Month: November 2013

Introduction | Welcome to The Western Way

Posted on by Sara Bequette

Welcome to Western Specialty Contractor’s Blog: The Western Way!

In efforts to communicate our company and services better, we have overhauled our website and updated a few things, including the addition of our company blog. Whether you are new to our site or returning to check out the snazzy, new look, we invite you to take a look around. We hope you like it!

We’ve provided you -our customers- with a more interactive site that allows us to illustrate our building restoration expertise and provide you with the necessary tools and information to help keep your building structures protected and running smoothly.

Here’s a handy guide to some new features you’ll find on our site:

  • The Western Way Blog

This blog will act as a problem-solution forum, answering frequently asked questions about building maintenance. We will feature expert guest bloggers, industry updates, company announcements, product recommendations and handy checklists to help make preserving the life of your building or structure easier. Let us know if there are any topics you’d like to see or questions you’d like answered.

  • News Ticker

Our News Ticker located at the bottom of the screen on each page will give you instant news updates regarding our company, the restoration industry, or any other useful information we think you will find interesting. Simply click on the news ticker items for more information on those topics.

  • Social Media Links

We’d love for you to get to know us better and connect with us on our social media platforms. Our links include: Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn and are located at the bottom right of every screen. There you will find video galleries of our work, a peak into our culture here at Western and additional information about our company. We encourage you to subscribe, like and share any of our information you find useful or interesting.

Thank you and Enjoy!

The Marketing Team at Western Specialty Contractors

Announcements: New YouTube Channel

Posted on by Sara Bequette

Our Scopes of Work Brought to Life on New YouTube Channel

To supplement our marketing and sales tools, we’ve added a Western Specialty Contractors YouTube Channel to help promote and illustrate our services through video project profiles.

Why Video Profiles?

From stadiums to parking garages, we feel it’s impactful to view our scopes of work on a variety of different project structures in an exciting, video narrative, in addition to our traditional brochures find out here.

Got a particular building structure you’re looking to restore? Look for similar projects on our YouTube channel to see exactly what makes the Western Difference, and how we tackle different unique restoration challenges on a variety of structure types.

Check it out for yourself at: http://www/westernspecialtycontractors_225/public.youtube.com/user/WesternConst1915

Please subscribe to our channel, and share any project videos that you feel others may be interested in. Check back often, as new videos are added every month.

Thanks!

For any questions, please contact our Marketing Team at marketing@westerngroup.com

Challenge/Solution: Lintel Repair

Posted on by Sara Bequette

Save Yourself Some Window Pain

What’s a Lintel?
Masonry over the windows and doors of your building is supported by steel sections, know as lintels. They are fastened above a building's windows and doors to act as a shelf for masonry. Lintels, like bricks, are extremely durable, but not indestructible. Factors like cracks in the outer masonry, humidity, heavy rainfall and the freezing and thawing of cold winters wear down these steel shelves and surrounding brick, allowing moisture to seep inside and corrode the lintels.

How can I if there’s deterioration?
This deterioration occurs in the form of severe oxidation, or rust corrosion. Left untreated, rust buildup on the lintels can cause them to thicken and expand up to 10 times their original size. This causes the lintels to lose strength and create added pressure against the surrounding masonry units. Careful inspection around your window and door openings for cracks in the upper corners or bricks, bowing over the windows or in severe cases, displacement of bricks and stones, can help you take proactive action against further lintel damage. Similar to other exterior maintenance issues, catching this deterioration early is key to preventing expensive building damage and wall collapses around windows and doors.

Questions on repairing or preventing lintel damage?
Western's nationwide partnership of skilled workers are experts in ensuring your structure's integrity. We will not only repair the deteriorated lintel and surrounding brick, but establish a preventative, insulated filtration system to protect your structure from future water damage.

We’d love to come assess your structure damage with a free assessment.
Find your local branch here for contact information.

Announcements: New Facebook Careers Page

Posted on by Sara Bequette

Recruitment Boost with New Facebook Careers Page

We have entered the social media world with the launch of our new Western Specialty Contractors – Careers page. After much discussion, we felt it was time to join many other companies that have utilized Facebook to supplement their company’s recruiting efforts.

Why We Chose to Use Facebook

We love our new website. We believe it does a great job of portraying our company’s story, our services and our people, but only if people see it.

We also love our company… which is why we are here, but how do we share what it means to work at Western with others? To help increase our reach digitally, we joined Facebook.

There’s a large percentage of our target market for potential employees that use Facebook daily. Using our Facebook Careers Page, we are able to tell the story of our company, its “work hard, play hard” mentality and its people in a forum that can be easily shared and discussed with others. From charity events to retirement announcement and project highlights, we can illustrate exactly what it means to work at Western and the type of environment you can expect as a potential employee.

We also peppered our company information with valuable job seeker advice, from interview tips to resume how-to’s to provide candidates with some tools to help land them a job with us.

Check it out for yourself at www.facebook.com/WesternSpecialtyContractorsCareers

Please “Like” Us on Facebook, and share any job openings and tips that you feel others may be interested in.

Note: We encourage you to connect with us, but please keep in mind that we would like to keep a positive community environment for anyone—profanity/harassment/or otherwise inappropriateness will not be tolerated.

Thanks!
The Marketing Team at Western Construction Group

Industry News: Pam Machine

Posted on by Sara Bequette

Concrete chipping can be a dusty, noisy job. And during this type of work, employees are subjected to risks of injury and illness due to the stresses and the strains. For example, overhead hammering is essential to performing a thorough job.  However, this may increase strain on the body causing weakness and fatigue.  At Western, we feel that it is critical for companies to evaluate opportunities to reduce these risks Find Out More. And in doing so, we have discovered the alternative to manual chipping – The Pam Machine. Manufactured by RNP Industries, The Pam Machine offers faster and effortless concrete chipping for overhead and vertical surfaces. It also helps to eliminate and reduce all of the potential health and safety concerns of manual concrete chipping. The machine will hold the 30 pound hammer completely eliminating the ergonomic stress on the employee. It is easy to position, allowing the worker to continuously and effortlessly work the face of the concrete. There is no longer a need to stop and reposition, recover, or stretch sore muscles since the workers are not performing the work directly. It also allows workers to stand nearly 5 feet away from the point of impact so they are able to avoid unexpected falling concrete.  Overall, The Pam Machine is a solution for many hazards in concrete chipping.

Announcements: Western gives to the Salvation Army

Posted on by Sara Bequette

‘Twas a few weeks before Christmas and all through the office, gracious Western employees conjured up an idea to fulfill less fortunate children’s wishes.

An Angel Tree from the Salvation Army was put up on the wall, 30 wish lists were added and an email was sent to all.

“Although it is not mandatory, your generosity would be greatly appreciated.” Then as the days went on, the tree became more and more vacant.

Before we knew it, all of the wish lists were taken! And in came the clothes, the toys and the bikes; everyone filled with anticipation.

For they knew that many unsuspecting children would wake on Christmas morn, to gifts under the tree ready to be torn.

We hope you had a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!