes the efficient completion of the project to “an excellent plan, on-site supervision who carefully managed the work and the schedule, and project management that placed resources where needed at the right times. . . . Martin Horn’s project management team is among the sharpest that [he had] ever worked with.” Even the Fire Marshall was pleased with the quality of the work, which he approved without exception. Thanks to Jeff Sims, “Dolf” Mendicino, Ryan Tarkington, along with subcontractors, Virginia Sprinkler Company, Liberty Fire, Design Electric, and Diggs, a top-quality sprinkler installation was completed safely and ahead of a very demanding schedule, just in time for the team at CHS to shine the floors and the teachers to decorate their rooms. Much to the students’ chagrin, no school time was missed.