The Range at Austin: Putting Up Walls

By Nick Leghorn

By the time I finally came on board with The Range at Austin the general floorplan was already finalized. The foundation was solid and cured by my first day of work, and within a month the walls were ready to be erected. Speaking of putting up the walls, the way that this building is actually constructed is pretty damn cool . . .

The standard building materials for projects this size are wood and sheet metal. Lightweight materials that are relatively inexpensive, easy to work with, and quick to erect. The problem is that when you start thinking about what goes on in a range — small projectiles traveling at multiples of the speed of sound — wood and sheet metal don’t really contain all that chaos terribly well. So instead of the excessively permeable standard construction method, we opted for walls made out of highly reinforced concrete.

Containment was definitely the reason why the materials were chosen, but it wasn’t just the projectiles we didn’t want leaving the range — the sound needs to be contained as well. One of the other ranges in Austin is a perfect example of what happens when you get this wrong: you need hearing protection …Read the Rest

Source:: Truth About Guns