Convenience stores often become neighborhood meeting places, so it’s important to the owner to have an attractive and low-maintenance facility. The new and busy Pik-A-Pop in Othello, Wash., was constructed with framing from Star Building Systems and insulated metal panels (IMPs) from Metl-Span.

“This was our second convenience store with this panel, and I’ll make every effort to use it on more projects like this,” says Joe Park, owner of Joe Park Construction in Yakima, Wash. “I think we’ve done more than 200 convenience stores in the last 30 years. Insulated metal panels give us an efficient method of construction with a tight system. Trust me, that’s a tight system. The interior metal panels give the owners a durable and an easy-to-clean wall. That’s obviously important in a busy store where food and drinks are sold.”

Park says he appreciates the array of finishes the owners can have with insulated metal panels from Metl-Span. The Othello Pik-A-Pop was sided with 10,105 square feet of insulated metal panels, Metl-Span’s CF42 panel with a Mesa finish, a 26-gauge exterior panel in PVDF Regal Gray. The minor rib of the Mesa panel provides a flattened appearance. The IMPs have a 2-1/2-inch urethane core and a 26-gauge Igloo White interior panel in Light Mesa, which is an even more subtle corrugated profile.

“This is simply a more efficient way to construct a building,” Park says. “If you’re doing it the old-fashioned way, with a single skin panel and batt insulation and then drywall on the interior, you need more subcontractors and it’s not as weathertight.”

Park says building with insulated metal panels makes it easier for everyone involved to meet ever-changing energy requirements in Washington. “We’ve got about eight or nine buildings like this in the works,” he says. “IMPs have a clean look on the inside and a durable and attractive appearance on the outside. Using insulated metal panels allows us to present a more polished building with a multitude of different and attractive options.”

Park Construction was able to use cold-formed purlins as part of the mezzanine construction as opposed to open bar joists, which was a real cost-saving measure. To give the facility a unique and more attractive look, Park Construction added an entry with wooden framing and blue standing seam roofing and added veneer masonry to the front of the building.

The standing seam metal roofing is a trapezoidal standing seam profile called Ultra-Dek, from MBCI, another sister company to Metl-Span and Star Building Systems. Just more than 7,300 square feet of Polar White panels were installed on the Pik-A-Pop.