Rubb Fabric Building News

We received this email a few days ago, and its content was so uplifting that I feel it’s entirely appropriate to be shared at this time of year:

My name is Mary Thatcher (Chapman) and I worked at Rubb from July 1999 to November 2001. I loved my job there and Rubb always treated me well.  I worked under Steve Gagnon in the weld shop. I am currently in the Army and I am deployed to Iraq. When I was back in the shop welding on the Kuwait contract, I never thought I’d see the finished product first hand. When I deployed to Iraq in September 2009, we were held in Kuwait until flights were arranged. During my time in Kuwait we stayed in one of the tents that Rubb had built. It was great to see the buildings and know that I was once part of the team that built them. All the hours everyone put in making sure the job got out on time and that it was of the best quality really made a difference in the quality of life for the soldiers who had to passed thru there. I’m glad to see that in the struggling economy that a great company such as yourselves is still strong and alive with business.

I’d like to say hello to all of those I once worked with if they are still kicking around. Maybe if ya’ll (Rubb) are still around when I get finished with my service I might come knocking to see if you need a welder… Just seeing those buildings made me smile and remember how much I loved working there and the great co-workers I had around me. Leaving the country for the first time, Kuwait is not the most up lifting place. So many sand storms you can’t even see the skyline, no sun, no stars nothing but the sand. For me it was kinda hard at first but just seeing a piece of my past put a smile on my face! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone at Rubb USA!

Sincerly,
Mary Thatcher

Thank you, Mary!  Merry Christmas to all from everyone at Rubb!

This NV 10 X 21 was built for Randaberg Havnelager AS, a port storage company just at the outskirts of Stavanger. Stavanger is a large oil production related area in Norway and Randaberg Havnelager AS caters for many vessels that service the offshore oil platforms off the coast of Norway. Randaberg Havnelager AS has used Rubbhalls for many years and this is the latest addition to their site.

The Rubbhall above was erected on a steel foundation so that the buildings can be crane liftable and moved around the harbour. This unique flexibility allows the NV building to be rented out for short term storage of various oil related equipment.

The two NV buildings pictured above were sold to Bergen Interkommunale Renholdsverk AS (BiR AS) in Bergen Norway, Norway’s second largest handler of waste and refuse. BiR AS is responsible for handling refuse for 319,000 households in nine councils. BiR is also a large supplier of waste solutions to the commercial sector in Norway.

One NV is 25m (82ft) wide x 27m (8.58ft) long x 4m (13ft) side wall. It has two Crawford 6m (20ft) wide x 7m (23ft) high roller doors in one gable. In addition the building has one personnel door.

The other NV is 15m (49.2ft) wide x 15m (49.2ft) long with 4m (13ft) side wall. This is erected on a 4m (13ft) concrete retaining wall. These structures are located at the BiR Blomsterdalen site on the outskirts of Bergen and are to be used for a brand new refuse sorting site near Bergen.

The quick erection and high-quality working environment of Rubb buildings make them a popular choice for construction projects. One recent example is this NV building supplied by Rubb Norway to NCC, one of the largest construction companies in Norway. The building is 15m wide x 21m wide x 3m sidewall, with a 4.5m x 4.5m insulated steel folding door.

This is the second NV building we have supplied in a short space of time; both are intended for use in conjunction with the new metro line that is being built between Bergen and Nesttun. This is one of the major infrastructure projects in the Bergen region in the coming years and NCC has a large part of the contract to complete this metro line.

Increasingly stringent environmental regulations and restrictions of conventional buildings make Rubb structures ideal for use in environmental remediation or storage applications. The flexibility of Rubb sewage covers is especially helpful in situations where the coverage was never originally anticipated and a new building is needed quickly.

One such location was the Cherry Hill Waste Water Treatment facility in Elkton, Maryland. The facility is located in the middle of a residential area and was build originally without tank covers. However, as the community grew, the waste water digestion tank began to emit odors that became an issue.

Cecil County, Maryland retained the services of CDM, an engineering firm, to design odor containment and handling system. Their design embodied the use of a Rubb designed membrane cover along with a sophisticated air handling system.

Rubb joined with EMH Environmental, Inc. of Glenwood, Maryland and proposed the winning bid for the tank cover portion of the project. Rubb designed, fabricated and delivered two 52′ diameter tank covers with 10′ sidewalls. The covers each have a personnel door and access for serving the waste water handling pumps.

The Cherry Hill Waste Water Treatment Facility is once again a good neighbor.

The new state of the art Meadowbank Sport Arena, at 70mx145m and with sidewalls of 9m, is currently the largest of its kind in Europe. Designed to bring sports facilities into the 21st century, this top regional venue situated in Magherafelt in the heart of Mid-Ulster, Northern Ireland can now provide the widest range of indoor and outdoor facilities for sports.

The arena’s indoor synthetic surface measures 137m x 70m on which a whole host of sporting activities can take place simultaneously. The space can be quickly divided by use of rebound boards which are removable at court positions — for example, it can cater for a full size hockey/soccer pitch, plus 4 mini-pitches (all 4 badminton court sized). Rubb’s sophisticated electrical netting system allows the court to be expanded so that the full space can be used. Alternatively, it can also accommodate an indoor 300m track. All sports set-ups are complemented with seating for 450 spectators on a first floor gallery located along one sidewall and one gable end.

Like all Rubb buildings, the backbone to the Meadowbank Sport Arena is a well engineered structural framing system. Post production hot dip galvanizing of all welded components provides the best corrosion protection in the industry with the truss frame construction creating the platform for the clear span and high vertical walls. The exterior has been built with a combination of brick, goosewing gray, steel clad walls (Kingspan material) and high strength architectural fabric. To maintain the external appearance of the building, a system of rainwater gutters were included along the 145m sidewalls.

The use of white semi translucent roof fabric provides a light, bright airy atmosphere to the building. All services are fully integrated with the lighting, ventilation and demudification system providing the perfect sports environment.

The arena features a traditional three level brick and block built amenities facility, comprising of changing rooms, bar, reception, simple storage and a viewing gallery located on the top floor completed by the main contractor FP McCann. The centre is also fully accessible to wheelchair users and special needs groups.

Outdoors, the new arena offers a 400m, 6 lane synthetic athletics track, facilities for associated field events, sand based soccer and gaelic/rugby pitches; outdoor Astroturf/2 tennis courts, children’s play area and pavilion along with additional car parking. All outdoor facilities are floodlit and offer a secure setting with excellent provision for spectators and visitors.

In addition to providing this impressive array of sporting activities, the arena provides Magherafelt City Council with a multi-functional building which has the flexibility to host exhibitions, regional sports competitions, national tournaments and other events.

A recent salt shed installation in Derry, New Hampshire showcases the effectiveness of Rubb buildings for covering salt in cold climates with heavy snow and wind loads.

The Town of Derry was looking for a salt shed that would support a storage capacity of 4,000 plus tons of salt. Rubb, designed, manufactured and installed a 70′(21.3m) x 116′(35.4m) BVE type building, with the important structural requirement for the facility to have adequate height clearance to lift a 40’ dump trailer inside the structure.

Other requests included the construction of the building without a front gable end, and of the different foundation options available, the Town of Derry felt that the traditional poured concrete design best fitted their needs. This helped to ensure that the building was able to withstand 65psf ground snow and 100mph wind with 3-second gust, Exp. C. To help secure the site, the Town installed a gated chain link fence at the entrance of the facility.

The high flexibility of Rubb buildings makes them a perfect match for salt storage applications, where adaptability to environmental regulations and long-term integrity is essential. Rubb structures are ideal for saline environments, as the PVC-coated polyester fabric cover does not rust and post-production hot-dipped galvanized steel frame ensures years of trouble-free service without rust and structural degradation.

Industrial storage is a familiar and common use of Rubb buildings, with flexibility and interior climate and working conditions being favored features by our clients. These reasons and more are why Nexans AS, a worldwide leader in the electrical cable industry, chose a Rubb building for an electrical cable storage site on an island on the west coast of Norway.

The building in use by Nexans AS is a Rubb NV-type (Norwegian version) that is 24m x 42m x 4m. The building is completely secure, while being easily accessible by loading/lift equipment and personnel as required.

Wartsila Norway AS, the Norwegian-division of The Wartsila Group, recently ordered two Rubb buildings (or Rubb halls, as they are still commonly called in Norway) for the storage of gears and other engine parts. Since their first purchase of a Rubb building in the 1970s, Wärtsila Norway has been a loyal Rubb customer and relies on our buildings for secure and reliable storage in the harsh climate of Norway. Wartsila is conveniently based in Rubbestadneset, Bømlo, the home town of Rubb (and Rubb Marine).

Both buildings are Rubb NV-type (Norwegian Version), 20m x 30m x4m (WxLx wall H). They have have double (innerskin) PVC layers and use automatically operated Crawford doors to make it easy for lift equipment and personnel to come and go. While the first building was delivered in 2006, the second joined it this past January, expanding the storage facilities significantly.

Wartsila Norway is a leader in the ship-repair market, and one of Europe’s largest manufacturer and supplier of large ship marine gears. Their parent company, The Wartsila Group (based in Finland), is one of the world’s largest manufacturers and suppliers of marine diesel engines world wide for heavy vessels, as well as a specialist in providing power solutions to remote areas of the world.

The recent relocation of a Rubb building in New England is a statement to our structure’s convenient and easy relocation with minimal loss.

Boccard USA, a Houston, Texas-based firm that specializes in pip fabrication, was looking for a building for pipe welding and assembly for a Londonderry, New Hampshire worksite. This lead to their purchase of a used 39.4′ (12m) x 40′ (12m) THA shelter from us.

The building, 7 years young, had been in use at the Rubb factory in Sanford, Maine as a storage shelter. Rubb technicians disassembled the structure, cleaned and repacked the fabric membrane and reassembled the shelter on site in a matter of two weeks!

The Boccard building is just a recent example of the many times that Rubb shelters and buildings have been relocated after many years of service with minimal downtime, material loss, or expense.