Clopay and Cornell Doors Help Keep Chicago Waste Management Facility Construction on Track

Trust among owner, contractor, sub and supplier ensures success of 20-door project.

Large rolling doors were an important feature of the new facility being built for Flood Brothers Disposal at 48th Place in Chicago. The transfer station and recycling transit storage facility was the latest expansion for the fifth-generation family-owned business that has grown from one employee and one truck in 1930 to over 100 employees. The new facility was designed to take in municipal solid waste and recycling from local collection trucks and prepare it for transfer to a recycling facility or landfill.

In addition to providing access, commercial rolling and overhead sectional doors help manage aesthetics, noise, and odors, making them a key element in waste and recycling processing facilities. Architectural specifications called for a total of 20 large-scale service doors, ranging from 20’ to 35’ in width:

• 16 rolling doors that allowed for waste collection trucks to access the warehouse area to dump the material.
  • (11) 20’ x 28’
  • (3) 25’ X 18’
  • (2) 35’ X 28’
• (4) 10’x10’ sectional doors on the loading docks, where sorted bales of recyclable plastics and cardboard were sent on to the next stage of processing.

The project went to Anagnos Door Co., a Chicago-based business specializing in commercial and industrial door installation and service. They won the project with a bid that included the door manufacturer specified as the basis of a design by the architects on the project. However, they faced a significant challenge right from the start: The architectural drawings did not include the proper amount of structural support required for rolling doors of that size.

“We had to add the appropriate supports to attach to the building and the floor to keep the large doors from twisting,” Tomás Huerta, President of Anagnos Door Co., explained. “We submitted drawings with the proper supports included and told the GC we could only install the doors according to the manufacturer’s requirements in order to ensure the doors will work properly.”

Fortunately, general contractor McHugh Construction respected Anagnos Door Co.’s expertise and the change order was approved.

More Unforeseen Challenges

When they thought everything was ready to proceed, construction hit another snag: The door manufacturer sent a notice that the original quote was no longer valid due to an escalation in the cost of steel, and they were raising the price. This significant increase in cost was not acceptable to McHugh or Flood Brothers Disposal.

“Ownership wasn’t happy,” facility general manager Ralph Ragucci said. “We had a price worked out and it was changed at the last minute.”

McHugh asked Anagnos Door Co. if there was another option. That’s when Huerta turned to his go-to commercial and industrial door supplier – Clopay Corporation.

Beyond the Specification

“When we bid a project, we have to bid per spec. But whenever we have the option, we prefer to work with Cornell and Clopay doors,” Huerta said.

The project resumed with 16 Cornell roll-up service doors in galvanized steel with a white GalvaNex™ finish and four Clopay industrial series ribbed steel sectional doors. Cornell’s rugged commercial-grade service doors are available in standard sizes up to 30’ wide and 30’ high as well as custom sizes, so the oversize doors required for the 48th Place project were no problem. The Service Door curtains store in an overhead coil fully supported by the side guides, which makes them ideal for areas with limited overhead room. The price of the doors came in well below the competitor’s escalated price. Each door was built to the exact project specifications of the job, and all were delivered within 10 weeks lead time in November 2021.

The project was completed at the end of January 2022 and has been up and running successfully for more than two years.

Building on Trust

In the end, the success of this project came down to mutual trust in the professionalism and expertise of all the players.

When the original supplier came back with an unacceptable price increase, Anagnos Door Co. trusted Clopay and Cornell to deliver the products they needed at a better price. When the Anagnos Door Co. team explained their concerns with the structural issues, McHugh Construction trusted that they had the customer’s best interests in mind and was open to their suggestions, despite the added cost. The owners at Flood Brothers Disposal trusted McHugh to do what was needed to work through any challenges with their subcontractors.

Ragucci and the Flood Brothers Disposal team are satisfied with the switch to Cornell and Clopay doors. “I’m not sure how it came about,” Ragucci admits, “but we’re happy in the long run that it was changed.” Anagnos Door Co. handles service on the doors at the 48th Place facility, and everything continues to operate smoothly as intended.