By Emily Ford
Salisbury Post
KANNAPOLIS ó Salisbury Custom Woodwork had been in business for just 10 months when it landed a whopper ó a contract worth approximately $1.4 million to create the interior architectural woodwork for the Core Lab at the N.C. Research Campus.
“It was euphoria,” Vice President Wayne Sasser said. “At the same time, we said ‘Oh boy, now we’ve got it. We’ve got the tiger by the tail, and we’ve got to tame it.’ ”
They’ve tamed the tiger.
Salisbury Custom Woodwork has fabricated more than 5,000 square feet of paneling and milled 10 miles of moldings for the David H. Murdock Core Laboratory Building, the four-story centerpiece of the Research Campus in downtown Kannapolis.
They’ve manufactured wainscot, baseboards, door casings and an elaborate cornice for the ceiling. The Core Lab’s interior dome will feature a giant fresco painting, Sasser said.
“It’s a pretty big contract,” he said. “We have had one bigger, but this is an 800-pound gorilla.”
When general contractor Turner Construction awarded the contract to Salisbury Custom Millwork, Sasser and President Elmer Gilson hired two additional millworkers, bringing their workforce to seven.
They began production last fall at the plant on Old Wilkesboro Road. Now, as the Core Lab nears completion, they’re working overtime and weekends.
“It’s a high-profile job,” Sasser said. “It helps establish the credibility of us as a company, and it’s the type of work that we thrive on.”
They’re using poplar that has been certified by the Forest Stewardship Council to have come from renewable forests. That was required by the Research Campus and Turner Construction.
“They are trying to make this a green building,” Sasser said.
Turner also requires that Salisbury Custom Woodwork’s paneling have no phenolńformaldehyde resins, which can give off gases for years, Sasser said.
Owner Greg Wass of Nashville, Tenn., launched Salisbury Custom Millwork in March 2006, just in time to win a contract to provide millwork for Turner Construction’s new office in Charlotte.
Turner had just been named general contractor for the Research Campus.
Turner must’ve been impressed with its millwork, because the builder invited Salisbury Custom Millwork to bid on the Core Lab.
“We’re just ecstatic,” Sasser said. “We feel we’ve been blessed beyond our wildest dreams to get it.”
Salisbury Custom Millwork also will provide millwork for the N.C. State University building on campus and hopes to win the contract for the upcoming Rowan-Cabarrus Community College building.
“Things are just falling into place unbelievably well,” said Sasser, who hasn’t even had time to put up a sign.
Like most millwork firms, Salisbury Custom Millwork hires out the installation of its products. A crew from CRH in Raleigh, owned by Cecil Harris, is installing the millwork at the Core Lab.
Contact Emily Ford at eford@salisburypost.com.