Prefabricating jobs in-house helps contractor save on costs. (Kilgust Mechanical)

`Very little waste'

Prefabricating jobs in-house helps contractor save on costs

MONONA, Wis. -- Last spring, it was obvious that Kilgust Mechanical was going to be extremely busy over the summer. Among its projects, it had to complete a $400,000 remodeling job in a high school during the short summer recess.

The contractor decided to prefabricate all the pipe. Before an installer ever stepped onto the jobsite, 95% of the piping was complete, color-coded and stacked on the company parking lot. Kilgust's wire-feed welder at the shop was faster and produced a better quality weld than could have been accomplished in the field.

"We knew we could prefab this job, and it ended up that we had very, very little waste," says Don Gay, president.

"We carry prefabbing to the extreme. In welded pipe, we do close to zero welds in the field. But to do that, you have to plan ahead of time."

A couple of years ago, Kilgust secured a $4 million mechanical contract for the construction of the Columbia Correctional Institute -- a Wisconsin maximum security penitentiary. It consisted of 18 housing units with identical equipment rooms, except that half of the rooms were oriented in one direction and half in the opposite direction.