Moveable Walls in Really Cool Offices

Experts help local Companies remodel work spaces with no dust, less fuss.

By: Emma Vanguard

Office remodeling used to mean dust, sledgehammers, noise, and more dust, but new building materials are taking the mess out of redecorating for business. 

When Joe Sylvester Jr. surveys the clean modern lines and sky-lit offices his company built recently for St. Charles Catholic Church in Boardman, he likes the fact that he could reconfigure it all without a sledgehammer or a single sheet of drywall.

Sylvester, chief executive of Sylvester Construction, Boardman, says builders used a  product call TrendWall to create the rooms in the church’s two-story office and banquet facility. 

Designed to look and feel like permanent walls, the product is a better sound-absorber than standard drywall and comes with windows, doors, and a variety of wall surfaces.  “And the best part is, we could remodel this office while they are working, that’s how neat it is,”  Sylvester says, “It’s a finished product.  We come in with clean shoes and clean hands.  There’s no need to interrupt day-to-day business.”

Workers began the interior work by carpeting the floors and finishing the ceilings, including an impressive 38-foot-high vaulted ceiling with sky lights on the second floor.

Then, Sylvester explains, they used moveable wall systems to build offices and meeting rooms.

The moveable walls can be installed floor-to-ceiling, like drywall.  On the second floor of the St. Charles building workers added trellis-style ceilings over the offices to give the feel of a private office without blocking the light.

Change is a constant in any business, Sylvester explains, and the new moveable wall products allow a builder to create a private office or meeting room space that can easily be reconfigured at a later date.

The cost of TrendWall is slightly higher than drywall in new construction, he says, but is actually less expensive when used in remodeling.

Still, sales were flat for Sylvester Construction in the first half of this year, he says.

The company does a lot of work for medical offices, and Sylvester says part of his business has dropped off because some doctors have moved out of the area or have curtailed their expansion plans.

But the company is seeing an increase in warehouse and light manufacturing construction, especially in the North Lima and Columbiana areas, he says.

Sylvester is advertising aggressively to offer his company’s services to office and facility managers.  In addition to general contracting services, the company has a custom-cabinet division and sells Trendway office furniture, so it can provide clients with everything they need to renovate, update, or create new offices in one stop.

The Business Journal