Close-up

The Surf Mall on the Ocean City Boardwalk in Ocean City, N.J., originally was built as the Showboat Theater in 1929. The theater closed in 1979 and, years later, reopened as the Surf Mall, selling souvenirs and boardwalk memorabilia.

By late 2010, the building desperately needed improvements: Its steel roof was rusted and showed evidence of coastal destruction and blow off. The building owner hired KMR Enterprises, a design-build firm based in Ocean City, to create reroofing options for the mall and install the new roof system.

Roofing work began in November 2010. All layers of the existing roof—metal, polymer-modified bitumen and a wood deck—showed signs of damage, and the entire roof structure had a bounce factor that needed to be corrected. The building's original construction span created a roof deflection, which KMR Enterprises President Michael Schlembach believes allowed wind and water to penetrate the system and cause deterioration faster than usual for a properly installed metal roof.

KMR Enterprises tore off the existing roof system and installed a new 5/8-inch-thick plywood deck, redid framing and adjusted the roof slope to correct areas of ponding. The new plywood deck with 2- by 6-inch stiffeners and thousands of fasteners eliminated previous deflection issues. Drexel Metals' 18-inch, 24-gauge DMC 175S metal roof with a 1 3/4-inch Snap Lock panel was roll-formed on-site and installed. The 40-mil-thick aluminum received an AzkoNobel TRINAR® coating, which contains 70 percent PVDF resin, in a custom blue color to match the previous metal roof.

Schlembach often receives firsthand feedback that confirms the six months of work on the project paid off.

"I often ride my bike down the boardwalk," Schlembach says, "and friends and familiar faces stop me and say: 'Hey, Mike, the Surf Mall looks great. The color just pops out at you. You can't miss it.'"

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