When you’re an elevator mechanic, you’re always testing. That’s what these F&S experts do yearly at every one of the 360 cars, dumbwaiters, and chairlifts on campus. When testing, elevator mechanics basically want to make sure that governors, locks, brakes, and doors all operate as they should – the car shouldn’t go too high or too low, should stop at the right place when called, … Continue reading Shop Spotlight: Elevator Mechanics Talk Testing
The previous color combination of interior painting at the International Studies Building (ISB) atrium, entryway, and main stairwell is either pink or mauve – a color combination popular in 1990, when ground was first broken there. But now, after the F&S painters finished up, the space is a little more welcoming to Illinois specifically, with new orange and blue tactfully chosen to accent the space, … Continue reading Shop Spotlight: Painters ‘Mauve’ It at ISB
The F&S Card Access team keeps campus safe, by changing lock and unlock permissions of individuals on campus. For example, when a new person is hired, they can get in the parts of a building they need to; just as importantly, names and identities can be removed from entrance and exit permissions lists. The i-card holds all the value, as it is the ‘key’ to … Continue reading Shop Spotlight: Card Access Opens Doors
Like most other past winters in Champaign-Urbana, a cold front hit campus hard in January 2025, causing temperatures to plummet to around 0 degrees Fahrenheit for days on end. That’s when the F&S Temperature Control shop does some of their most important work, bringing the heat to buildings, or parts of buildings, that may start suffering from cold. Most impressively, a combination of efforts helped … Continue reading Shop Spotlight: Temperature Control Brings the Heat
The F&S Garage services a wide range of vehicles, including F&S Car Pool vehicles, shop trucks, electric cars, garbage trucks, Zamboni machines, and nearly anything else with an engine. The garage is responsible for keeping the university’s fleet running smoothly, ensuring that all vehicles are maintained, repaired, and ready for use. The Dream Team of Campus Fleet Care The attendants handle essential tasks such as … Continue reading Shop Spotlight: The Garage – Keeping Campus Rolling
By Jalynn BugajCustomer Relations & Communications intern When it comes to keeping doors and locks in check, F&S locksmiths have the key to success, making sure everything from squeaky hinges to secure entry systems are working smoothly! On campus, the locksmith shop makes new keys or copies, replaces locks and door hardware, changes or repairs combination locks, repairs locks, door closers, and door hardware, and … Continue reading Shop Spotlight: The “Key” Players Behind Campus Security
Over 100 years ago, the Main Library opened with a secret kept behind brick. Now 100 years later, it’s been revealed to the modern public: a time capsule! And the only way in was through ‘caveman stuff’ as brickmason foreperson Eric Quinley said. F&S brickmasons wreck, tear, beat and saw their way through walls like these every day. But the impressive part is the ability … Continue reading Shop Spotlight: Brickmasons Part of History
On campus, if you have an air conditioner or anything with refrigerant in it, F&S refrigeration mechanics recover it by separating it, weighing it, and testing it for purity. And as of recently, they sell it. Kody Egolf, refrigeration mechanic foreperson, attended an ASHRAE convention–the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers–and learned about a buy-back program where companies will pay to take canisters … Continue reading Shop Spotlight: Refrigerant Leftovers Save Money
When you’re serious about safety, you’ll find solutions for everything. Including the sun. Roofers spend their working hours in the open, on top of a building rather than in it. So, when the F&S roofers shop was tasked with tearing off the old and laying the new, foreperson Shane Carr knew he’d have to address sun and heat safety. After all, the roof is 28,600 … Continue reading Shop Spotlight: Roofers’ Safety in the Sun
Cement finishers used their collective thinking cap to finish a summer job at Fred H. Turner Student Services Building, along with plenty of help from F&S construction laborers. The goal: get cement into the basement through an underground entrance. Mission very possible. Picture a Cement Truck Picture a cement truck. It has that giant spout to spread the viscous compound directly where there’s a street … Continue reading Shop Spotlight: Cement Finishers, Laborers One Bucket at a Time
