Posts

Renovation can Give Your Commercial Facility a New Lease on Life

/in /by

After a commercial facility has seen decades of service and is showing its age, it’s natural for the owners to consider whether the best path forward might be to construct a new building.

This is a decision that shouldn’t be made lightly. It can be more cost-effective to update and renovate the existing space rather than going through the expense of locating and purchasing new property and then constructing a new building. The experts at Leon Williams Contractors, a Maryville construction firm, have decades of experience working with business owners to find the most efficient and affordable solutions for their facility needs.

Take Stock

The choice to renovate or build a new facility starts by evaluating the current property and the needs of the business. Do you need expanded space or to just refresh the facility or tweak the layout for more efficiency?

Whatever the condition of the facility and the property it currently occupies, Leon Williams Contractors can perform a comprehensive site assessment to provide the information needed to prevent unexpected expenses during a building project.

For example, if the space doesn’t meet current building codes, necessary improvements will have to be factored into the plans. It’s more economical to address those concerns up front than in the middle of a construction project.

Another question is what is the state of the building’s mechanical systems? They might be in good enough shape to continue serving the space for years longer, but an investment in new systems can pay for itself in reduced long-term operating costs. The Leon Williams team will talk facility owners through all of their options, identifying possible cost savings and providing the insight to avoid surprises during the building process.

We Can Help

Since 1964, Leon Williams Contractors has been designing and building commercial facilities throughout East Tennessee. Ready to learn how we can help? Visit www.lwcontractorstn.com or call (865) 982-1734.

Foothills Church

Giving Your Old Sanctuary a New Lease on Life

/in /by

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, East Tennessee’s churches have continued to share the light with their communities, even if it’s been online or by video conferencing. But as social distancing requirements fade away, churches will become places of fellowship once again.Foothills Church

All that said, the economic effects of the pandemic might hang around for some time, so when church facilities start showing their age, new construction might not be financially feasible for cash-strapped congregations. That’s where Leon Williams Contractors, a Maryville construction company, can help.

We have decades of experience renovating church facilities. Through preconstruction planning, our experts can help congregations understand their facility needs and what sort of renovations are within their budgets.

Helping Out

Our goal is assisting our faith-based clients in finding the sweet spot between expense and value. We offer pre-construction consultations, site assessments, value engineering and other services to help congregations mitigate costs. Working closely with a design team, our hands-on experts will find and implement the most cost-effective solutions to meet the needs of growing congregations through internal renovations or expanding existing facilities. The Leon Williams team will work closely with the project designer and all stakeholders to ensure smooth communication and no surprises.

The purpose of value engineering is to approach every project with a fresh eye to evaluate the use of materials, reduce waste and avoid excessive expenditures. This could involve swapping out fixtures or features that might result in added costs with little to no benefit.

Communities of faith matter to us here at Leon Williams Contractors. We take pride in helping give congregations the facilities they need to thrive and grow. To learn how we can assist in your next church renovation or construction project, visit www.lwcontractorstn.com or call (865) 982-1734.

 

Leon Williams Helped Create a New Landmark

/in /by

East Tennessee is proud of its history, and Leon Williams Contractors, a Maryville construction company, is proud to partner with local governments to create structures that honor that history.

We recently a completed a new 3,200-square-foot city hall in Etowah, Tennessee.  It’s on Tennessee Avenue, adjacent to the historic L&N Depot, a 114-year-old state landmark. We built the new one-story building to complement the depot, which currently houses the Etowah Chamber of Commerce and a railroad museum. The depot has been a centerpiece for the city, serving as a facility for public and private events, and is now paired with the city hall.

For the past few years, Etowah’s city government had been renting offices in a building north of downtown. That was after moving out of a space in the city’s Carnegie Library.

Now, the city boasts a great new building that replaces a vacant lot, complements the L&N Depot and supplements the historic character of the downtown area. We’re glad to give the city employees an excellent new workspace and to provide city residents with an attractive municipal building to be proud of.

We Can Help

At Leon Williams, we have a long history of working with governmental bodies and educational systems to create high-quality spaces. We’ll work with your organization to refine the scope of work and develop a reasonable and accurate budget ahead of time. Our experts will help identify potential cost savings in the design, materials and infrastructure.

We pride ourselves on our communication with stakeholders. We’ll make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to goals, timelines and expectations before a project begins. We also provide site assessment services to help avoid nasty surprises that require additional work after the fact, preventing expensive work delays.

For more information about Leon Williams Contractors, visit www.lwcontractorstn.com or call (865) 982-1734.

Value engineering can help your church build a new home.

How Value Engineering Can Help Your Church Build More with Less

/in /by

While the economy is strong, it is not uncommon for construction pricing to come in higher than desired.  One solution is a concept referred to as Value Engineering.  The Maryville construction experts at Leon Williams have three decades of experience working for our faith-based clients, and we’re proud to put that to work for you.

Value engineering can help your church build a new home.

Value Engineering Helps Communicate Value and Avoid Conflict

When it’s time for a church to start a new building project, the road to actually realizing that vision can be long and difficult to maneuver. If it’s time to expand, it can be difficult to align your congregation behind a single solution. Should you build a new building? Buy a larger one? Renovate what you’ve got?

Even just getting internal groups, like church councils, to sign off on a new project can be difficult, and often takes a strong value proposition and well-communicated goals.

One of the best ways church leaders can provide responsible returns on their congregation’s investment in the Kingdom and create buildings that can meet the needs of their church well into the future is value engineering.

What Is Value Engineering?

Value engineering is a way of thinking about construction that makes larger projects easier and more affordable, without compromising on quality. Value engineering takes a holistic view of client needs and construction realities, giving church leaders a bird’s eye view of their project and direct lines of communication with the design and engineering teams. Designers, engineers, contractors, material suppliers, and church leaders tackle problems as a group, shrinking budget overruns and reducing construction time.

By balancing the work a structure needs to perform with the price of that structure over its lifespan, value engineering gives us the opportunity to deliver on a client’s goals on-budget while meeting functional needs.

Here are a few ways we engineer for value:

  1. Comparing different structure types or materials to make them more affordable to purchase and easier to construct.
  2. Altering the project finishes and fixtures to provide economical quality based on client requirements.
  3. Locating pain points and adding features that can address or eliminate them.
  4. Removing planned features that would impede usability or result in added costs and lead times with little benefit.

How Can Value Engineering Help My Church?

Choosing to build a new worship hall or classroom wing can be a big decision, and not everyone will be on the same page with the final product. When embarking on that project, you need to be sure you’re getting what’s best for your congregation. Value engineering helps church leaders gain the approval they need by exercising due diligence on behalf of their congregation.

Why Should We Choose Leon Williams for Our Church Project?

At Leon Williams Contractors, we specialize in balancing cost and value for our faith-based clients. Through pre-construction consultations, site assessments and more, we strive to provide as much value as we can.

We love creating spaces where congregations can gather and worship together, and we treat every church project as if it were our own place of worship. Are you looking to invest in an upgrade or new building? Contact Leon Williams Contractors today to learn more about how we can use our value engineering expertise to make your next project a fruitful endeavor.

Finding the Right Site for Your 2021 Construction Needs

/in /by

Looking for a site for a new commercial facility can be a chore. It’s important to find the right match to meet your business needs and ensure your success. As the saying goes, it’s all about “Location, location, location.” It’s important for any business. Is there enough traffic to justify building a retail location? Can the property be easily accessed or will inconvenient roadway access drive away customers?

Site Assessment

Leon Williams Contractors, your Maryville construction expert, can help you find the perfect site for your facility. Our preplanning and site assessment services are thorough. We’ll ensure there are no unexpected, expensive surprises at a proposed location such as environmental issues requiring remediation, geotechnical issues that would need overly-extensive sitework to overcome and insufficient utilities or infrastructure.

If you think that finding the right site for your commercial facility will take care of any potential issues, that’s not quite the full story. Businesses also have to consider what happens to the site once construction begins and design plans are being implemented. A construction company needs expertise and the ability to work well with designer and architects to execute their vision exactly. Otherwise, problems can creep in.

We Can Help

That is where we can help. The team at Leon Williams Contractors has decades of design-build construction experience working closely with our clients and their design firms on commercial construction projects. We take pride in properly executing all aspects of a project, ensuring that both commercial facilities and sites are built out in the best way possible.

At Leon Williams Contactors, we’re ready to assist our East Tennessee clients assess the right site for their building projects. If you are ready to talk about your construction plans for 2021, contact us today.