Dekalb Animal Services

Dekalb Animal Services provides humane care, veterinary care, spaying and neutering, pet adoptions, animal reclaims, pet fostering in homes, and coordination of rescue groups. Thousands of animals’ lives have been saved and adoptions have increased by 300% since 2013, making it one of the largest nonprofit animal welfare organizations in the state. With close to one thousand animals coming through the shelter each month, the flooring application required some of the most resilient, easy to clean, and lowest maintenance options available.

This new facility replaced a run-down facility that was known as the “chamber of horrors” due to the many animals that didn’t make it out alive. At 33,440 square feet, the new facility is 50% larger than the old one and can hold more than 400 animals. A 1,300-square-foot clinic that provides spay and neuter services, as well as a surgery preparation room, surgery room, lab area, secure pharmacy storage, and holding areas for dogs and cats slated for surgery make up the majority of the building. It also includes more than 15 adoption rooms (12 for dogs and three for cats). Additionally, the new facility has a dog grooming area, exercise yard, exercise fields, adoption halls, separate lobbies for adoption, reclaim and intake holding and exam areas, as well as a multipurpose room.

DCO Commercial Floors worked on the new $12 million facility. DCO Commercial Floors was charged with ceramic tile in the bathrooms and standard sheet vinyl in the surgery wing. Materials used include sheet vinyl and ceramic tile.

The surgery wing was covered with sheet vinyl. These areas were all flash coved up the wall in order to promote extreme sanitary conditions. The entire surgery wing is susceptible to blood and other body fluids so this was done to prevent water and moisture damage, dirt build-up, bacteria growth, etc.

A contractor’s nightmare is when material shows up damaged. Unfortunately, this was the case for Dekalb Animal Services. DCO Commercial Floors had to re-order and receive the product in time to install.

Another unfortunate event occurred when the installed sheet vinyl floor got scratched moving material into the building. DCO Commercial Floors had to cut out a section of the sheet vinyl and weld in a new piece while trying to conceal the seams.

The overall struggle of the project, as it is most projects, was to work around the other subcontractors. DCO Commercial Floors had to base the entire building even though we were not installing floors in the entire space. We had to work with other subcontractors to keep the project moving forward as the end date of the project did not change. Reeves Young could not afford to have us pull off the job and install after everything else was complete. Team work with other subcontractors was a MUST to keep the project on track and on budget.