Scaffolding company reaching the heights
People love taking a peek at construction sites. They stop and peer down into vast craters to watch foundations being formed and tilt heads back to wonder how builders have the nerve to work at such heights.
Many walking along 6th Avenue must have noticed the exterior work that Clark Builders is busy completing on the Andrew Davidson Building and the mastclimbing platforms that its crews are using.
The equipment is designed and built by Klimer Manufacturing of Hornby, Ont., and owned by Armour Equipment, its exclusive dealer in southern Alberta.
Armour is a family-run business that was established here 52 years ago. Founded by Leo Messier, it was run by his son, Larry, who served as president until 2008 when he turned over the management reins to his son-in-law, Charles Maygard.
Its core business is still with traditional frame and tube and clamp scaffolding, plus stair towers, working surfaces and many kinds of systems that allow the user to safely scaffold almost any shape and structure.
But Maygard says the Klimer mast-climbers offer his customers safety and convenience features which have proven to reduce injuries, cut labour costs in excess of 30 per cent and shorten production time.
There are two types of free-standing systems. The Klimerlite that Clark is using was specifically designed for medium to light construction to a height of 45 feet without being anchored to the building and carrying loads up to over 11,000 lbs.
The KPM-8 is a heavy duty piece of equipment that can carry loads on twin masts up to 26,000 lbs on platforms of up to 120 feet in width.
They have proved ideal as work and transport platforms giving trades people the ability to control the height and lower back to ground level for more material delivery down the rack-and-pinion drive system at a speed of up to 30 feet per minute.
And the climber is mounted on a power-driven chassis that can easily move the decks along to the next surface to be worked on either outside or inside of buildings as they are driven by either gas or emission free electric motors.
Armour Equipment became the authorized dealer just four months ago but has already four contracts in place.
Besides the Clark Builders’ project Klimers are being used by AIM Waste Management on the former Calgary Herald building site, and PCL Construction Management found a mastclimber a cost effective solution versus the use of a temporary elevators on the Heritage Medical Research Building at the Foothills Hospital.
Next job will be for Desa Glass that is a contractor to Remington Development on a new office building in Quarry Park.
Maygard runs an innovative, forward thinking company and hired Jonathan Barnes, formerly with William Joseph Communications, as sales manager to help Armour bid on larger projects that may use traditional scaffolding, Klimer climbers, or a combination of both systems that can complement each other.
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