PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Alaska Cover-All LLC: The most versatile buildings on the market

Cover-All’s thermally welded polyethylene fabric construction holds up under all extreme Alaska weather conditions

Q. Where is Alaska Cover-All LLC located?

A. My husband Paul Nelson and I maintain a home office for the business as well as our Cover-All building at 1761 E. 64th Street. The 64th location is where Scott Coon and Henry Brown work.

Q. What year was the company founded, who founded it?

A. In 1998 Jim Protzman of Arctic Insulation asked Paul if he and I wanted to do a partnership being a dealer for Cover-All Building Systems. We said yes. I handled the bookkeeping and advertising side of the business and Paul handled sales with Jim. At that time, we were just Alaska Cover-All.

Q. Who heads up Alaska Cover-All and who is on its senior management team?

A. Paul and I are 50/50 owners. We bought out Jim Protzman in 2001 as he was too busy with his other company. While Paul and I are final decision-makers, we do a lot of team thinking with Henry and Scott. Henry, a longtime Alaskan, has worked in both vertical and horizontal construction for 25 years, with the last 12 focused on construction and project management. He joined Alaska Cover-All in 2001.

Scott Coon, who handles sales and support, graduated from the University of Alaska and recently joined Alaska Cover-All. He has over 13 years of sales and design experience in the industrial fabric industry and won a 2004 Industrial Fabric Association International Award of Excellence.

Pete Stone has joined us as a consultant for the building industry. Pete has 27-plus years in the construction field in Alaska, and has worked on projects throughout the State from Prudhoe Bay to Ketchikan. He started in highway construction and transitioned to “vertical” building construction, focusing on design, development, permitting and management. He is on the Board of Directors for the Associated General Contractors of America, Anchorage chapter and is working (with many others) on the Municipality of Anchorage’s “Title 21” Rewrite

Q. Describe any partnership arrangements and when they became effective.

A. I have mentioned Jim Protzman. Meini Huser who owns Alaska Dreams Inc. out of Fairbanks, has been erecting our buildings since 1999. Meini helped a friend in Fairbanks pull a truck out of a ditch during a blizzard. Meini, having put up other fabric buildings for many years, noticed the cargo — our building going to the slope. He calls us, comes down to Anchorage to help erect a building and see what we had — no money exchanged. After a joint venture handshake, he continues to erect our buildings to this day.

Q. What is the company’s primary business sector, and what services do you offer?

A. Our primary business sectors are industrial and construction. We provide a dependable, economical, and transportable fabric covered, steel framed building. The buildings come in many sizes and can be designed for specific applications. We encourage people to look at our buildings. For an idea of the configurations possible, there’s a 30’ x 180’ warehouse building at Alpine; a 100’ x 160’ at Kuparuk; a 100’ x 107’ Graybar Electrical Warehouse in Anchorage; a 130’ x 180’ Ship’s Drydock in Seward which is 114’ tall; and derrick and container enclosures for Anadarko’s Hot Ice Project.

Q. Is your company expanding any of its operations and/or locations?

A. We just opened the 64th location in September of this year. We wanted a great Cover-All office building of our own to show, have meetings with clients, etc., and a yard with storage for the delivery of our buildings.

Q. What is Alaska Cover-All’s main strength, i.e. its edge over the competition? Main competitors?

A. Our buildings are very reliable and economical and have virtually unlimited applications. The patented truss-arch design assures superior building integrity and is engineered from certified structural-grade steel tubing. High performance DuraWeave® fabric covers are virtually maintenance free, and have tremendous rip, tear and puncture resistance. The framework is built with ViperSteel® and finished with triple-coated Gatorshield® corrosion barrier for a longer service life. All welds are finished with a molten zinc process.

Our main strength is probably the level of service we provide. We were chosen 2002 U.S. Dealer of the Year and won Western Regional Dealer of the Year two years in a row. Customer service is an important factor in judging for these awards. Cover-All Corporation follows up with every customer regarding their purchase experience. I’m happy to say we get very high scores for service. As far as competitors — no comment, other than that the various fabric building companies have different offerings. We believe Alaska Cover-All offers the best products available.

Q. What new markets, clients and/or projects did Alaska Cover-All attract in the last year?

A. A timber company purchased a building last month. John Binkley of the Fairbanks Riverboat Discovery operation purchased an 80’ x 53’ building. Meini connected the existing building and the Cover-All for additional retail space. It worked beautifully for the summer tourist months. John said many a tourist was seen looking up at the building truss structure instead of the stuffed bears! The Cover-All building is used in the winter for storage.

Q. What is the most challenging job the company has undertaken?

A. The Seward Ship’s Drydock, which is 23,000 sq. ft. and 114 feet tall. The building has a wind rating of 135 miles per hour. The Anadarko Petroleum Hot Ice Project - a drill rig derrick enclosure; also roof and wall covers for open areas between containers. These enclosures were custom designed using existing Cover-All truss components.

Q. What are the biggest obstacles to completing work the company undertakes?

A. Understanding clients’ needs and the challenge of wintertime erection. Fortunately the buildings don’t require extensive foundation work, and the largest ones we’ve done were assembled in a couple of weeks.

Q. What is Alaska Cover-All’s safety record?

A. Excellent, with no blemishes. We are a 2005 recipient of the Marsh USA Excellent & Safety Award through AGC.

Q. Does Alaska Cover-All maintain a website?

A. Cover-All Building Systems is located in Saskatchewan, Canada. and has manufactured over 44 million square feet of buildings in the last 12 years. The company maintains a website at www.coverall.net/. In addition to obtaining complete information on designs and specifications, interested parties can sign up to receive periodic information from the company. Alaska Cover-All pictures are also available on their website.