After thorough evaluation of the Asbury Tower, traditional asbestos abatement options were considered.  “We started looking at encapsulating the walls rather than bringing in an asbestos contractor to demo the bathrooms. We became aware of Best Bath Systems and their willingness to produce custom work and decided to call,” said project architect Vlad Potiyevsky, of LAN Architects.

Best Bath Systems was contracted to design, manufacture and deliver a custom accessible bath solution to effectively remodel, cover and seal the tower’s 350 bathrooms. It allowed architects and construction project managers to avoid costly asbestos removal, install a beautiful bathroom and put the remodel back on track.

The challenge for Best Bath was to design custom built pieces to fit each bathroom. Though they appeared as identical footprints on the construction floor plans, the 350 bathrooms were originally built in eight different design layouts, each with varied dimensions.

“We needed to be able to cover up the wainscot and around the door areas of the bathroom without disturbing the sheet rock and also take out the old bathtubs and put in a more accessible shower,” Cal Osborn of Best Bath explained. “We had to design for these different rooms a multi-piece, universal system; you can’t just bring in a one piece unit. So the floor needed to be separate from the shower pan and then all the wainscot and shower sections had to be custom built to fit together once they arrived at the job site.”

Best Bath manufactured over 7,000 shower surround system composite fiberglass pieces for the Asbury Tower remodel. Finish wall materials include gel coat surfaced fiberglass with encapsulated plywood. This standard Best Bath wall feature allows placement of accessories without additional modification. Because a harder surface was desired for the bathroom floor, a state of the art, sprayable solid surface was selected for the floors, giving the look and feel of granite and enabling the surface to withstand shoe traffic.

Best Bath helped construction managers meet critical construction timelines by offering unusually quick turnaround. Just six weeks after being contacted by LAN Associates, Best Bath manufactured and shipped a complete bathroom system for test fitting and resident feedback.  “It’s not your typical construction vendor that is able to supply things so fast, especially when it’s made from scratch,” said Scott Harris, senior project manager at Construction Technology Corporation.

Best Bath Systems attributes the quick turnaround time to the very nature of the universal bath system. The interchangeability of the shower wall and floor components reduces tooling time dramatically. Osborn says Best Bath’s rapid production can also be credited to Best Bath’s custom-oriented production system, which is unique to the industry.

“Out of necessity, most manufacturers are production-oriented; Best Bath is a solution-oriented company. We’re set up to do custom work and we welcome creative custom ideas, we are able to adapt to custom challenges,” said Osborn.

This partnership kept the Asbury Tower remodel on budget and enabled them to meet their spring, 2009 completion date.