The construction workers spend eight hours a day hammering, sawing and welding the wood and metal together to form the two-storey office building.

The cold, which renders most numb, doesn't seem to exist for them. With good boots, dry liners, quilted overalls and a face mask, the cold doesn't seem so bad, say general contractor Meredith Thompson.

For the past 18 months, Thompson has operated Meredith Thompson Construction out of Yellowknife. He and his nine employees work all year through the snow and sun, building the foundations, walls, siding and insulation of homes and offices.

Winter construction is often easier than working under the sweltering sun.

"It's not hard to stay warm if everybody keeps moving," says Thompson.

Thompson rarely shuts down his operations, even in -40 C. Instead the crew takes extra breaks beside the office heater.

The tools are another matter.

"Equipment in the cold is a difficult thing," said Thompson. "In the air guns and air compressors, moisture builds up in the hoses and you have to put anti-freeze and sometimes it doesn't work properly."

Most of the building materials Thompson's crew uses react the same in cold as in warm weather, except concrete.

Pouring a foundation in freezing temperatures can be tricky and requires heaters to cure the concrete or it will crumble when the ground thaws.

An excavator digs the hole out of the frozen soil and then the hole is sealed in with concrete. The concrete is covered and heaters are placed inside so the concrete doesn't freeze before it sets. Once the foundation dries, everything else rises in record time.