SHOP: Criswell Collision Center LOCATION: Annapolis, MD OWNER: Kevin Marvin
1) The shop has 10 windows that line the shop walls. They allow technicians to work with natural light throughout the day. In addition, the shop has fluorescent tube lights that hang from the ceiling directly over the technicians’ stalls. Marvin says the two forms of lighting complement each other well.
2) The huge HV/AC system distributes both heat and air conditioning throughout the facility. The system fills with air like a balloon, and distributes a consistent temperature throughout the shop. Marvin says the collision center needed an efficient air system when it switched to waterborne paint.
3) The 44,000-square-foot shop is designed in a circular fashion, with paint booths in the center and body stalls along the walls. That allows the shop’s 200 monthly jobs to efficiently flow in one general direction so technicians aren’t tripping over each other and having to move cars out of the way.
4) The parking spaces keep the shop more organized by outlining each work bay, so technicians know where to park. Each parking space is also marked with a number, which helps insurance companies that want to know how many stalls the shop has when considering it for direct repair programs (DRPs).
5) The shop has three GFS downdraft drive-through paint booths, and four downdraft paint prep decks. Both of the paint booths and prep decks have the same air-moving capabilities. When the shop switched to BASF’s 90-Line waterborne paint, its booths and prep decks were retrofitted with ceiling fans.
