Finding a Cost-Effective Solution for a School Roof

By Anna Lockhart.  

When a year-round school needed a roof replacement on a budget, the roofing team had to get creative with their project management to pull it off. Here’s how.  

In a recent episode of the Stories From the Roof podcast, host Megan Ellsworth met with Richard Peake of Old South Construction and Ryan Clark of Duro-Last to discuss their experiences of being on the roof and their time working together on a job for the Riverton Intermediate School.  

The school was in need of some big upgrades. With a standing seam metal roof that was already over two decades old with some major leaks, it was time to make some changes. Due to budget constraints, this was a project that needed to be done economically. 

Richard explained the route they took to make the project as cost-effective as possible, “This job ended up being a little over 1,500 squares. The most economical way was to do a flute fill retrofit over the existing standing seam without having to tear it off. We put a 60-mil gray Duro-Last membrane, the cover board, fully adhered down to the cover board and then we ended up welding the vinyl rib systems to make it give the appearance and look of a standing seam metal roof.” 

On top of a budget constraint, the project was a challenge in that it was a year-round school. Meaning that students were on campus even during the summer, so Richard and Ryan’s teams had to get creative with coordinating with the school staff on finding tight windows of time to come in and work. While this led to a much longer time spent on the project, it was a job well done thanks to teamwork and communication.  

At the end of the day, though, those relationships and ability to problem solve are what make the job worthwhile for Ryan. “It's very relationship-driven, business-oriented and just getting to deal with a different scenario each day, getting to deal with different people each day to solve the problem... Being able to solve problems, just being able to be that point of contact, for me, to be the point guy a lot of times, to try to work with someone like Richard and their company and to solve problems and to do it professionally.” 

Listen to the podcast episode to learn more about Richard and Ryan’s involvement in the Riverton Intermediate School project and their experiences on the roof.