Protecting Active Operating Rooms Through Complex Construction

Midwest Remediation Uses RealWall™ to Engineer a Double-Barrier Negative-Air Solution

Active operating rooms. Exterior construction just feet away. And no room for dust, contaminants or disruption to cross the line. Midwest Remediation teamed with T&W Facility Solutions to develop a custom containment approach using STARC’s RealWall™—helping protect occupied surgical areas while work continued on the other side.

The Challenge: Major Work. Zero Room for Compromise.

When T&W Facility Solutions prepared to replace exterior windows at an active hospital, the work presented an unusually demanding containment challenge.

The windows lined a corridor immediately adjacent to operating rooms—and surgeries would continue while the work was underway. Removing the exterior windows meant the project team needed to manage the construction environment while protecting occupied surgical areas just feet away.

T&W turned to Midwest Remediation to help develop and deploy the containment solution.

With experience in healthcare remediation and infection-control containment, Midwest knew a conventional barrier wouldn't be enough. Infection prevention and environmental protection were paramount. The solution needed to control negative air, manage dust and contaminants, reduce disruption and provide a stable hard barrier suitable for the sensitive environment.

And it needed to adapt across multiple phases as the work moved into increasingly complex areas—with existing lighting and sconces,

active OR hallways, contractor workspace and overhead containment all factoring into the final configuration.

The Solution: Double the Barrier. Control the Environment.

After evaluating the site conditions, Midwest designed a double-wall configuration using STARC RealWall.

Two parallel RealWall barriers, separated by approximately 8–12 inches, created a controlled negative-air chamber between the active construction and occupied hospital. The chamber was exhausted outdoors through 12-inch ducting, while pressure manometers continuously monitored conditions throughout the project.

The approach created two lines of separation and allowed Midwest to maintain controlled negative air while construction crews removed and replaced the hospital's exterior windows.

Midwest carefully leveled and pressure-fit the RealWall panels and sealed corners and potential leakage points. Once each phase was complete, the team performed comprehensive HEPA cleaning and wiped down the ceiling, walls and equipment before dismantling, cleaning and preparing the system for its next deployment.

The project began with approximately 80 total linear feet of RealWall across the two barriers. After the first phase proved successful, Midwest combined two planned phases, expanding the double-wall configuration to approximately 160 total linear feet.

Phase Three raised the degree of difficulty.

Working alongside T&W, Midwest deployed more than 200 linear feet of RealWall and more than 380 square feet of ceiling containment. The configuration incorporated another double-wall negative-air chamber along with a double-ceiling containment system—all while working around existing sconces and lighting, maintaining clearance in active OR hallways and preserving adequate workspace for the window contractors.

RealWall's flexibility and STARC's ceiling-grid system allowed the teams to configure the containment around those field conditions while maintaining the hospital's infection-control requirements.

The Results: Surgery Continued. Construction Stayed on the Other Side.

The containment strategy allowed construction to move forward while helping protect occupied surgical areas immediately adjacent to the work. The hospital's response? Extremely positive. “They said they could barely hear the contractors working, especially with the double wall,” said Phil Nicely, Business Development Professional at Midwest Remediation, who helped oversee the containment deployment. “Literally, from that wall it was 10 feet away from the ORs.” For Nicely, three RealWall advantages stood out: stability, professional appearance and noise reduction. The final phase added another advantage: speed in the face of complexity. According to Nicely, an installation of this scope using traditional containment methods could have taken multiple days. Instead, the Midwest and T&W teams deployed more than 200 linear feet of containment and constructed the double-wall and double-ceiling configuration in approximately eight hours, while meeting the hospital's infection-control requirements and protecting both the healthcare environment and contractors performing the work. The project demonstrates something bigger for restoration and remediation teams: hard-wall containment can be more than a boundary around the work area. A durable, configurable system can become part of the environmental-control strategy itself—giving experienced remediation professionals the flexibility to engineer containment around the demands of the job. For Midwest, that's already extending well beyond a single project. The company currently has more than 800 linear feet of RealWall deployed, primarily in healthcare environments across Indiana and Ohio, including restoration/remediation, renovation, construction and temporary infection-control applications. “We've done four barriers in the last week alone at four different locations,” Nicely said. “And they all want STARC.”

Why RealWall Works for Restoration & Remediation

• Rigid, stable containment for sensitive occupied environments 

• Integrates with controlled negative-air strategies 

• Configurable wall and ceiling systems adapt to complex field conditions 

• Airtight gasketing and seals help control dust and contaminants 

• Reduces construction noise in adjacent occupied spaces 

• Cleanable, professional-looking surfaces suited for healthcare environments 

• Reusable and reconfigurable across project phases and future jobs 

Complex containment problem? Bring a better barrier.

Discover how STARC reusable containment solutions give restoration and remediation professionals a durable, configurable system for protecting occupied environments and keeping work moving.