Located at the Windsor Star, Willow Creek Environmental Services was hired to carefully remove asbestos, ink and mercury waste and printing press machinery inside the building. The original press system was installed in the 1950’s and later, additional system capacity was added and the press room building was constructed after the machines were installed each time adding additional sections of the building.
To remove the press without complete demolition of the building, the block infill walls and select horizontal support beams were removed to provide the necessary reach to remove the press system, piece by piece.
Working inside on a suspended floor, all asbestos was removed by scaffold only. The equipment at every tier was covered with newsprint dust prohibiting all torching until the machinery was removed. Removal of residual ink and oil from the ancient system proved challenging. Final cleaning of smashed debris from the basement floor to a broom swept condition required an army of labour, as material was lifted bin by bin from the basement. A final boarding up of the 25 ft openings at ground level was required at the project end.