Falewitch Construction Services specializes in framing, drywall, fireproofing, and increasingly complex specialty ceilings. With a peak workforce of 200, the company serves Omaha and projects within a four-hour radius, including recent intricate work at the Joslyn Art Museum and Harrah’s Columbus Casino.
When John Falewitch decided to start a wall and ceiling company in 1995, he was prepared to wear most hats. “He handled everything from estimating and supervising to carpentry work and was even the one collecting checks at the end of the day…,” says his son Matt Falewitch, who today is part owner with John and partner Lance Parker of the company—one of the largest drywall contractors in Omaha, Nebraska.
Now in its 30th year, Falewitch Construction Services specializes in framing, drywall, acoustical, specialty ceilings, EIFS, plaster and fireproofing. The company maintains a peak-season workforce of about 200 employees, serving Omaha and project locations within a four-hour radius. The younger Falewitch, vice president and project manager, says while most projects include a specialty ceiling component, these elements have recently grown in complexity and required more intricate design and coordination.
Recent examples of contracts at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha and Harrah’s Columbus Racing and Casino facilities about 90 minutes away in Columbus, Nebraska, were anything but straightforward.
Joslyn Art Museum
Establishing more than 2,000 elevation points to shape the sweeping curves of the 7,000-square-foot ceiling at the Omaha art museum was a complex task that demanded advanced technology, tight coordination and creative problem solving.
The process started with Falewitch’s building information modeling (BIM) team modeling the ceiling based on the architect’s design intent. “Our virtual design and construction (VDC) team worked on the project on and off for about six months to achieve the detail needed for the ceiling,” says Falewitch, pointing out there were also some areas where installers had to adjust elevation points to “even out” the ceiling to ensure the rolling form met the design specifications for the second-floor ceiling.
Falewitch also collaborated with Armstrong Ceilings to design the ceiling structure, which was modelled and integrated into layout software using the camera-based Hilti PLT 300 total station for precise digital layout. Zach Stewart, Falewitch’s main foreperson, says the ceiling was laid out on the floor in a 3×3-foot grid. It took weeks to establish every elevation point for the hanger wires. “Once the wires were attached to our mains at the correct elevation we then would screw our boards to the mains.”
With floor-to-ceiling glass on three sides of the space, the owner prioritized acoustic performance. To meet this need, 10-millimeter plaster-coated Pyrok boards were specified for their sound-absorbing qualities. To hide the mud joints in the boards, around the lights and expansion joints, the contractor added a recessed edge to the boards. “Pretty much everything you see in the ceiling we had to rout and recess into the Pyrok,” Stewart says.
A few coats of plaster were applied over the seams with no tape “to make them disappear” and then a spray-on “superfine” finish was applied over the entire ceiling. There were a lot of precautions taken once the panels were sprayed to prevent damage from other trades. “The problem was that if one panel had a ding or scratch you had to refinish the whole panel to make it blend in.”
Achieving a smooth finish on this system required “significantly more labor” than a conventional drywall ceiling, Stewart says. “Our crew had to rely heavily on their eye for detail to get it just right. They knew that any mistakes would mean scraping it off and starting over.”
Stewart says that the contractor is fortunate to have the experienced and capable plasterers for the work. “They really stepped up to the challenge to get it right.”
Falewitch points out it is increasingly difficult to find workers experienced in old-school plastering techniques. “Over the next 5 or 10 years, that is going to be a struggle, especially with these bigger, complex jobs coming into town.”
As about half of the museum’s second floor ceiling overhangs the first floor lobby, the work was completed using a tow-behind boom lift stationed on the first floor. Falewitch had to coordinate schedules with other trades such as electrical which also required the boom lift.
The contractor also had to install more than 400 curved glass fiber reinforced gypsum (GFRG) panels on the second floor. Even though they were installed in a number of different galleries, there was a common reveal running across the entire ceiling so the panel elevations had to be identical in each room, says Stewart. “Ahead of time we had to go in and frame the radiuses for all the panels and make sure they lined up all across the second floor.”
To transport the panels, which were up to 12 x 4 feet, to the galleries Falewitch crafted large rolling tables to wheel the materials into the building and then hoist them on a forklift to the second floor. Hanging each panel required up to four workers because of their “big awkward, swooping shapes,” the job foreperson says.
Due to the design, the contractor built from the top down only to about four feet above the floor in the all of the galleries because the flooring had yet to be installed. “Once we had the ceilings and everything finished and painted, they installed their flooring and we came in and finished our walls to the floor. To create a seamless transition between the walls and flooring, a Fry Reglet reveal was installed at the wall base. “The walls we started in 2022 we couldn’t finish until the flooring was in place in 2024.”
Stewart, who has been with Falewitch for about six years, says the art museum contract threw lots of curves at the Falewitch crew that peaked at about 30 over the two-year contract. “The challenging nature of this project called for our most competent craftsperson.”
The contractor’s scope of work over the two-year museum job also consisted of fireproofing, cold-form framing on the exterior canopy of the addition. Spray foam was applied in the plenum space and exterior insulation and finish systems (EIFS) directly over top.
While Joslyn was unusually complicated as projects go in the contractor’s world, Falewitch sees other complex jobs on the horizon in Omaha that involve specialty ceilings with radius soffits and other novel features.
Harrah’s Columbus Racing and Casino Complex
Another recent project which presented more than its fair share of challenges was Harrah’s Columbus Racing and Casino complex in Columbus, Nebraska. To complete interior work on a tight deadline prior to the installation of slot machines, Falewitch employed a prefabricated drywall soffit framing system (SimpleSoffit) by Armstrong for the various soffits with distinctive profiles.
“We sent them a blueprint of our soffits with dimensions, and they created a jig to put punch outs in certain locations, packaged it in a box and sent it out to us,” says Dave Keim, Falewitch’s site superintendent, Harrah’s.
Joe Moore, senior project manager, adds the job presented an unusual scope. “Instead of doing traditional stick framing soffits with drops from the deck and then building out our soffit profile, Armstrong made dies specifically for this profile that were sent to site.”
The system was built in 12-foot sections on the floor and hoisted into place with two side-by-side scissor lifts. All the components were hung by wires which had to be plumb to minimize kickers, keep the soffits square and get accurate elevation points, Moore says.
With a milling machine on site, Falewitch built its drywall shapes, eliminating the need for corner beads on the soffits. “All we had to do was finish our joints and screw heads which saved on our bead time and finishing time,” he points out.
But installing 65,000 square feet of directional ceiling tiles over a traditional grid ceiling was tricky. The ceiling crew made a mockup on the floor to ensure the correct layout of the directional ceiling tiles.
When Falewitch first started the ceiling the casino was empty but as work progressed, carpets were laid and some slot machines moved into place. The worksite got busier as numerous specialty contractors filled the space, creating obstacles and scheduling challenges for Falewitch.
Protective plywood coverings laid over carpets allowed crews on scissor lifts to finish the ceilings at roughly 20-foot heights. Careful planning allowed the contractor to shave about two months off the interior portion of the big casino job, Moore says.
The contractor also cut three months off the exterior scope by prefabricating the metal frame panels and EIFS in its climate-controlled prefabrication shop, West Coast Prefab in Omaha. Of the 100 or so panels specified, many were 32-feet tall by 12-feet wide. The panels contained multiple vertical and horizontal grooves and cornice sections that had to “perfectly match up.”
Craning the metal sheathed backup panels with weather barrier into place was hampered by weather. Even with two workers on the roof with clips to secure the large panels and two workers with tag lines walking the craned panels into place, windy days put a stop to the job, explains Keim.
Calling Columbus “one of the windiest and wettest places” he has worked in his 21 years with Falewitch, Keim says the crew still beat the construction deadline because of its work ahead of time at its prefabrication shop.
The casino’s front entry or porte-cochère presented its own challenges. Keim calls the infill framing and EIFS required on site for the large entry “almost a project in and of itself because it was so massive and elaborate with various angles and pitches.” The job called for 16-guage 35-foot tall studs on eight-inch centers. “There were a couple of spots where we had to tie off and walk beams like ironworkers. It was a pretty stout build,” he says.
Falewitch’s scope at Harrah’s also included walls and ceilings for the grandstand building, jockey quarters, paddock plus six horse barns and a maintenance shed. The project took about 18 months.
Moore says getting involved in a design-assist role during the preconstruction phase was paramount in the elimination of problems during construction. “It helped us to show them what was possible with our pre-fabrication approach.”
He says he appreciates challenging jobs such as Harrah’s. “Sure we’re a drywall contractor but if there is something more challenging which other contractors like to shy away from, we like to go after it because that’s what makes this business interesting. To learn something new and bring somebody’s idea to life is a fun part of the job.” CD
Don Procter is a freelance writer from Ontario, Canada.
