 |
|
Superdome Slam Dunk
By Jen Kramer
The last time Wally Scoggins and his crew from Brazos Urethane, Inc. were on the roof of the Superdome, New Orleans was a city under siege. As Scoggins said at the time, “Inside the dome was considered a biohazard…it was surreal. The whole city was destroyed by flood waters. When we arrived, there was nowhere to eat and only one hotel available. We had to provide everything from out of town: food, water, and all materials.” At the time, they were charged with repairing the damaged 9.7-acre (39,254.5m2) dome and installing a spray polyurethane foam roof—18 days prior to the start of Monday Night Football, which opened with a New Orleans Saints home game.
As luck would have it, when the Brazos team returned to the Superdome roof, it was in front of the starting buzzer of another huge sporting event—NCAA’s 2012s Final Four. Fortunately, this time, the only siege New Orleans was under was that of March Madness.
 “We were in talks to paint the Mercedes logo on the Superdome roof starting in November of 2011,” Scoggins explains. “The drawings kept being revised over the course of three or four months. It wasn’t until three weeks before the actual Final Four games began that we finally got the job.” For those who aren’t college basketball fans, the Men’s 2012 Final Four was played from March 31 to April 2 in New Orleans.
But you don’t have to be a basketball fan to realize that three weeks before the end of March, puts the start of the project at the beginning of the month. Fortunately, March in New Orleans is not the hurricane season. Nor is it the rainiest season, although as the photos show, the threat of rain was always imminent. Unfortunately, March is known as the blusteriest month, with good reason. But even if it weren’t, “Up that high,” Scoggins says, “the wind never stops. Some days we had 30 to 45 mile-an-hour (48.3km to 72.4km) gusts.” But the Brazos crew are veterans of the Superdome and were tied off with full five-point harnesses and lanyards. “And if there was a chance of rain or lightning we came down.”
Hand-To-Hand Combat
The last time the crew ascended the Superdome roof, they used cranes to lift equipment and product onto the jobsite. For this job, there was no time. “By the time we could have gotten a crane permitted and set, we would have been out of time, so we had to do it all by hand, carrying everything up in elevators,” Scoggins explains. “This job was ‘Old School’ from start to finish.”
.jpg) While the Superdome officials began setting up the basketball court below, Scoggins and his crew began what he describes as “hand-to-hand combat” with the elements and the enormous stencils on the roof above.
After bringing their Mi-T-M pressure washer and Graco Pro airless equipment up in the elevators, the crew was able to set up in the gutter that runs around the perimeter of the roof. “This meant that we only had to run 150' (45.7m) of hose,” says Scoggins, describing what would otherwise have been a logistical nightmare.
The team used 5,000 psi Mi-T-M power washers and water to clean the Neogard polyurethane roof. Then using tape measurers and string, they methodically began placing the Mercedes-Benz logo.
“The stencil was vinyl and huge,” Scoggins says. “The capital letters were 50' by 18' (15.2m by 5.5m) and lower case letters were 20' by 18' (6.1m by 5.5m).”
The Brazos team employed a dribble-drive motion, spreading out across the roof to hold down the template while other members came in—up the center—to paint the logo by hand. “We marked off the stencil using Sharpies. Then, once it was down, we used brushes to apply Neogard’s moisture-cure acrylic-modified urethane, Acrylithane.” One letter at a time, starting in the middle and working to the outside, the Brazos team marched across the roof.
“While one part of the team was painting the stencil, another was power washing in preparation for the next stencil,” Scoggins says.
Although they had to battle wind gusts and a steeply sloped roof in their fight to correctly place the enormous stencils, “We only missed a couple of days due to the weather.”
And their “combat” paid off. The logo is perfectly placed. The letters are evenly spaced. Even though the roof steeply slants, the logo does not. All of which is a testament to hard work, teamwork, and “old school” know-how. Just as they finished in time to watch Monday Night Football at the Superdome, the Brazos team finished in time to enjoy the men’s Final Four at the newly christened Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Who knows when they will be back on the venue’s roof, but it is safe to say that when the day comes, the project will be another slam dunk.
Editor’s Note: For the complete story of the Brazos’ crew’s recoating of the Superdome following Hurricane Katrina,
CLICK HERE.
Articles | Home
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 
Follow CoatingsPro Magazine |
|
SourceBOOK 2012 is Here
 More than 20,000 coatings professionals need to know how to reach you... CoatingsPro Magazine SourceBOOK is your start.
SourceBOOK Sponsors:
|
|
|
|
Did You Know?
Airless Spray Safety is one of the most common pieces of equipment on a coatings job site, and also quite dangerous if carelessly used. Here are the basics on airless spray safety.
Read Complete Article
|
|
|
|
|