Sheet Metal Supply Fabricates Rainscreen for Office Facelift

Grayslake, Ill., September 28, 2022 — The Village of Elk Grove, Ill., is offering facelift incentives to the owners of aging buildings within an industrial park developed in the 1960s. Architectural Panel Systems recently completed one of the first exterior upgrades, installing products fabricated by Sheet Metal Supply.

“The building owner at 1951 Landmeier wanted to take advantage of incentives from the village to improve the appearance of the exterior,” says Ross Boehmer, President of Architectural Panel Systems. “Originally, we looked at a custom color to match the colors of the business, but it wasn’t cost-effective for such a small order.”

After an initial inspection of the masonry on the building to ensure it would be able to handle the additional weight of the lightweight aluminum rainscreen, Boehmer says Sheet Metal Supply purchased 4mm Alucobond Plus aluminum composite panels in the color of CUPRAL to fabricate that rainscreen system, of approximately 1,300 square feet. The color and appearance of CUPRAL changes with the light that hits it.
“We were pretty excited about this project and the opportunity to work with a special Alucobond CUPRAL material that changes color, based on the lighting and angle it’s viewed,” says Ben Kweton, CSI-EP, Vice President of Sheet Metal Supply. “This was a first for us. We used Carter’s FUSION extrusion system and used the same 4mm Alucobond for the flashing, as there simply isn’t an available sheet to match this gorgeous product.”

It was a successful collaboration between Architectural Panel Systems and Sheet Metal Supply.

“We supplied the design drawings and the engineering to Sheet Metal Supply and they did a great job with all of the fabrication,” Boehmer says. “The biggest challenge was dealing with setbacks in the original masonry. Sheet Metal Supply fabricated the sub-framing so all of the new CUPRAL aluminum composite panels would be flush.”

Architect: Alan Schneider, ARSA Associates, Park Ridge, Ill.
General Contractor: BLC Construction LLC, Elk Grove, Ill.
Fabricator: Sheet Metal Supply LTD, Grayslake, Ill.
Installer: Architectural Panel Systems, Addison, Ill.