CHIARUCCI CONSTRUCTION LLC
COMMERCIAL WORK
I'm happy to assist business owners, property managers, and institutional clients with their building needs. Recently I built a new restaurant project for a long term client in Manhattan (see photos below). A few years before project I built out a comedy club and bar in North Carolina, which included a lower floor of classrooms for improv and musical training (see below).
Inside commercial buildings I've worked on many interior fit up projects; from hospital wings to the renovation of old government buildings as well as simple office fit ups for new tenants and retail shops (example below). I've built a five story condominium building and poured a fairly large office building foundation with a sub-level garage floor. ​​
General Contractor-Insured-Home Improvement License-EPA Renovation firm & Technician
Architectural Millwork Installation
An Anheiser Busch Distributor built a new headquarters and refrigerated warehouse in southern New Jersey. I installed the millwork in their executive offices, as well as a few other carpentry projects around the warehouse.
The New Headquarters:
Wall Panelling and Shelving in the Boardroom:
Shelving System
I built this wall to wall shelving system for tap handles, which are given to bars along with the keg beers they supply.
Retail Clothing Store
This was a simple interior build out for a new clothing store business.
The steel stud framing:
Here the electrical is done, insulation has been installed and the sheetrocking is under way.
Here we see the walls sealed up and with a few coats of sheetrock mud on them, another coat plus a sanding and they will be ready for paint.
I've applied the metal corner bead on all the sheet rocked corners. This provides durability on the edges, and a straight edge for a sharp corner.
Below we can see the same dressing rooms pictured above, but with the sheet rocking finished and the walls painted . The floating wood trim detail adds a linear aesthetic element. The wood trim was filled, sanded and painted.
I used a a couple of 'vintage' windows in some areas of the space. The outlet below is ready to be trimmed out; a switch was wired in place and a trim plate installed.
Commercial Photo Studio Cyclorama
A Cyclorama, more commonly known as a Cyc wall, is a tool used in photography to isolate the subject from the background. I built this in Burlington, Vermont for a studio which specialized in clothing catalogue work. The photos below take you through the steps of the building process.
First I installed a subfloor:
After the plywood was laid down on the floor and the two back walls were built and sheet rocked I framed the rounded portions of the cyc wall.
And then covered them with a flexible plywood:
Next came the process of covering all the exposed wood with a glued down flexible sheetrock board and mortared down cement board which are receptive products for the finishing phase. I used a few different plaster and cementitious compounds to fill and shape the cyc wall into a durable and smoothly rounded object.
The plastering process is getting close to being finished, just a few more coats and some drying time and it will be ready to paint.
The plastering is finished and the cyc wall has been painted with a coat of primer.
You can see the practical effect of the cyc wall in the photos below:
Restaurant in Manhattan
This space had been a restaurant for many years when my client signed their new lease. They wanted to completely redo the restaurant. I gutted the space, excavated the floor, and started fresh with a new layout. With the help of a great group of people I built out this new restaurant:
Here we are almost completed with the demolition; we've broken up the concrete slab and excavated the old drain lines in preparation for new plumbing layout; which includes a variety of floor sinks, regular sinks and floor drains in the bar and kitchen areas which all lead into a large grease trap. In addition there are two new bathrooms with their plumbing fixtures, and a mop sink in the office area.
The grease trap along with all the new drains and vents have been installed, the excavation has been backfilled and earth carefully compacted; it's ready for new concrete.
Here's the same floor with the concrete slab poured, the floor tiled, and the walls built. Notice how the careful sloping of the floor tiles forces the water to the center of the room where two floor drains are located at either end of the wet area.
This is how all the new walls were built in the restaurant for the bathrooms, the office, the kitchen and hallway. You can see the plumbing drains, vents and supply lines are roughed in.
For the tile substrate on the walls of this commercial kitchen I installed a 5/8" Cement backer board over the steel studs. The material is impervious to moisture and has a high impact resistance, giving this kitchen a very long service life.
Below is a cardboard model of some design elements in the public area. I make mock ups like this in some situations to verify exact heights, locations and the general look.
Here are a few of the plaster arches that I had mocked up in cardboard first. They are nearing their final perfected form. We installed decorative wood moldings on the walls and ceiling. You can also see a number of new wall sconce lighting locations.
This photo shows the back hallway looking out from a bathroom in the rear of the restaurant
The two new bathrooms.
This photo shows the installation of the large format dining area tiles.
Here is the finished floor, this tile goes throughout all the public areas.
We installed a wide variety of lighting in the space.
Below is a corner of the restaurant that the owner dedicated to live musical performances; he placed two upright pianos here. You can see that there are also two large tv screens recessed into the wall.
Here we have the front entrance to the restaurant, with another large plaster arch and some lighted shelving areas. You can see on the left that we kept one of the old original brick walls.
All the stainless steel has been installed, the lighting is finished, all the plumbing fixtures have been hooked up, it's ready to go.
Comedy Club
This is a building in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that had been a furniture store for many years. The lower floor of the building was a large unfinished space. We built four heavily insulated classrooms with stages and lighting in each room for theater, improv and musical training. On the main floor we built a new stage, a new bar, and in the front of building a new coffee shop service area.
We put a new roof on the building.
The entryway received new trim and a fresh coat of paint.
Then we built the stages.
We put in a lot of different ways to light the space. Below is the line voltage lighting control board, in progress.
Ready for Showtime:
We built a new bar.
The full downstairs floor was an empty space we can came to the building. We built four heavily insulated rooms for practicing and teaching music, improv and theater. Each room had stage lights, and also a small raised stage platform.
This is the new main hallway downstairs, you can see 3 of the 4 classroom doors leading off from it.
This is the inside of one of the classrooms, you can see the stage at the end of the room.
Anonymous Artist, Theater Backdrop:
