The walls....

Here's an update on the Door County Justice Center hoopla:

Construction of the administrative offices has been halted temporarily at the new Door County Justice Center, while county officials address a problem with the steel studding that supports the walls.

The issue, as well as problems with the way Door County discovered the mistake, were discussed publicly Monday during a meeting of the county Ad Hoc Building Committee.

At the outset of the meeting, Ken Fisher, chairman of the committee, summarized the problem in a nutshell.

“We spec’d out for 20 (gauge steel) and ended up with 25,” a lighter gauge steel, Fisher said. “The thickness is pretty close to double the difference between the different gauges of steel.”

The problem with the lesser gauge is it creates a less stiff wall designed to support drywall, not plaster. The issue then becomes the wall deflection, or how much the wall moves horizontally when pushed by a certain amount of force (such as by hanging cabinets on one side of the wall but not the other). The concern is that the less stiff wall created with the lower-gauge steel will create too much deflection, resulting in hairline plaster cracks.

“We either say stop the project and tear all the walls out and put the 20-gauge in as we ordered, or we move forward from this point on with some way that will be acceptable to us and that we can all live with,” Fisher said about the decision the committee faced Monday.

Thom Miron of Quantic Architectural LLC, who designed the building and was retained to oversee the project through to completion, explained that the base bid for the Justice Center walls was for drywall with 25-gauge steel studs. Instead, the county chose an alternate plan using veneer plaster on the walls.

When that decision was made, Stubenrauch Architects – the now-defunct company Miron was with when the Justice Center was designed – increased the stiffness of the wall to, basically, the 20-gauge steel stud.

“When we discovered the 25, the flag went up,” Miron said.

After looking at ways to stiffen up the wall to prevent the deflection, the remediation agreed upon between Miron and general contractor Miron Construction (no relation) was to brace the studs between 10 and 12 feet.

“All the remediation work was based on that,” Miron said. “Because of that, we felt like we were on the right track. We asked the stud installer to confirm some of these things through their engineers, and that’s still going on.”

But Miron said the plaster installers assured them that the studs, with the bracing, were sufficiently stiffened.

“I would like to think that this proves that this wall, from a plastering standpoint, is sufficiently stable,” Miron said.

County Board Chairman Charlie Most directed the work be stopped last week when he discovered the problem, and Miron confirmed the contractor has pulled everyone out until the committee decides the county’s next move.

At issue for several of the committee members, as well as for Most, was that the county couldn’t be sure the bracing was in its best interest, because the county wasn’t given an opportunity to take part in remediation discussions once the problem was discovered.

For example, committee members said, once the problem was discovered, the most desirable remediation would have been replacing the incorrect studs with the correct studs, as per the specifications.

“The decision that was made was one to keep the project rolling,” Most said. “It was the cheapest, quickest solution, not the best long-term solution.”

The difference in cost between the 20- and 25-gauge steel was about $12,000, according to a briefing timeline prepared by Jude Genereaux, county administrator. A concern raised Monday was whether the contractor purposely used the lower-grade steel.

“Why would anybody try to snooker on $12,000,” Fisher said. “When you’re talking about that small amount of money, I’ve got to believe it’s an honest mistake.”

The problem was discovered by Miron Jan. 3, but the county didn’t learn about it until Feb. 14 by a person Most described in a past interview as a “whistle-blower.”

During that interim, Supervisor Biz Virlee pointed out, the Ad Hoc Building Committee met four times, giving Miron ample time to come to the county to appraise them of the problem.

Miron explained that he wasn’t going to bring it to the committee until he’d found a solution. Once he learned “the solution was a lot simpler than I thought,” he said, he wanted to wait until they could verify county credit for the solution.

“That’s when Charlie (Most) found out,” Miron said.

Miron said he had made a “bad decision” and allowed the issue to mushroom by not telling the committee as soon as the problem was discovered.

“I sincerely apologize for that,” Miron said. “I just thought this wasn’t that major of an issue.”

The county hired independent engineer Mike Till last week to review the work and prepare a report on the bracing remediation. The committee decided to meet again at 8:30 a.m. Friday in the County Board conference room to discuss Till’s report before it makes a decision about how to proceed.