The Gallery: Residential and Light Commercial

Small Commercial/Residential

VILLA HOUSE, 9 RENTAL UNITS, 6 LODGING ROOMS AND 3 ONE BEDROOM APARTMENTS, THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO, CANADA

Villa House has been a self-funded research and development project for the last 30 years, related to tenant behavior and civility. It has been modernized and meets all local municipal licensing requirements. Villa House has many additional ergonomic safety devices and conveniences installed. Most of the furniture, millwork, finishing, cabinet were developed and built by Wolfgang Schoor.

80 Residential Housing Co-Operative Unit

SUPERIOR VIEW HOUSING CO-OPERATIVE 80 APARTMENT UNITS, THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO, CANADA

This was an 80-unit apartment housing project, a green built containing 4 separate 20-unit 2 storeys housing complexes.

This was a very state of the art innovative building, designed by a very prominent engineering firm from Thunder Bay. This building was comprised of 2 x 6 wood frame walls, to support a pre-cast concrete floor on all of its 4 building to reduce sound transmission, but also to increase the fire rating between floors. My role was the clerk of works and quality assurance officer.

Community Centre (Under 6,000 Sqft.)

ROSSPORT COMMUNITY HALL, ROSSPORT, ONTARIO, CANADA

The community hall had a people capacity of 150 people. My design building project involved a mandate to increase the people capacity to 250 people, built a new kitchen, waste management system, heating , ventilation and fresh air supply systems.

Community Church

ST. JAMES ANGLICAN CHURCH, MURILLO, ONTARIO, CANADA

This was/is a church of historic proportion, originally built in 1876.

Commercial Service Station/Restaurant/Truck Stop

G & G ULTRAMAR TRUCK STOP, UPSALA ONTARIO, CANADA

Green project, from start to finish turn key. This was an Ultramar gas and fuelling station for trans Canada highway traffic. This was a very unique business. It contained on the ground floor a 24-hour open restaurant and service station, public bathrooms and repair garage all on the ground floor.

The second floor contained the owner’s office and private bathroom, as well as 6 sleeping rooms for the traveling public.

The third floor contained a number of showers, again, for the travelling public.

To the rear of the business, we installed a number of modular staff houses. To the west of the parking, we built a drive-in long-distance highway truck service garage, about 6000 square feet, room to work on 2 trucks at the same time. This was especially useful in the extremely cold and snow burdened harsh winter weather.

Egg Farm – Agricultural Project

THUNDER BAY FRESH EGGS, EGGS FARM, THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO, CANADA

Thunder Bay Fresh Eggs Chicken Farm was comprised of 3 chicken barns, housing 22000 egg-laying chicken hens. The chicken wire and feeding cages were hung from the roof structured trusses. That year, we had an extremely large amount of wet snow accumulation on the roof, which caused it to collapse.

My mission was to clean and remove the mess and replace the wood framing roofing structure and install metal cladding on the roof.

Band Office – First Nation Project (Under 6,000 Sqft.)

CONSTANCE LAKE/CALSTOCK FIRST NATIONS COMMUNITY, CALSTOCK, ONTARIO, CANADA

This community is located over 300 miles north east of Thunder Bay, Ontario, on highway 11 situated between Longlac Ontario and just before Hearst Ontario. The building was an L-shaped building, 76 feet long by 26 and 36 feet on one end. The existing use was a band-office and needed foundation repairs.

The community administration under Chief Ben Chichoo and building superintendent Jimmy Sutterland decided this was a good time to add usable public space by adding a basement and installing 10 windows for natural light.

Because of the distance involved, I prefabricated the Preserved Wood Foundation at my fabrications shop in Murillo, Ontario, Canada, and hauled the basement components to the site.

I raised the entire building, excavated underneath and lowered the building back down onto the foundation’s walls. Before backfilling there was a lot of other work, such as pouring a concrete floor, wastewater, water lines, electrical reconnections and so on. At the last, we installed 10 basement windows.

Residential Preserved Wood Foundation (CCA Process)

INSTALLATIONS OF VARIOUS PRESERVED WOOD FOUNDATIONS FOR OWNER-BUILT-WOOD- FRAME HOUSES IN THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO, CANADA AND ITS REGION

Often I would built the PWF basement to the owners specification, and he/she would build his/her own wood frame house on top of the pre-built wood foundation.

Turnkey Installation

VARIATIONS OF WOOD-FRAME TURN KEY HOUSES, WITHIN THE THUNDER BAY REGION RANGING WITHIN A RANGE OF 300 MILES

I had built many wood frame house from the foundation on up to interior walls, interior finishing, millwork, cabinetree, the roof, shingles, windows, siding, doors, heating, waste management system, septic fields and potable water well system. This made the buildings weathertight. The owner would finish the house from there him/her self, once the house shell was in place. This way, they could live in the house and do the finishing as they had time or money.

Product Development (One Example of Many)

ERGO 2000, GRWO HOME, NORDENHAUS & FLOOR SQUEAK STOPPING SYSTEM (MECHANICAL & MANUAL). RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECT RELATED TO A NEW ENGINEERED LUMBER SYSTEM, THUNDER BAY DISTRICT, ONTARIO, CANADA

At this point, I had ideas related to improving engineered lumber system. The Ergoo 200 is such a house. I built it 30 some years ago, and it is still as sound as the day I built it.

Commercial Motel

PARKVIEW MOTEL, UPSALA, ONTARIO, CANADA

Motel foundation work, added on 4 additional motel units, and retrofitting the entire motel along with a new foundation.

Commercial to Residential Conversion

THE QUEEN ELIZABETH SCHOOL, ONTARIO ST, THUNDER BAY, ON, CANADA

School Conversion to Luxury Residential Apartments

Restoration/Retrofitting Work

MCINTOSH ST, THUNDER BAY, ON, CANADA

About 30 years ago, the construction project involved raising the building five feet, shifting it backward and inward about five feet, then excavating beneath to install a Schoor-Way wood basement.