Restoring brick facades with at Dallas High School

Maxus SC5000 mast climbing work platforms were used on the Dallas High School historical building for façade restoration work. Building went through a transformation that brought life back into this piece of history which stands adjacent to the DART Pearl Street rail station in Dallas, US.

Dallas Historical High School Building

Dallas High School was built in 1907 and it is one of the oldest high schools in Dallas. It has been vacant since the beginning of the 1990s. The century old High School building was acquired in 2016 by commercial real estate developer Matthews Southwest. The abandoned school building has long been protected by preservationists and has been cherished by the school’s alumni.

Matthews Southwest invested USD 50.4 million in the mixed-use redevelopment. The building went through full renovation and converted to office and retail space. The project included 66 000 square feet of offices and 26 000 square feet of retail space. The original brick facade of the historical restored with help of Scanclimber mast climbers.

Mast Climbers at work

The Dallas High School is one of the most remarkable construction sites in central Dallas in 2017. It is Dallas’ first public high school, designed by Otto Lang and Frank Witchell. It opened to students in 1908. The main contractor for the project is Mid Continental Restoration Co and the on-site mast climbers are supplied by Sunbelt Rentals. Scanclimber Mast Climbing Platforms were in operation to enable façade work until the end of 2017.

Three Scanclimber Maxus SC5000 mast climbing work platforms were used on the Dallas High School for façade restoration work.

The main aim was to transport personnel and material vertically, and make unobstructed work at the right height possible.

The façade work included:

• cleaning debris
• tuck pointing brick and stone,
• replacing the mortar joints,
• replacing damaged bricks,
• refurbishing windows, window jams, etc.

The contractor’s personnel were happy with the mast climbers since they provided ‘an open face concept’ i.e. unobstructed access to the wall, whereas conventional scaffolding would have had disturbing verticals.

As Donald McCann, construction manager, Sunbelt Rentals, commented:

The pros about the mast climbers are that you can scale a large area of a building with less obstacles in your way, versus conventional scaffolding where you have verticals every seven or ten feet. They also take less manpower to install than traditional scaffolding.

Additional extensions were used to fill the gap between the platform and the wall. One mast climber has a side extension which makes working around corners possible.

Mr McCann continued:

Texas has a great demand for mast climbers for the simple reason that they can concentrate upon one long span. It’s very important for plasterers, brick-layers and roofers to have that luxury. The key thing is an open face concept. When we deal with EIFS and stucco, you have easy application but you have to finish the whole area at one time. If you don’t have an open phase concept, being exposed to the sun will leave marks and lines on the paint.