Thousands of Happy Customers

By Dani Sheehan. 

This church in Biloxi, Mississippi no longer has a leaking roof thanks to this Duro-Last® vinyl rib system and the incredible work of a trusted roofing contractor. 

Duro-Last® awarded Mid-Western Commercial Roofers its 2022 Project of the Year. In a recent episode of Stories from the Roof, Megan Ellsworth sits down with George Bock, president of Mid-Western Roofing, and Mark Newman, Duro-Last sales representative, to share the details of the project.  

Mark initially brought the project bid to Mid-Western Roofing for the First Baptist Church just north of Biloxi, Mississippi. As George explains, “The church had sustained substantial damage from a hurricane on a shingle roof, and they had over a thousand leaks, and they have over a thousand members.”  

Mark helped determine that a Duro-Last ribbed vinyl roofing system would work best for the replacement, and so George’s crew “went in and we tore off the existing shingle roof and we went down to the nail base insulation. We mechanically attached a one and a half inch polyiso roof insulation board into the metal deck. Then we installed a half inch deck cell, hardboard, and then we adhered with C20 splatter, a Duro-Last 60 mil fleece back, and the vinyl ribs were then installed on the 16-inch center.” A 120,000-square-foot project, he says it was a tough one. 

The church wanted it to look like a metal roof system when it was finished, so George’s crew painstakingly worked to run sheets from top to bottom without any butt joints. It’s one of the largest vinyl rib systems in the country, at over 90,000 linear ribs. Mark explains why Duro-Last chose the vinyl rib over a true metal system: “On the PVC, we were able to run the membrane from the eave all the way up to the top with no butt joints. Well, with standing seam, you’re limited on the length of the panel, and they were going to have some end laps.” Between this consideration and other factors including sound and the amount of damage the existing roofing system had endured, the vinyl rib system won over. 

George says it was not a quick project either, but he is extremely proud of the result. “Now the church, for the first time, they don’t have a thousand leaks. I have a thousand satisfied customers, plus there’s hundreds of thousands of people who pass this church every day on Interstate 10, and it’s very nice to look at.” 

Listen to the full podcast episode or read the transcript to hear the full details of the project and why Mark and George love working in the roofing industry.