Commercial Renovation – A Yoga Studio

Breathing New Life Into a Yoga Studio

One of my favourite things about commercial renovations is the variety of projects and people that I get to work with on a daily basis. Given the wide scope of work – commercial renovations and residential renovations – that we take on and the uniqueness of each project, it seems there is always a new challenge or opportunity just waiting around the corner. Recently, the Homestead Custom Carpentry team was pleased to take on a new commercial renovation project for some esteemed long-term clients of ours in Stettler, Alberta.

A few years back, we had renovated the offices of Central Vision & Hearing, one of the Stettler’s foremost health service providers in Central Alberta. Having kept up a positive relationship over the years, they called us back to develop some unused office space on the second floor of their adjacent building, with hopes of repurposing it into a functioning yoga studio. Excuse me for getting too metaphorical here, but given that the essence of yoga is about finding inner transformation and balance, it seems only fitting that this commercial renovation project would breathe new life into a building that had sat vacant for many years.

As is typical for any commercial renovation project,

DEMOLITION

Demolition was our first step, and involved taking down the walls of several of the individual offices and removing the flooring back to the subfloor, in order to create one large usable space. The ceiling was suspended acoustic tile (also known as T-bar, which I personally love working with as it provides easy access to furnace ductwork and other components), however this created a small challenge in that the ceiling height in a portion of the main room was about 12 inches lower that in the offices, and supported by one of the walls to be removed.

FRAMING

This problem was solved by framing in a suspended beam, supported overhead from the ceiling joists. These provided a fastening point for the T-bar molding channel on both sides and a smooth transition between the differing ceiling height levels.

The next step was to frame in a wall to partition our newly created main floor space from the rest of the undeveloped office space (as we were only renovating about half of the second floor). We also stripped back the drywall and plywood caps along the window ledges, which were in serious need of some attention. We added a vapor barrier to cover the insulation in the exterior walls, and also set to work preparing the subfloor for new flooring, removing any nails, staples, or glue residue that might get in the way.

As the commercial renovation project was proceeding, our sub-trades were also hard at work – running wire and new lights, hooking up new waterlines, installing and finishing drywall, painting, replacing the ceiling grid, and many other necessary tasks for completing a renovation. A special thanks to Stettler Electric, Action Plumbing & Excavating, and Sun Interiors, for all the excellent work your crews put in – we couldn’t have done it without you

FLOORING

One of the last steps before completion was to install flooring, a “Drop & Done” faux wood vinyl plank provided by Divine Flooring, a local Red Deer flooring renovation partner. I find it a fantastic product, as it’s easy to install, durable, cost-efficient, and if by chance a piece is scratched or damaged, it has the added capability of being able to replace a single plank without needing to take up the whole floor. If you are ever thinking about putting in some new flooring, I would highly recommend this product.

Completion of this newly renovated yoga studio wrapped up at the end of May, just in time for Central Vision & Hearing’s new tenants to take possession at the beginning of June, and begin making use of this transformed space. I’m proud to have been a part of this project, and hope we’ll see more like it in the future.