Projects · Flathead Valley, MT

Brace Place Dental Office Framing

Framing for the Brace Place dental office, a commercial build for general contractor Compass Construction.

The building sheathed and roofed under a low gray sky, timber posts framing the entry, with two lifts parked in a yard churned to deep mud.

This was our second commercial project, framing the Brace Place dental office for Compass Construction. It turned out to be a good one to cut our teeth on for commercial work, even with the headaches along the way.

The drawings gave us more trouble than the actual framing. There were a number of discrepancies in the plans that took extra time to sort through before we could move forward with confidence. On top of that, it was a wet, warm winter, and the site stayed soft enough that we got equipment stuck more than once.

Despite the mud and the plan issues, the crew got the building framed and finished ahead of schedule. Compass Construction and the client were pleased with how it came together.

Challenges

Plans had a lot of discrepancies and were difficult to read, which slowed down layout and framing decisions. A wet, warm winter added moisture problems and got multiple pieces of equipment stuck on site, but the crew worked through it.

More photos

Looking down into the framed interior from a lift, every room laid out in stud walls across the deck, with parking lots and low commercial buildings beyond, all of it under snow.

Looking out past the forks of one lift at another standing axle-deep in mud and snow along the side of the building, with the mountains showing through the gap.

An aerial view straight down onto the framed building, every room laid out in stud walls inside green sheathed exterior walls, with roof trusses stacked on the snowy ground around it and a frozen pond beyond.

A telehandler sunk to its axle in churned mud with one of the crew at the controls and another crouched working on the ground beside it, the site fence running away behind.

Looking down from a lift across the framed interior with every room laid out in stud walls, green sheathing around the outside and a retail strip and parking lots across the snow beyond.

A long braced wall standing on the deck at dusk, push-sticks propped along its length and one of the crew walking away towards lights in the fog.

Looking out over the framed walls from above in flat evening light, the room layout running away below and a lit retail park across the snow on the horizon.

Roof trusses set across half the building with two of the crew working along them, a crane line hanging above and a boom lift raised to the eave, all of it on churned snow and mud.

Looking down the length of the finished truss roof from a lift, trusses fanning out over the green sheathed walls with a retail park and far mountains across the valley beyond.