If you’re in the design and manufacturing business of large, and powerful industrial ceiling fans for factory and commercial use, you’re going to need someone to install those fans.
When installation occurs, you’re likely to run into a few issues if you don’t first locate rebar, post tension cable, and conduit within the slab. The material cost of these issues according to a recent study completed by Finch Brands, include:
- $10,000 worth of damage each time you hit a post tension cable
- $12,000 each time you damage electrical conduit or rebar
- Additional costs of downtime, reworks, and injuries caused, and damaged industry reputation
To avoid all those additional costs, headaches, and safety concerns, industry leading large diameter ceiling fan manufacturer, Big A** Fans, partnered with GPRS.
What is Big A** Fans?
Big A** Fans, was renamed from HVLS Fan Co, several years after its founding because customers kept calling to ask about “those big-A** fans,” which the company produces to cool large spaces that lack air conditioning such as factories and dairy barns. These fans, that range from 8 to 24 feet in diameter, use massive size, not speed, to cool large spaces and produce a comfortable work environment for employees.
As the organization, based out of Lexington, Kentucky, continued to grow and develop with customers located across the U.S., the need for a trustworthy, reliable, and nationwide concrete scanning partner arose.
Why The Need for Concrete Scanning?
As Big A** Fans continued to grow, their need for vendor consistency did also. Every time their fans were installed into a wall or ceiling consisting of concrete, there was a risk involved. Electrical conduit, rebar, and post tension lay on the other side of most slabs, which left a major safety risk to those core drilling or saw cutting into a wall or celling to install the new fans.
To help mitigate this risk during installation, a Partnership Plus™ agreement was executed between GPRS and Big A** Fans.
Partnership Plus™ is an exclusive agreement. It is reserved for partners who want to commit to GPRS’ industry-leading safety protocols regionally or nationwide while we help you solve whatever ground disturbance or infrastructure visualization problems you are facing. This is a partnership that provides exclusive benefits for GPRS partners that will be explained further in this article.
Why GPRS?
GPRS, is known for our nationwide, industry leading concrete scanning services. This paired very well with the team at Big A** Fans, as they desired a nationwide contractor to give them vendor consistency and accuracy across all their installation projects. Our team at GPRS, was tasked to mark out existing structural reinforcements before saw cutting or core drilling occurred into a wall or ceiling at each installation location across the entire U.S. This helped protect the install team and gave them peace of mind when saw cutting or core drilling occurred.
While on site, GPRS’ team of SIM-certified Project Managers were provided man lifts, scaffolding, or ladders as needed, and performed accurate concrete scanning services, equipped with the industries best technology, training, and methodology, through Subsurface Investigation Methodology (SIM). Ground penetrating radar equipment allowed our Project Managers in most of the projects located across the U.S. to scan locations that consisted of a 2’x2’ space on the ceiling, wall or beam. This ensured all existing reinforcements and utilities in the area were marked out and confirmed before drilling or sawing. The team at GPRS, provided our Green Box Guarantee on our concrete scans where applicable, to help ensure that all areas within the green box were clear of obstructions as shown in the images below. If not, we’d pay the material cost of the damage.
Benefits of Partnership Plus™ With GPRS
Not only did this type of nationwide, industry leading service benefit the team at Big A** Fans during all their fan installations, but also provided them many other benefits due to their Partnership Plus™ agreement with our team. Other key benefits that were provided to their team and are available to others interested expand far beyond just the peace of mind, safety, and time savings available. These can include:
- Preferred client rate freezes
- Nationwide coverage with 99.8% accuracy on over 500,000 jobs complete ensuring that you can expect the same GPRS quality on all projects regardless of time, scope, or location
- GPRS Rapid Response, means you’ll get priority scheduling over non-Partnership Plus™ projects so we get on site with you as quickly as possible
- A dedicated Account Manager to provide you a single point of contact for all project requests
- Biannual business reviews to enable continuous improvement of services
- Partners in Safety and Education through various GPRS Safety Initiatives
- Ground Disturbance Policy Collaboration with a SIM integration
- On site and in office trainings for customers and trade partners on GPRS’ marks.
To learn more about how you and your team can partner with our team at GPRS in Intelligently Visualizing The Built World® above and below ground, click below to schedule a service or request a quote today.
To learn more about how a Partnership Plus™ agreement could be just what your team needs to keep projects on budget, on time, and safe, fill out the form located on this page and one of our team members will be in touch with you shortly.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is GPRS Partnership Plus™?
GPRS Partnership Plus™ is an exclusive agreement. It is reserved for partners who want to commit to GPRS’ industry-leading safety protocols regionally or nationwide while we help you solve whatever ground disturbance or infrastructure visualization problems you are facing. This is a partnership that provides you exclusive benefits such as the ones listed above, additional safety events and biannual presentations to your crews, as well as high-priority business reviews with your local Business Development Manager. If you are serious about reducing damages, reworks, and budget overruns on your job sites and are looking for a dedicated team to work beside you as a trusted advisor and partner, then Partnership Plus is for you.
What Does the Green Box Guarantee Help Me?
The GPRS Green Box Guarantee allows you to accomplish four things: safety, efficiency, cost savings, clear communication.
1) Safety - helps to prevent potential life-threatening injuries and damages
2) Efficiency - prevents project delays
3) Cost savings - prevents costly repairs and unexpected change orders
4) Clear communication - before, during, and after the locate
These benefits work together to help enhance GPRS’ 99.8+% subsurface damage prevention rate.
