California Community College Saves $2 Million by Choosing Restoration Instead of Re-Roof

Eight of the 12 failing roofs were ideal candidates for restoration.

In 2016 the main campus of northern California’s Yuba Community College District was experiencing roofing problems. Persistent roof leaks were disruptive and costly, raising the possibility that the college would have to replace a dozen failing roofs within a short period of time.

While investigating a long-term solution, Director of Facility Planning, Maintenance and Operations David Willis contracted with Tremco Roofing and Building Maintenance’s affiliated construction services company WTI to reduce the number of roof leaks across campus. During this period, WTI provided preventive maintenance, housekeeping and leak response, dramatically reducing the number of roof leaks across campus.

After the leaks were under control Tremco Senior Field Adviser and California Region Leader Bill Burke conducted an audit of the failing roofs and determined that eight of them would be candidates for restoration using Tremco’s AlphaGuard® BIO system.

Burke said Willis was a little skeptical at first that the roofs which were causing him so many problems could be restored. He connected Willis with the Sacramento Convention Center and Sierra College in Rockland, California, who recently restored their roofs using Tremco’s restoration system. Both provided positive feedback and highly recommended that Willis move forward with the restoration.

Finding the right solution was the first part of the challenge. The second part was that Yuba Community College wanted to keep control of the campus-wide project without sacrificing quality.  Procuring both materials and labor through OMNIA Partners, Public Sector, a nationwide cooperative purchasing network, and the National Cooperative Contractor Network, administered by Tremco Roofing, enabled the college to deploy its own staff as project managers.

With Burke’s assistance Willis sought bids from pre-qualified local contractors within the National Cooperative Contractor Network. Confident that all participating local contractors met The Contractor Network’s quality standards, Yuba College awarded campus work to Madsen Roofing and Waterproofing and Brazos Urethane. This allowed Willis to have two quality contractors work simultaneously to complete this very large project, predominantly during the summer break.

More than 174,000 square feet of roofing over a dozen buildings was restored, repaired or replaced in just four months. Roof system tear-off was avoided on all restored, repaired and replaced roofs, generating additional cost avoidance, as well as environmental benefits. The community college ended up saving $2 million by avoiding tear off and replacement on eight of the roofs. Each AlphaGuard™ BIO roof system came with a 25-year leak-free warranty.

“Yuba Community College District benefited from both the ‘Best Value’ and lowest ‘Total Cost of Ownership’ solution over the long-term,” said Willis about the total experience. “This has been one of the best and most rewarding projects that I have ever been part of.”

The project was recognized by Tremco as the West Region Project of the Year for 2018.

Learn more about Tremco’s AlphaGuard Bio fluid-applied system.