Written by: Janelle
Penny
Out-of-the-way
locations, extreme weather and short schedules impose difficult restrictions on
roofing projects. FMs who are preparing for a re-cover or re-roofing
installation may find their choices limited to certain materials or
specifications that can stand up to their building’s unique challenges.
Take a cue from these
seven roofing projects, each of which required creative solutions to finish on
time and within budget while still delivering the promised results.
All
seven faced high hurdles for completion and
cleared them with ease thanks to innovative roofing strategies and the right
product choices.
1) Be Flexible When
Your Timeline Isn’t
Unforeseen obstacles
can sometimes lead to new discoveries. At Smith Springs Elementary School in
Antioch, TN, bad weather pushed
back the roof’s installation by more than 50 days.
The original
specifications called for 76,000 square feet of fully adhered EPDM, but with
the beginning of the school year looming, Porter Roofing Contractors needed to
catch up so that the school’s 800 students would have a roof on their new
school. Instead of the fully adhered product, a self-adhered version was
substituted.
The self-bonding
membrane didn’t need a separate adhesive application followed by waiting for
flash off, so five people could put down one 10- by 100-foot roll in about 12
minutes, a job that would have taken roughly 30 with a fully adhered product.
“We could put down
about 25,000 to 30,000 square feet a day with a six-man crew. We could have
never done that production with standard bonding adhesives,” explains Rodney
Cadorette, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Porter Roofing
Contractors. “We would insulate until 2 or 3 p.m., lay the self-adhered sheets
out, and be gone by 5:30 or 6.”
The Smith Springs
project was finished on time after all, and the self-adhered EPDM ended up
becoming a frequent go-to for all sorts of projects, Cadorette adds. He
recommends self-adhered roofs for any FMs facing a time crunch or pursuing green building
certifications, as the lack of glue can contribute to
certification credits.
Roofing Resources
Have you recently
taken on roof maintenance as part of your FM duties? Learn more about how to
properly maintain your roof assets with these resources.
EVERYBODY NEEDS A ROOF
Created by the
National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA), this website features a
comprehensive glossary that will get you up to speed on materials, products and
roof components. A series of factsheets offers tips on what to do about roof
damage after natural disasters.
NRCA
NRCA also maintains
its own website. Though it’s targeted at contractors, building owners and FMs
can benefit from the association’s webinars, courses and roofing manuals.
Repair Manual for Low-Slope Membrane Roof Systems includes more than 150 repair
techniques for low-slope roofs, plus advice on how to identify problems.
RCI
RCI is an association for envelope consultants who specialize in
roofing, waterproofing and exterior walls. An e-learning section and a library
of technical articles contain a wealth of information to help you understand
the unique needs of every type of roof.
2) Know Your Weather
Risks
Protecting a roof from
the elements in Ketchikan, AK, isn’t easy. The southeastern Alaska city boasts
a moderate rainforest climate that brings hundreds of inches of rain each year
along with strong winds, so any roof installed there must be able to take a
beating. This was a crucial factor in determining how to replace the
15-year-old, 108,000-square-foot roof at Ketchikan High School and the reason
why the school board opted for an Elvaloy KEE roof with edge metal for extra
protection.
The KEE roof wasn’t
the cheapest option available – another contractor pitched a product that cost
less but didn’t quite meet the school board’s specifications. The school board
ultimately chose the 50-mil KEE membrane for its durability and performance despite
the slightly larger investment.
“That material also
has a high puncture resistance, and the school gets a lot of birds up there.
The whole roof is glued down instead of screwed down because birds like to grab
hold of the screws,” recalls Mike Slater, Superintendent and Stockholder of E/P
Roofing and project manager on the Ketchikan High School project. “It also has
a 20-year puncture guarantee so that if a bird does puncture it, they can get
it fixed.”
Slater recommends
investigating KEE membranes mainly for low-slope roofs. If weather is a problem
and you need to access the roof – for example, to make quick emergency repairs
during a storm until a more permanent solution can be found – consider putting
up a tent over the affected area, which E/P Roofing used to protect each
section of roof as crews installed the new membrane.
3) Specify Carefully
for Sensitive Situations
The Bata Shoe Museum
required a tough, durable solution for its re-roofing project. The downtown
Toronto mainstay houses over 1,000 priceless, irreplaceable artifacts spanning
4,500 years of history, which necessitated a flame-free installation that was “leak-proof
right from the word go,” explains Mark Baxter, Vice President of Business
Development for Semple Gooder Roofing Canada, which installed the new roof.
Complicating matters,
the museum was set to stay open during the re-roofing project, narrowing the
field of material options to odorless roofing systems. In addition, the museum
is located on a busy Toronto street, which required careful thought about how
to avoid exposing passersby to anything hazardous.
Ultimately, the museum
owners chose a two-ply modified system with a granulated cap sheet that could
stand up to the elements. The cold-applied sheets eliminated the risk of
setting the building on fire during torching, and the field and flashing adhesives are
both odorless to avoid disturbing museum visitors and people in the building’s
vicinity.
“This roof should be
able to last 30 years, though it will need to be maintained,” Baxter says.
“Sealants at penetrations should be updated every few years before they crack
and degrade. An annual inspection of your roof is important so you can clear
debris and clean your drains. It’s also not a bad idea to go up and make sure
everything is fine after any wind event or major storm – just make sure that
everything looks the way it should. The key is trying to stop issues before
they let water into the system.”
4) Consider Cool Roof
Coatings
The Naval Aviation
Museum in Pensacola, FL, was experiencing substantial cooling costs. The
enormous structure absorbed the Florida sun with roughly 100,000 square feet of
black asphalt roofing and another 105,000 square feet of black EPDM, which
heated up to 175-180 degrees F. when the ambient temperature reached 100
degrees or higher.
A 2004 application of
a cool roof coating was so successful that when the warranty expired in 2015,
Naval Facility Engineering (NAVFAC), the Naval command that builds and
maintains facilities, decided to renew the original warranty by having
additional coats applied.
The roof was
pressure-washed to remove the jet fuel and carbon contaminates from the active
Naval airstrip 500 yards away, and a few areas received extra attention, though
most of the original seams remained tight. Ponding water areas were reinforced
with layers of waterproof membrane and polyester for extra durability.
“With the renewed cool
roof system, the roof doesn’t heat up much over the ambient temperature, so
when it cools down to 75 or 80 degrees F. at night, there’s only a 20%
temperature flux instead of 40 to 50%,” explains Dean Boddiford, Southeast
Regional Director for Astec Re-Ply Roof Systems and Insulating Coatings
Corporation, which provided the museum’s cool roof coating. “The building’s
roof is not moving like it was before when it was expanding and contracting at
a greater rate. The reflective roof also keeps the membrane underneath
protected and means that repairs are usually pretty minimal. Typically,
flashings on black rubber and asphalt roofs break down from UV degradation like
old rubber tires over the years; the sun just tears them up.”
5) Watch for
Waterproofing Failures
The U.S. Social
Security Office in New Rochelle, NY, was in a bind. Leaks in the roof were
allowing water to migrate into the building, but limited capital reserves meant
that a new roof wasn’t economically feasible. Further examination revealed that
moisture was also entering the brick on the interior of the 4-foot parapet
wall, where repeated freeze-thaw cycles were causing the brick to break.
“If they’re getting
moisture, then they’re getting mildew and water itself
coming in,” explains Scott Gayle, National Sales Manager for American
WeatherStar. Gayle inspected the existing built-up roof to see if a warranted
roof system was feasible and determined that a proprietary 15-year
urethane-silicone coating would seal up the troublesome BUR system and protect
the building from further damage. To shore up the bricks, roof boards were
mechanically fastened to the structure and a fabric reinforcement was installed
over the joints of the boards. This created a solid surface for the coating to
adhere to and “made for a much better looking job than just trying to coat
bricks,” Gayle notes.
“You need to take care
of what you’ve got,” Gayle says. “If you already have two roofs on your
building – or even if you only have one roof but you have limited access –
coatings are an option to restore that roof.”
6) Understand Local
Hazards
More than anything,
the Triple Island Lighthouse in Prince Rupert, BC, needed a roof that was
“bulletproof,” says Pierre Lizotte, President of Magnum Roofing Ltd. The
lighthouse, a Canadian national historic site, was built in 1920 and features a
72-foot concrete tower and an accompanying concrete building that are serviced
by Canadian Coast Guard personnel on a 28-day rotation. Both buildings are
subject to hurricane-force winds and
nonstop salt exposure from the Pacific Ocean.
“We’ve heard so many
stories where logs were thrown on the roof by waves,” says Lizotte. “A log once
went through the second-floor window and through the wall just above a bed
where one of the people who works there sleeps, but he was on shift. It penetrated
the wall 8 inches above the mattress – exactly where his body would have been.
Imagine the storm that can bring a log through windows and a wall.”
Public Works &
Government, which owns the buildings and the nearby cistern, determined that
the bulletproof roof the structures needed was a two-ply SBS with a
cold-applied liquid on top that would form a self-terminating, self-flashing,
seamless membrane.
“That combination is
like having two roofs, which is important because the location is so difficult
to access. We had to get there with a helicopter, so if there was a leak in the
roof, imagine how hard it would be to get there and fix it,” Lizotte says.
“They also didn’t want any chemicals from the roofing materials to wash off
with the rainwater because the people stationed there reuse that water for the
washing machine, flushing toilets and other things. With this membrane, the
rainwater draining off into the tanks stays clean.”
7) Get Creative with
Special Situations
Eight years of roof leaks at
the Mercer County Airport in Bluefield, WV, were putting multimillion-dollar
aircraft in the airport’s three hangars at risk of damage. The 30- to
35-year-old metal roofs covering the hangars were still structurally sound, but
they badly needed repairs – and those repairs had to be finished within 45 days
of finding a contractor.
The late fall timing
of the project eliminated water-based roofing products, as many can’t be used
if temperatures drop below 45 degrees F. within 48 hours of application and the
nighttime temperatures at the airport were dropping below 40. The cold-tolerant
silicone coating system that the airport managers finally selected can be
applied in temperatures as low as 40 degrees – a better fit for a fall project.
In addition, the
aircraft needed to be handled with the utmost care. Spilled coatings and
dropped tools could damage the planes, and the blustery fall winds could
encourage overspray, so after fixing damaged metal panels and loose screws, the
crew applied the coating to the more than 36,500 square feet of roof surface by
hand with rollers.
For extra safety,
airport staff moved planes into different hangars away from the roofing crew
whenever possible. “It’s one thing if you puncture a car tire. It’s another
thing if you puncture an airplane,” says Henry Malkin, Operations Manager for
Frye Roofing, which repaired and coated the hangar roofs.
The liquid coating
created a seamless surface that cured quickly, allowing the Frye crew to finish
the job in 26 working days – well within the tight timeline issued by the
airport. Biannual inspections since then have confirmed that the airport “still
looks as good as it did the day we completed the job,” Malkin says.
Those inspections are
a good idea for any building owner and help prolong the life of the roof, adds
Hank Bonney, Territory Manager for Mule-Hide Products, which manufactures the
silicone coating used at Mercer Airport.
“This roof should only require basic maintenance and making sure
there’s no obstructions on the roof,” Bonney says. “In the spring and fall, do
a walkthrough to make sure there’s no debris on the roof that could impede the
gutter system and the use of the roof. Check to make sure the gutters are
flowing freely and nothing is clogged.”