Prefabrication with Cold-Formed Steel Saves 14 Working Days Per Floor, and More

All photos courtesy PDM Constructors

PDM Constructors, North Wales, Pa., is an interior finishing contractor with large prefabrication operations. Last year, the 21-year-old firm was named MidAtlantic Specialty Contractor of the Year by Engineering News-Record.

“We have a lot of years in front of us, and we are working hard to make sure we stay at the forefront of how construction is accomplished,” says Craig Melograno, president of PDM Constructors, as quoted by ENR.

PDM Constructors ranks No. 10 on ENR’s most recent MidAtlantic Top Specialty Contractor list with $100.4 million in regional revenue. PDM Constructors has 450 employees, according to ENR, and provides carpentry, spray fireproofing, cold-formed steel (CFS) framing and prefabrication services.

PDM Constructors is manufacturing all interior wall panels for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia — improving the project’s construction schedule by 2 weeks per floor.

Saving 14 Days Per Floor

In 2020, PDM Constructors opened a 170,000 sq. ft. prefabrication facility. The facility is equipped, ENR says, with “new machinery for crafting millwork, manufacturing metal studs and track.”

Garnder says the machinery includes new roll-formers to create custom CFS studs and track as well as several CNC machines to fabricate drywall shapes and finish woodwork.

PDM Constructors is currently using its manufacturing expertise at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where it is manufacturing all the interior walls in its new factory.

“We coordinated with all the MEP trades to include in our manufacturing all their penetrations, and we provide for those when we manufacture the interior walls,” Tony Gardner, PDM Constructors director of sales and marketing, told BuildSteel. “This process has shaved off weeks from the project schedule.”

A PDM Constructors brochure says that CHOP will use 25,000 lbs. of CFS framing in its interior walls.  “By building [the walls] in our factory and shipping them to the project site, we are able to frame out one floor per night, saving the job 14 working days per floor,” the PDM brochure says.

A key benefit to this process is all of these walls are coordinated with the other trades for their penetrations in the field. This allows other trades to begin their work sooner and provides a significant acceleration of the construction timeline.

PDM Constructors’ factory-built, modular bathrooms called Durapods are framed with cold-formed steel. They’re speeding up construction for all the MEP trades.

Factory-Built, Modular Bathrooms

PDM Constructors’s offsite construction manufacturing services also include its factory-built, modular bathrooms called Durapods, which are framed with CFS studs.

Durapods are designed for large buildings such as hotels, hospitals and apartment complexes, a PDM Constructors brochure says. Melograno says Durapods are a response to the demands and pressures of 21st-century construction — time, efficiency, cost minimization and job-site safety.

According to ENR, PDM Constructors is supplying more than 130 Durapods, along with prefabricated drywall sections and customized CFS studs, for the new, $250-million Penn State Health Lancaster Medical Center in Philadelphia. The project is a joint venture with Alexander Building Construction Co.

PDM Constructors’s prefabrication expertise is particularly important for a major project such as the Lancaster medical facility, which is located in an area with limited craft labor resources.

“We knew we had to get creative to find ways to pull stages of the construction up sooner in the typical timeline,” says Stephen Lee, Alexander executive-in-charge. “That’s why we needed partners like PDM that had experience with prefabrication as well as the creativity to develop other solutions that would help this challenge. So far, they’ve met every expectation.”

PDM Constructors is using digital models, cold-formed steel and prefabrication processes in its work at the Live! Casino and Hotel underway in the Philadelphia Stadium District.

Prefabrication is the Future

Because PDM Constructors is established in the health care and entertainment sectors, Melograno feels it is well-positioned to navigate the uncertainties of the post-pandemic world, particularly as prefabrication concepts gain acceptance among GCs and owners.

“I expect not long after it is safe to do so, people will be longing for crowds and camaraderie through sports and casinos,” says Melograno. “Hospitals seem to have a long road of construction ahead of them as well.”