Rainy Days Are History for This School District

By Duro-Last. 

See how Technical Roofing of Indiana helped this school district put its rainy-day fears behind them and won an award for it as well.  

When facility leadership at Culver Community Schools met the Technical Roofing team at a local tradeshow, roofing needs were already at the forefront of their mind due to ongoing leak challenges. Technical Roofing was invited to visit and assess the joint middle school and high school building, finding multiple areas of concern in the aging modified bitumen roofing system. It was during this time that the district also started experiencing troublesome leaks throughout their elementary school as well, which featured EPDM membrane and a patchwork of other roofing systems from years of additions and repairs. Ultimately, the scope of the project was expanded to include both facilities.  

“When it rained, there was a constant fear of what you were going to walk into the next day when you entered the school,” said Brett Berndt, principal at Culver Middle and High School. “Some areas of our roofs hadn’t been touched in over 25 years, so it was important to us that we got a complete system overhaul that offered protection we hadn’t been getting for quite some time.” 

After presenting the custom-fabricated Duro-Last® Roofing System to district leaders and submitting a comprehensive project plan, Technical Roofing was awarded the job.  

“We worked with the Engineering Services team at Duro-Last to put together a deck sheet layout of the roofs,” said Mike Alt, sales representative for Technical Roofing. “We gave them drawings and dimensions of the roof surfaces, and they were able to put a plan together that showed exactly where the on-site seams would be with the deck sheets. That was immensely helpful as we planned out the installation and determined how to stage the material for the specific sections that we were working on.” 

As an additional time and budget savings for the school, Technical Roofing was able to overlay the existing roof with ½” Duro-Guard® EPS fanfold insulation before mechanically attaching the custom-fabricated Duro-Last membrane and installing custom stacks, custom curbs, and accessories. Perimeter walls were terminated with EXCEPTIONAL® Metals’ 2-Piece Snap-On Compression, and Roof Trak® III Walkway Pads were added to provide safe walkways for foot traffic.  

“The edge metal was a really unique element of this project,” said Tony Wourms, Operations Manager for Technical Roofing. “With their existing roofing systems, they had 10-inch metal on the perimeter of the buildings that they wanted to replicate with the new Duro-Last system. Their school colors are almost identical to the terra cotta color offered through EXCEPTIONAL Metals and Duro-Last, so we were able to utilize the 2-Piece Snap-On Compression with a five-inch cover and pair it with a six-inch fascia extender to offer them a sleek termination that tied into the school’s identity. The finished product looks very sharp and they love that we were able to incorporate that element for them.” 

With a team of 20, Technical Roofing completed the project during the school’s summer recess.   

“We installed roughly 189,000 square feet of membrane at the middle school and high school building, and 44,000 square feet at the elementary school, including over 10,000 linear feet of parapet material,” said Tony. “To accommodate timelines, we approached this project in sections. The district identified the core sections that needed to be completed first to avoid any disruption to students as they returned to school in the fall and we worked out from there. We were able to divide our crew up into smaller teams so multiple sections were installed in one day, and then we sealed everything up each night to ensure a water-tight project from start to finish. In the end, it came out beautifully and both schools now have cohesive roofing systems that are going to keep them dry for many years to come.” 

The Technical Roofing team presented the district with a 20-Year NDL Warranty from Duro-Last upon completion of both facilities, and faculty are happy to report that they are now able to focus on student education as opposed to roof leaks. 

“The entire project has exceeded our expectations,” said Culver Community Schools Superintendent Karen Shuman. “From the customer service and attention to detail provided by Technical Roofing to the quality of products from Duro-Last, it has been a great experience. We never once questioned if we made the right choice.” 

Contractor: Technical Roofing of St. Henry 

Project: Culver Community Schools 

Location: Culver, Indiana 

Square Feet:  233,800 combined 

Products: Duro-Last® white and terra cotta 50 mil membrane, Duro-Guard® EPS ½” Fanfold insulation, Roof Trak® III Walkway Pads, custom curbs and stacks; EXCEPTIONAL® Metals 2-Piece Snap-On Compression, Fascia Extender 

Learn more about Duro-Last in their RoofersCoffeeShop® directory or visit www.duro-last.com.