The school was closed, and the contractor began to rip apart the interior to install new steel, a job that in other instances has been done from the outside, without disrupting school operations.

Such repairs would also be less expensive than installing structural steel and plywood shear walls, as required under the Los Angeles ordinance.

Unfortunately, the law now requires us to install stainless steel in the aging room, because this is the way the big commercial producers work," Caterina Castellani said.

As the new segment is suspended in place by the crane, workers install steel reinforcing that attaches the new segment to preceding segments.

Wooden bracing held back the earth as workers installed a concrete floor and steel supports, and began building the walls with a single row of brick followed by a layer of hollow ceramic blocks.

In some cases it may be desirable to plan a brief outage in advance of the hook-up to install structural steel through sleeves placed in existing equipment, such as the ESP, or to relocate existing equipment that would otherwise interfere with erection of the SCR.

Fenimore Iron Works is a 26-year-old company that designs, manufactures and installs decorative, architectural and ornamental steel, iron rails, gates and fencing, which range in price from $400 for two simple step railings to $30,000 for a grand estate entrance complete with automatic gates and a voice-control mechanism.

But Mr. Ordonez said, "Fixing the roof doesn't mean putting buckets under drips, but rather installing stainless steel and mercury protectors so that no museum director will have to resign for the next 75 years because of a drip."