BATTLING THE WIND AND RAIN

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The roofing crew had to battle some of the worst summer weather in Colorado Springs history when installing the new roof. The company took the most experienced members from each of its in-house crews and created one seven-man “super” crew under the watchful eye of job superintendent Rene Gallegos, among others. However, none of those hard-bitten roofing veterans envied their boss, Interstate Roofing president and owner, Riopelle, who had to calculate the dimensions for the flag, its stripes, and 50 stars before work began. “Proportionally, the flag on this roof matches a federal-spec U.S. flag on a flagpole,” says Riopelle. “It required converting the roofing square footage into decimals, which was just the beginning of the calculations we needed to make.”

First, the roofing crew tore off the hail-damaged, three-ply modified bitumen membrane down to the concrete deck. A 2” layer of GAF EnergyGuard(TM) polyiso insulation was adhered to the deck with OlyBond500 SpotShot low-rise foam adhesive. The flag was bordered with 5’ rolls of EverGuard® 60 mil Energy Gray TPO fully adhered to the insulation and heat welded. Half sheets were used around the perimeter of the roof to meet both GAF’s and El Paso County’s wind uplift requirements. The red and blue stripes of the flag were created using 5’ x 100’ colored 60-mil TPO welded together with a Leister automatic welder. The extra length of the stripes meant the cutting of additional rolls of TPO to meet the 117’ length requirements.

When the crew reached the “Union” or blue portion of the flag, blue-colored TPO was fully adhered to the insulation. Fifty 4’ x 4’ stars were hand cut from 60-mil white TPO, lined up precisely and adhered to the blue TPO with bonding adhesive and welded seams. “We also added 16’ crickets to enhance roof drainage,” says Gonzalez. “There was evidence that the existing modified bitumen roof had been ponding water before the hailstorm damaged it.”

Although colored coatings would have made the creation of the flag easier, the roofing contractor immediately rejected this option. “The flag is an integral part of this roof, which is backed by a 20-year NDL guarantee from GAF, Wayne, New Jersey; so we insisted on using pre-formulated ‘color-through’ TPO membrane,” says Riopelle. “We also cut and fabricated our own TPO colored flashings. Using white flashing materials would have ruined the continuity of the flag.”

GAF territory manager, Chris Marano, was given the job of hunting down the colored TPO membrane. He searched company inventories from California to Florida to find existing materials so the contractor could avoid ordering custom colors that could take up to two months to deliver. “When I shared our idea with Chris Marano, I think he was more excited than we were,” says Riopelle. “The work he did was essential and allowed us to follow through quickly on this project.”

“The roofing manufacturer exceeded our expectations through delivery of the products, site inspections, TPO color availability, immediate response times, and competitive pricing, just to name a few issues,” adds DeVito. Interstate has completed thousands of residential and commercial roofing projects since it was founded in Denver in 1994. The company has also earned GAF Master Elite roofing contractor status. “We’ve answered the call for more efficient, sustainable, and innovative roofing solutions,” says Riopelle. “But it’s really our employees who have made us a leader in the roofing market.”

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