Crew On A Hot Metal Roof

Crew On A Hot Metal Roof

By Jen Kramer

         Vendor Team

Spray-Tec, Inc.
1132 Equity Street
Shelbyville, KY 40065
(800) 621-4239
(502) 633-5499
www.spray-tec.com

GACO WESTERN
Coating systems
(800) 456-4226
www.gaco.com

GRACO
Spray equipment
PO Box 1441
Minneapolis, MN 55440
(877) 844-7226
www.graco.com

MILLER FALL PROTECTION
Safety equipment
1345 15th Street
PO Box 271
Franklin, PA 16323
(800) 873-5242
www.millerfallprotection.com

TYVEK
Protective clothing
DuPont Building
1007 Market Street
Wilmington, DE 19898
(800) 441-7515
www.tyvek.com

WONDER WORKS AMERICA INC.
Protective clothing
34 West Forest Ave
Englewood NJ 07631
(888) 596-6337
www.wondergloves.com

The American South. There is no other geographic region quite like it—both romanticized and demonized for its hot, humid climate. The conditions are perfect if you are a character in a Tennessee Williams play, sitting on the front porch sipping gin. However, things become a little “less than” when you are a roof coatings contractor in Louisville, Kentucky, in mid-July, working on a metal seam roof in full protective gear, with average daily temperatures of 89°F (32°C) and typical humidity of 70%. But judging from Roger Jordan, his crew at Spray-Tec, Inc., and their work on the roof at Louisville’s Newberry Middle School, some things thrive in the Southern heat.

Jordan explains the situation, “The school itself is a single building with a 60,000 sq. ft. (5,574.18m²) standing seam metal roof that is divided up into four 20,000 sq. ft. (1,858.06m²) levels. The roof had been struggling with a manufacturer’s defect for 15 years,”

Due to that defect, “when the roof was first installed, the panels’ finish immediately

lost adhesion. By the time we arrived on site, the paint had peeled and there was significant rusting.”

Although the school gave their failed roof an F, the Spray-Tec crew knew that they could raise its grade, and quickly got to work. After the background check and identification badge issuing process--which took about a week--they went to school and got up on the roof.

“We started the project on June 8, just after school let out for the summer,” Jordan says. “The project was specified to last for 52 days. And we used three men. We were prepared to use more if we had to, but we wanted to keep a small crew in order to maintain consistency with the spray process. With one man making all the passes they stay even.”

A Nod To Tennessee Williams

In his classic play “ Cat On A Hot Tin Roof,” Williams writes that it is a victory for a cat to stay up on a hot roof as long as it can. The details of this project prove his claim is correct. First, last, and always, the crew battled ever-present heat.
Jordan and his crew arrived on site with plenty of water and Gatorade. He describes the situation: “We took temperature readings on the metal roof deck. ‘Normal’ was 140°F (60°C) and most days it was 167°F (75°C) by 2pm. It actually melted the rubber on the soles of our boots and we couldn’t kneel down. The coating would flash and dry too quickly. So this meant that our days were over by 2 pm because of the extreme heat.”

And it was not a dry heat. Jordan continues: “Most days we couldn’t start until 10 am or sometimes even 11 am because the roof was covered in heavy dew. Then that would dry and we could start to work. We were also very concerned with rain—especially since we were working with a water-based coating, which the rain could potentially wash off.” Fortunately, their luck held and there were no major rain storms throughout the course of the project. “We did get some rain,” Jordan says, “but the coatings didn’t wash off.”

And as for staying on that roof? While Williams’ character, “Maggie the Cat,” may have used guile and manipulation, Jordan and his crew used PPE and ingenuity. “We tied off on the 5:12 pitch roof using Miller anchor bases strategically mounted on the standing seams, Miller 5-point safety harnesses and retractable lanyards,” Jordan remembers. “We were 100% tied off, 100% of the time when we were on the roof. Once that first top coat was applied, the roof became as slick as ice. So we put soft rubber on the soles of our boots in order to get traction and stay up-right.” Talk about stick-to-itiveness.

Schooling The School Roof

Although much of the coating system had failed, exposing the substrate, what remained had to be removed and the metal surface had to be cleaned. “We had to get all of the paint off of the roof, so we used a high-pressure, 4500 psi wash with plain water and an oscillating tip nozzle to remove the paint from the substrate and into the gutters and onto fabric tarps that we had stretched along the ground,” Jordan says. “There were no harmful contaminates in the debris so it was disposed of in dumpsters. Unfortunately, though, this process only removed about 98% of the coating. It pushed the loose paint into the seam crimps. These loose chips had to be removed by hand.” In all, Jordan estimates that the prep process took approximately three weeks.

“Once the paint was removed, we pressure washed again, this time using GacoFlex D-09 detergent, which was run through the pressure washer at 3,000 psi.” Gaco Western’s GacoFlex D-09 is a cleaning and etching liquid designed to be applied at a rate of 400 sq. ft./gallon (9.84m²/L). “We then pressure washed again with clear water and immediately began the prime coat.”

The Spray-Tec crew used Graco 56:1 airless spray equipment to spray-apply a prime coat of Gaco Western’s GacoFlex E-5320, a two-component, water-based epoxy at a rate of 250 sq. ft./gallon (23.2m²/3.78L). This was followed by a base coat of Gaco Western’s GacoFlex A-30 Series water-borne, single-component, silicone-modified, elastomeric waterproofing coating, spray-applied at a rate of 100 sq. ft./gallon (9.29m2/L). “We applied the base coat in white to create a cooler surface,” says Jordan.

The base coat was soon topped by two top coats of Gaco Western’s GacoFlex A-38 Series acrylic water-borne, single-component coating, each in a thickness of 100 sq. ft./ gallon (9.29m2/L). “We spray-applied each top coat in just a slightly different shade of green,” Jordan explains. “This made it easier to distinguish between the two coats.”
The school did not want a broadcast. “They wanted it smooth and slick. And boy was it,” Jordan describes the final stages of the project. “Walking across that topcoat was draining. It was so slippery and you had to concentrate on keeping your footing and on eliminating pass lines. There was no stopping for the length of a panel—from the gutter to the peak. It was about 60' (18.29m) but it felt like a mile…and we would do that four times in a row—prime, base, and two top coats—in the heat.”

Crew Off The Hot Metal Roof

Although the project was spec’ed for 52 days, and those were shortened work days due to the famed Southern heat, Jordan and his crew turned the roof back over to the school after 43 days—two weeks prior to the start of a new school year. And they turned that F grade roof into an A+ job.

Jordan says with no small amount of pride, “The school district had been looking for a solution. Working closely with the school, the architect, the coatings manufacturer, and the inspector, we gave this roof a new lease on life. The district will be watching it very closely because they have more schools with the same metal roofs in the same failed condition.” Perhaps this crew will be headed back up onto more metal roofs in the near future.

Articles | Home

Submit a comment

Comments (0)

SourceBOOK 2011 is Here