INDUSTRIAL: Sharing the Lime (Stone) Light

D&G Mechanical workers prepare to lift some of the large duct into place at the Carbon Limestone Landfill in Lowellville, Ohio.

For Craig Carpenter, the smell of success at the Carbon Limestone Landfill may not have been so sweet.

But that doesn’t mean the D&G Mechanical project manager is less proud. The job certainly didn’t stink — not figuratively, anyway. 

Carpenter oversaw D&G’s recent fabrication and installation work at an Ohio landfill. The 10-month project worked, Carpenter says, thanks in part to the work of D&G Mechanical’s fabrication and installation team. 

“My shop just did an amazing job,” Carpenter says. 

D&G, based in West Middlesex, Pennsylvania, was awarded a $300,000 contract to install two Trane rooftop units (rated at 20,000 cfm each) for a new building’s electrical room at the landfill. The contract also called for D&G to install all supply and exhaust fans and louvers. It also required D&G’s sheet metal workers to make and install all related rectangular and spiral ductwork — some of it up to 60 inches in diameter. 

The client was SCS Engineers, a California-based environmental consulting and construction firm. It contacted D&G to see if it was interested in bidding on the landfill building project in Lowellville, Ohio.
D&G’s shop is only about a mile from the Pennsylvania-Ohio border. 

Spiral ductwork up to 60 inches in diameter was used for a building at the Carbon Limestone Landfill. D&G Mechanical made and installed the duct.

Facility converts gas to electricity or fuel
Known as the Carbon Limestone Landfill, the facility converts landfill gas — a byproduct of decomposing garbage — into electricity or fuel for vehicles. D&G won the contract over several other sheet metal contractors in the region. 

It was a unique project for D&G, which company Vice President Nikko Giangiuli said can trace its history back to the early 20th century. During this time, Giangiuli’s great-grandfather emigrated from Italy, settling in New Castle, Pennsylvania. In need of a job, he applied at a nearby sheet metal shop, despite not knowing anything about the trade other than workers made a good living.

“He ended up going in there and telling them that he knew how to work the machines and he knew how to bend metal,” Giangiuli says. “And he didn’t.”

But he got the job anyway. He often stayed after hours, learning how to make duct from co-workers willing to teach him. “And he stayed in the trade his whole life,” Giangiuli says. 

Eventually, Giangiuli’s great-grandfather founded his own sheet metal company, which through a couple of generations and a few relatives later became D&G Mechanical in 1985. 

Today, the company is a member of SMACNA of Western Pennsylvania. Its sheet metal workers belong to SMART Local 33. 

Mostly a commercial HVAC contractor, D&G does occasional residential work and some industrial, such as the Lowellville landfill project. 

But it’s not every day that it gets a project that calls for ducts up to 60 inches in diameter, Giangiuli says. 

A close-up look at the landfill facility’s large duct waiting for installation. 

“That’s like once or twice a year when we make duct that big,” he says. The company doesn’t have the storage capacity for large ductwork, so D&G needed to get it to the job site for staging and installation as soon as possible. Much of the largest ductwork was stored in D&G’s parking lot as it waited to go to the facility. 

It helped that D&G’s sheet metal shop is only about 10 miles from the landfill. Duct didn’t have to spend a long time in transit.  

Big duct means a big coordination effort
Still, Giangiuli says, “It took a lot of coordination. Our guys did a really good job getting it built, getting it on the site and getting it set. Our shop did a fantastic job making all of the large duct.”

And just like a piece of 60-inch duct, coordination is huge when you’re dealing with these types of jobs, Carpenter adds. 

“You have to know which piece goes in first,” the project manager says. “Sequence of installation is huge with any big ductwork. You have to know where you’re going to start and where you’re going to finish.

Do you build both runs simultaneously? You just have to keep your eyes wide open when it comes to that. Otherwise, you could find yourself in a really, really hard spot.”

Carpenter said coordination with the other trades went well — something that doesn’t always happen. Other contractors were on site 24/7, which could have led to confusion or clashes with the other trades. 

But that wasn’t the case, Carpenter says. 

“And that was (thanks to) communication,” he adds. “Without communication, we would’ve been dead in the water. They were willing to listen to our ideas as far as installation. The biggest success that we had was because they took our suggestions to heart and we had a proper plan in place and we executed it very well.”