The New Avid Hotel in Kingman Is Done. Here's How We Built It.

You’ve probably driven past it. The new four-story hotel on Hotel Way with the big red tower and the Avid sign on the side. It’s open, guests are checking in, and our crews had a big hand in building it.

This one took most of the year and a lot of our people. So we want to tell you how it went, the good parts and the curveballs too.

The job

Livebox GC was the builder, and they brought us in for a big chunk of the outside of the building and the systems that keep it comfortable inside.

That’s not how most jobs like this go. Usually the work gets split up between a handful of different companies. Here, a lot of it came to one team.

What we built

• The EIFS: the finish on the outside walls, the smooth gray panels you see from the road. It’s insulated, so it helps keep the heat out in summer and in during winter, and it’s sealed up to keep water out.
• The roof: a white roof that reflects the sun, plus the metal trim around the edges.
• The heating and air conditioning: on every floor.
• The trash enclosure: block walls out back, finished in stucco to match the hotel.
• Caulking: sealing the joints and gaps around the building so wind, dust and rain stay outside.

Why it helps to have one team

On a building like this, the walls, the roof and the air conditioning all run into each other. The AC units sit on the roof. Their lines run through it. The walls tie into the roof edge. When three different companies handle those three things, every one of those spots is a place where somebody can say “that’s not my part.”

With one team, there’s no finger-pointing. Our roofers and our HVAC crew talk to each other. Our EIFS crew knows exactly what the roof edge is going to look like. And the builder has one number to call instead of three. That came in handy more than once on this job.

Curveball #1: a hot elevator shaft

Kingman summers get hot. By late July, the builder realized the elevator shaft needed its own cooling. Elevator equipment doesn’t like the heat any more than we do.

They asked us to put in a small air conditioning unit just for the shaft, and they wanted it done the first week of August. That meant setting the unit, running a line up through the roof, and patching the roof so it stays watertight.

On most jobs, that’s two companies and some back and forth over who patches what. For us it was one job. Our HVAC team handled the unit, our roofing side handled the roof, and the builder didn’t have to chase anybody.

Curveball #2: working around hotel guests

After the hotel opened, the builder asked us back for one more round of work on the windows. Every outside window needed small drain holes at the bottom and a fresh seal around the inside of the frame, so any water that gets in has a way out.

Simple enough, except the hotel was open and people were sleeping in those rooms.

So Andy, who handled it for us, treated every window like a guest might be on the other side. Usually one was. Each morning he checked which rooms were empty and started there. He told the hotel which side of the building he’d be on that day, and worked his way around from a lift, south side first, then west, then north.

The front entrance was the tricky part, with a dozen windows right above where guests walk in. Andy put out extra cones and safety tape and set up extra protection under the awning, so nobody ever had to walk in under the work. The last few windows on the north side waited until those rooms opened up.

It took patience. That’s what it takes to work on a building people are already living in.

Built for Kingman weather

Between the insulated EIFS, a roof that bounces the sun back, and air conditioning built for July, this building is ready for whatever Kingman throws at it. Hot afternoons, cold nights, and the wind that blows dust at everything.

The roof also comes with a 20-year warranty from the maker.

Thank you

A big thank you to Livebox GC for bringing us onto this one and trusting us with so much of it.

And thank you to every one of our crew members who spent a Kingman summer on that building, from the EIFS crew on the walls to the guys on the roof in July. It looks great, and you should be proud of it.

Next time you drive by, look up. That’s our work.

One team. Multiple trades.