DOLAN ENTERPRISES

The Six Services of the Crib Yard

DOLAN ENTERPRISES, LLC fabricates and delivers pre-built wall panels, floor cassettes and roof sections for Central Valley builders, and runs the delivery scheduling and site staging that keep frames going up on time. Each service below is stored and released like a panel in a crib: square, dry and tagged for its place in the load.

Service P1

Wall Panel Fabrication

Wall panel fabrication is the heart of the yard. Plates are laid on a steel table and squared against a diagonal check before a single stud is placed. Studs go in at the spacing the plan calls for, with king studs and trimmers built around every opening, and headers are sized to the span above so the wall carries its load without a field fix. Sheathing is glued and nailed to the finish schedule, and the panel is checked one more time for square before it is stood upright in its C-crib.

Because the work happens on the flat, the yard can hold a tolerance that is difficult to match on a site slab in the open air. Window and door openings are measured and cut at the table, which removes a saw from the finished wall and keeps the frame clean. Each panel is tagged with its lot, its elevation and its place in the load, so a piece can be found at night and confirmed on site in daylight.

The result is a wall that arrives finished, straight and ready to stand. Builders who have framed in the valley heat understand the difference between raising a wall someone else built square and framing one from a stack of loose lumber in the wind.

Service P2

Floor Cassettes and Roof Sections

Floor cassettes are framed as rigid platforms with rim joists, blocking and a subfloor already fastened, so a single crane pick can set a room-sized deck where a crew would otherwise carry sheets and joists one at a time. Building the deck on the table keeps the subfloor true and level long after the weather turns, and it keeps the framing crew off the joists while the walls are still going up.

Roof sections follow the same method. Rafters or trusses are set in the yard, sheathed on one face, and lifted and set as a unit once the walls are plumbed and braced. Gable ends, valleys and hips are framed flat where there is room to work, then delivered in the sequence the roof crew needs.

Together, cassettes and roof sections move most of the overhead work to the ground, where a level table, good light and a material rack within reach make every cut repeatable and every joint tight.

Service P3

Delivery and Crane Scheduling

A panel that arrives before its crane is a panel standing in the street, so DOLAN ENTERPRISES, LLC books the delivery and the crane slot together. The load is built in reverse order of erection, which means the first wall the site needs is the first wall off the truck and the last piece loaded is the first piece set. The driver carries a printed sequence, and the site superintendent knows the order before the truck leaves the yard.

Routes across the Central Valley are planned against the morning window when the roads are thin and the crane is free. Tall panels travel in cribs that brace them upright for the whole trip, and each stop is timed so the site has open ground for the trailer and a clear path for the pick.

When a schedule moves, the delivery desk resequences the load before the truck rolls rather than after. That single habit is what keeps a delivery date from turning into a phone call about a missed pour.

Service P4

Site Staging and Storage

Not every lot can take a full delivery on the first day, so the yard holds panels in cribs and releases them as the schedule asks. A staging plan marks where each panel, cassette and roof section will sit on the lot, keeping a clear path for the crane and stacking nothing where a swinging load can strike it. Panels held for a later release stay upright, dry and tagged in the crib until their turn.

On tight infill lots the staging plan is drawn around the power drops, the sidewalk and the neighbor. On larger sites the plan can set a single lay-down area and feed the structure from there, which keeps the whole lot readable to a crew that is new to the job.

Storage is not an afterthought in this yard. It is the reason a builder can order a whole package and still work the site in the sequence the frame demands.

Service P5

Custom Framing Packages

Some plans carry details stock panels cannot meet, and that is where a custom framing package begins. DOLAN ENTERPRISES, LLC works from the architectural set to build curved headers, tall openings, shear walls with hold-downs set in the yard, cathedral and non-standard roof planes, and panel widths that fit a remodel as tightly as a new shell.

Every custom piece is mocked against its neighbors on the table before it is stood in a crib, so the package arrives as a set rather than a puzzle. Hardware is installed where the plan calls for it, and the takeoff is revised to match, keeping the material list and the fabricated panels in agreement.

Whether the job is a custom home, a commercial shell or an addition that has to meet an existing wall, the custom package keeps the details that make the plan unique out of the field and on the table where they belong.

Service P6

Takeoffs and Material Lists

A panel package is only as good as the takeoff behind it. The estimating desk measures the plan, counts plates, studs, sheathing, rim board, hangers and fasteners, then returns a material list sorted by panel lot. Builders use the list to check the delivery against the plan before the truck pulls away, and the yard uses it to confirm that what was ordered is exactly what was cut.

The takeoff feeds the fabrication table, the cut station and the loading board, so a single count runs through the whole order. Change orders are priced and posted the same day, and the material list is reissued with the revision so nobody works from a stale sheet.

That is the quiet service that holds the other five together: count it twice, cut it once, deliver it in order.

How a Panel Package Moves Through the Yard

Every order follows the same path from the plan to the site. It begins at the estimating desk, where the architectural set is measured and a material list is drawn up by panel lot. The takeoff is reviewed with the builder, the fabrication slots are booked, and the panel package is entered on the lot board that governs the yard for the next two weeks.

From there the order moves to the flat tables for wall panel fabrication, where plates, studs, headers and sheathing are assembled and squared. Openings are cut, hardware is set and the first coat of protection goes on. Each finished panel is checked against the takeoff, stood upright in a C-crib and tagged with its lot and elevation.

Floor cassettes and roof sections are built in parallel on the long tables and rolled to their own crib line when they are complete. Custom pieces are mocked against their neighbors before they are stored, so nothing unusual reaches the load without a dry fit behind it.

The final stage is the loading board. The delivery desk builds the load in reverse erection order, confirms the crane slot with the site, prints the sequence and the material list, and checks the hardware bin one last time. When the truck rolls, the yard knows the load is complete and the site knows the order of the picks. That is the whole method: build it square, ship it dry, frame it on time.

Order a Panel Package

DOLAN ENTERPRISES, LLC opens its quarterly delivery-slot review window for site superintendents, and the hardware bin is restocked with screws, clips, shims, straps and nails before every release.