The call probably didn’t feel dramatic at first. Storm damage happens. Roof leaks happen. You assess it, you fix it, you move on.
But in March of 2018, when part of the roof gave way at IVP Plastics in Washington, Illinois, this wasn’t a patch-and-move-on situation. A late-season storm had rolled through, and in a matter of minutes, a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing space was compromised.
No one was hurt. That mattered most. A crane rail running through the ceiling helped shield much of the equipment, which made the outcome far less catastrophic than it could have been. But production was interrupted, and for a manufacturing operation, that’s when the real pressure begins. Orders don’t stop just because a building does.
Within a couple of weeks, Jeff Frieden and the team from Warner Mechanical LLC were on site, walking through the damaged facility alongside IVP’s leadership, the general contractor, and the insurance representatives. There wasn’t much discussion about whether to rebuild. That decision had already been made. The real question was how to rebuild in a way that didn’t just replace what was lost, but actually improved it.
The building would be replaced. That part was straightforward. The mechanical systems inside it were not.
IVP asked Warner Mechanical to design a new process cooling system for 16 manufacturing machines that would be relocated into the replacement facility. In the previous building, six-inch PVC piping ran overhead across the ceiling. It did the job, but it came with trade-offs that most facility managers know too well: sweating pipes, dripping condensation, maintenance that required lifts and careful maneuvering around production equipment.
When you’re rebuilding from the ground up, you have a rare opportunity to correct the things that were always slightly inconvenient but never urgent enough to change.
This time, IVP wanted the piping installed in mechanical trenches beneath the floor, positioned behind each machine run. That decision alone changed the design approach. Buried systems don’t allow for casual fixes later. Once the concrete is poured, reliability becomes non-negotiable.
Warner Mechanical approached it that way.
Jeff recommended Aquatherm polypropylene piping because it fit the application and the timeline. The system needed to deliver 40-degree chilled water to the machines, manage return temperatures approaching 100 degrees, and go in quickly without sacrificing durability. More than 2,000 feet of Blue Pipe were installed for the chiller system, along with over 500 feet of Green Pipe for cleanup water.
But the material itself wasn’t the story. The thinking behind it was.
Instead of defaulting to welded metal pipe, Warner’s team used heat fusion to join the system. The pipe sections were heated and fused together, creating seamless connections that effectively become one continuous piece. For the installation crew, that meant greater efficiency and fewer slowdowns. For IVP, it meant fewer potential failure points embedded beneath the floor.
Joe Camp, IVP’s engineering manager, noticed the difference immediately once the system was in place. With the piping moved below grade, the facility no longer dealt with overhead lines sweating onto equipment. It’s the kind of nuisance that doesn’t make headlines but quietly consumes maintenance time year after year. Eliminating it altogether changed the feel of the space.
There was also an interesting dynamic at play. IVP is a plastics manufacturer; their engineers understand materials. As Warner’s technicians heat-fused the thermoplastic piping, it drew attention. People watched. They asked questions. They understood why the joints would hold. When you’re installing plastic pipe in a building full of plastics experts, there’s no room for shortcuts.
Because Warner’s technicians are Aquatherm-certified, the installation also carried a comprehensive 10-year warranty. When piping is buried under concrete, that kind of backing isn’t a luxury. It’s reassurance.
Today, the rebuilt facility doesn’t just function. It operates with a cleaner layout, easier reconfiguration, and fewer long-term maintenance risks. What began as storm damage became a reset, an opportunity to improve infrastructure rather than simply restore it.
For IVP Plastics, that meant getting back to production with confidence.
For Warner Mechanical, it was another example of what happens when experience guides decisions in high-pressure situations. Rebuilding isn’t just about speed. It’s about judgment, knowing when to replicate and when to rethink.
Sometimes a collapse forces you to reconsider the systems you’ve lived with for years. When that moment comes, the difference is having the right partner at the table.
And in this case, the result was a facility better than the one that stood before it.