School’s Out, Roof’s On

By: Jennifer Kramer

For the students at Indian Trails Middle School, the end of May meant the beginning of summer vacation. For Robert Lamphier and the coatings team at Lamphier & Company, the end of May meant that they would be going back to school – or at least on top of it.

“When we got the contract to work on the roof, we knew that we would have a short window of opportunity during the summer when the children were out of school,” explains Robert Lamphier, one of the owners of the Central Florida coatings, contracting, and waterproofing company. But just because there wouldn’t be any interaction with parents, didn’t mean that they could avoid a visit from one very involved mother – Mother Nature. “Unfortunately, working during that time wasn’t the best time to try and put on a roof – at least in terms of weather,” Lamphier says with a rueful chuckle.



Protecting Over Eight Acres of Kids
 The 371,891 square foot, standing seam galvanized architectural metal roof had been coated with a factory-applied Kynar coating. “There was spot corrosion throughout the entire roof due to scratches,” Lamphier says. “They were everywhere.”

Located roughly five miles from the sea, the metal roof had been exposed to 12 years of heavy salt-laden dew, as well as Florida’s constant high humidity. “The Flagler County School District knew that they had a problem, so they contacted us.”

In addition to 45 years experience in coatings, Lamphier & Company has a proud and successful history of working with multiple Florida school districts. All of their employees are Level II background screened under the Jessica Lunsford Act – which regulates who is permitted on school grounds. “All of our employees are Level II cleared and we hold long-term people because of this,” Lamphier explains. “We take safety very seriously.” With a successful coatings track record and high marks for safety, Lamphier & Company easily passed the first exams.

In February, Lamphier and his crew went to Indian Trails and spray-applied an eight-foot-by-eight-foot sample of Gaco Western’s Gaco-Sil S-20 onto the roof. “We were testing to see if this was the right product for this roof – looking at adhesion and weathering. It was.” Not only would it protect the roof, as an energy-efficient product, it would help reduce the school’s energy consumption too. And so, at the end of May, Lamphier and his 17-man crew found themselves going back to middle school.

Mother Nature Can Be a Real…
Like a pop quiz on a Monday morning, Mother Nature had a few challenges for the Lamphier team. “The biggest challenge by far was the weather -- applying a moisture-cured silicone coating in high-humidity Central Florida,” says Lamphier. “Here’s how a typical day would work out…We’d show up at 7 am and have to wash the heavy dew off of the roof. Dry it. Start coating by 10 am. Then by 1 pm our day would by over due to rain. If we were lucky, we could work until 3 pm.”

And then there was wind. Lamphier continues, “We also often had to shut down due to strong winds. In fact, we couldn’t use wind screens because the winds changed too quickly and were too strong. We had to monitor with flags set up at a variety of stations across the roof.” Overspray was an issues as school employees were in session and the  parking lots below were constantly monitored.

Along with the winds and the rain came Florida’s famed heat and humidity. “Some days it was 90°F on that white roof with about 90 percent humidity. And my crew was up there in full safety gear. It was tough. We worked in short bursts. And we wore gel ice packs and made sure that everyone kept hydrated with water, Gatorade, and even salt pills. Working in the full sun, the heat radiating off that white roof was phenomenal. And then it would rain,” Lamphier chuckles.

Turning In The Assignment
That heat-radiating white roof may have been uncomfortable, but it was actually doing what it is intended to do – reflect heat and save the school district money by reducing the building’s energy costs. Or, as Lamphier puts it, “White is the new green.”

And does the “new green” have different application processes too? Fortunately for the weather-crunched crew, after prep, the coating is spray-applied in a two coat process and that is it. The single-component silicone doesn’t need a base coat or a top coat application.

So after their morning toolbox safety talks, the crew donned their goggles, gloves, and cartridge respirators, as well as their five-point safety harnesses. They hooked themselves to safety lines connected to temporary anchor points throughout the roof and climbed to the top of the school.

Using Graco G4 3540 pressure washers with 3,500 psi, they pressure washed the surface with GacoFlex D09 Etching Cleaner. “This removed the dew and any grime and soluble salts that were on the surface,” Lamphier says. “Then, once the sun dried the roof -- in about an hour or so -- we spray-applied the silicone coating.”

The crew used custom-built Graco GH 5030 5,000 psi airless sprayers with 3/4-inch spray lines to spray-apply the two coat application at a thickness of 12 to 14 mils WFT to achieve a final total thickness of 22 to 24 mils DFT. “We always ran a two man spray crew because of the weight of the hose. One man was the safety, one was the sprayer.”

Up. Down. Battling in windy, humid, hot, short bursts against the whims of Mother Nature. That was how the crew spent their summer.

School’s In, Roof’s Done
They finished the roof in time for the new school year. “The direct-to-substrate application is fast,” says Lamphier. It also helps to have an experienced, cohesive crew. And the district is so pleased with the roof that Lamphier and his crew have contracts for projects at additional schools. This is one coatings crew that has passed Mother Nature’s test with flying colors – and given us all an education in roof coatings in the process.

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