Photo courtesy of American Roofing & Metal Co. Inc., Louisville, Ky.
Photo courtesy of American Roofing & Metal Co. Inc., Louisville, Ky.
Photo courtesy of American Roofing & Metal Co. Inc., Louisville, Ky.
Photo courtesy of American Roofing & Metal Co. Inc., Louisville, Ky.
Photo courtesy of American Roofing & Metal Co. Inc., Louisville, Ky.
Louisville Water Co. in Louisville, Ky., not only provides water to people in the Louisville Metro area and parts of Oldham and Bullitt counties, it also has an extensive history. The facility has been in operation since 1860.
So when the facility's aging roof system needed to be replaced in 2005, American Roofing & Metal Co. Inc., Louisville, was eager to win the project's bid.
American Roofing & Metal learned about the project from a local roof consultant and submitted a bid to replace the existing 650-square slate roof system. The company won the project and signed a $3.5 million contract with Louisville Water Co. Sept. 5, 2005.
A new system
Louisville Water Co.'s existing roof system consisted of Buckingham-Virginia Slate installed with copper slating nails over 30-pound felt and a 2- by 6-inch tongue-and-groove wood deck. The dormer ridges and main building featured decorative wrought iron.
"We were asked to replace the existing slate with new slate of like kind; replace existing galvanized metal flashings and gutters using 20-ounce lead-coated copper; and act as the general contractor for exterior masonry restoration, reworking the wrought-iron decorative elements, window replacement and interior lead abatement and repainting the exposed structural steel trusses and associated bracing," says Rick Steinrock, American Roofing & Metal's president. "We also were asked to add steel bracing to the truss system to stop deflection that was occurring and increase the structure's live-load ratings."
Before American Roofing & Metal began work at Louisville Water Co., it subcontracted tear-off of the existing slate.
"A crew of six to 10 men carefully removed the slate one at a time with slate rippers and flat pry-bars so all sound slate could be salvaged," Steinrock says. "About 50 percent of the slate was saved for reuse on other jobs."
After tear-off was complete, a four-person American Roofing & Metal crew installed a TAMKO® Building Products Awaflex® SBS polymer-modified asphalt cap sheet to act as a temporary roof and permanent underlayment. The cap sheet was attached with simplex cap nails, and the seams were sealed with TAMKO Building Products TAM-PRO® Premium SBS Adhesive. Then, 22- by 14- by 1/4-inch Buckingham-Virginia Unfading Blue-Black Slate was installed with stainless-steel slating nails.
And safety was considered a priority during roofing work.
"We purchased scaffolding and built an eave-height working platform at all working areas," Steinrock says. "The project was done in three phases, which reduced the total amount of scaffolding required.
"We also built a platform along the ridge of the main building, which was connected to a material loading platform," Steinrock continues. "This allowed material to be lifted with a boom truck to the loading platform, moved with a hand dolly across the ridge and then lowered to points of application. This reduced the labor of hauling material up the roof slope."
Solving problems
The most challenging work American Roofing & Metal faced during this job was restoring the decorative wrought iron on all the dormers and replacing the extensive deck and rafters.
"The wrought iron had to be removed with minimal damage," Steinrock says. "This was difficult because all the nuts and bolts had rusted into solid pieces. Our solution was to first label each piece of wrought iron with a label that could withstand sand blasting, welding and painting and still be legible."
American Roofing & Metal labeled each wrought-iron piece with stamped metal tags and kept a log of where each piece belonged.
"We then removed the wrought-iron fence by cutting it apart in a way that would require minimum welding to put it back together," Steinrock says. "After removal, the pieces were taken to a restoration shop. The shop fabricated new pieces to replace those that were missing and reassembled the wrought iron in its shop to make sure it all fit together. After that, it was delivered to the painter, who sand blasted it clean and painted it."
While this work was being performed, American Roofing & Metal installed new lead-coated copper valleys on Louisville Water Co.'s dormers and installed the new slate on the dormers and flashings. When the painters delivered the restored wrought iron to the job site, it was lifted onto the roof and reinstalled with new lag bolts and stainless-steel nuts, bolts and lock washers.
"The finished product is beautiful," Steinrock says.
The rotten deck and beams also presented a challenge. The 2- by 6-inch tongue-and-groove deck spanned 4- by 6-inch wood beams 5 feet on center, and the wood beams spanned steel trusses 16 feet on center.
"To replace or repair each wood beam, we had to remove a 10- by 16-foot section of wood deck," Steinrock says. "This created a dangerous situation with the floor being 30 to 50 feet beneath the newly created opening. Given the 8-in-12 (34-degree) roof slope and the weight of the new steel reinforcement material, repair of the wood beams was difficult.
"We had great craftsmen who worked smart and hard," Steinrock continues. "We had no mishaps during this process. After the beam repair, the crew filled in the hole with new wood deck material to match the original."
A few hurdles
There were a few additional difficulties American Roofing & Metal faced during the project, one being complicated coordination.
"Louisville Water Co. had to keep two-thirds of its water filtration beds running while we were working," Steinrock says. "This required the north/south filter building, which is basically one large room, to be divided into four sections by plastic curtains hung from the ceiling. The ridge is 50 feet off the floor."
Painting inside the building had to take place at the same time as roofing work, so when it was time to move to a new section, the two could progress together. The filter beds then were shut down in the new section and restarted in the completed section.
There were some staging issues during the project, as well.
"The site had a nice staging area in general, but we could only access about one-fourth of the north/south filter building with a boom truck and only one spot on the seven-story chemical building," Steinrock says. "This necessitated the need for the ridgetop scaffold platform. All the materials for the chemical building were loaded with the boom truck to the loading platform and then transported to where they were needed in a wheelbarrow."
And one of the largest issues American Roofing & Metal faced was the time constraints placed on it by Louisville Water Co.
"The contract had a two-year allowance for completion," Steinrock says. "We were awarded some additional masonry work, which added time to the contract. However, even with this added time, we ran over because the quarry failed to supply the slate in a timely manner."
A company effort
Despite numerous challenges, American Roofing & Metal completed work at Louisville Water Co. April 16, 2008. And the company is pleased with the finished roof system.
"The honor of being entrusted with a job of this size and scope was satisfying to start," Steinrock says. "The fact that we brought it in below our labor budget and with no lost-time injuries is something I am proud of. We had a total company effort on this job, and we all are proud of it."
Ashley St. John is Professional Roofing's associate editor.
Project name: Louisville Water Co.
Project location: Louisville, Ky.
Project duration: Sept. 5, 2005-April 16, 2008
Roof system type: Slate
Roofing contractor: American Roofing & Metal Co. Inc., Louisville, Ky.
Roofing manufacturers: Buckingham-Virginia Slate Corp., Arvonia, Va., and TAMKO® Building Products, Joplin, Mo.
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