RoofingCentral OhioColumbus

Eastland Fairfield Career Tech Center Roofing

Eastland-Fairfield Career Center had two roof sections at its Fairfield Career Center campus in Carroll, Ohio that needed attention at the same time and did not need the same work. Section 2 came off entirely, down to the metal deck. Section 5 stayed where it was, with a new system built on top of it.

On Section 2 the replacement is new insulation specified to meet current code and mechanically fastened, factory pre-manufactured drain sumps, an 80-mil Carlisle TPO membrane and new perimeter edge metal, all detailed to Carlisle's 30-year requirements and carrying a 30-year watertight warranty. Walk pads go in at the walk-offs and around serviceable equipment, so the maintenance route to the rooftop units is not slowly wearing out the membrane the district just bought.

Section 5 is standing seam metal, and it stays. The contract fills the flutes between the seams with insulation, adds a half-inch SecureShield HD polyiso layer over that — both mechanically fastened — and covers the assembly with the same 80-mil TPO and new edge metal, plus new gutters and downspouts. That section is detailed to Carlisle's 20-year requirements and carries a 20-year warranty.

What the career center ends up with is one membrane and one manufacturer across both sections, two warranty terms that match two different methods, and no money spent tearing off a metal roof to throw it away. The roofing was bought through a pre-bid unit-price contract held with The Ohio Purchasing Council.

Aging membrane, curb vents and rooftop units on the Eastland-Fairfield roof before replacement

Gas line on supports across the Eastland-Fairfield roof field

Eastland-Fairfield roof looking along the gas line toward the rooftop units

Technical Discussion

Tear off one roof, recover the other

The instinct on a two-section roofing project is to do both sections the same way: one crew, one detail set, one warranty certificate, one number to explain to the board. This contract deliberately does not, because the two sections are not the same problem.

Section 2 came off down to the metal deck. That is the expensive answer and it is the right one when the trouble is under the membrane rather than in it — insulation that no longer performs, or a deck that has to be seen to be trusted. Removing everything also makes the code question answerable: the new insulation is specified to meet current code and mechanically fastened, which is a decision only available once the old assembly is gone. Factory pre-manufactured drain sumps go in at the drains instead of being cut on site. Everything follows Carlisle's 30-year details, and the warranty follows that.

Section 5 is a standing seam metal roof, and a metal roof still shedding water is a sound substrate rather than debris to haul away. The recover fills the flutes between the seams with insulation, adds a half-inch SecureShield HD cover board, and mechanically fastens both before the same 80-mil TPO goes down. New gutters and downspouts go in with it, because the drainage path at the eave is the one thing a recover inherits and it is not worth inheriting a bad one.

The gap between the warranty terms is where the argument lands. Thirty years on Section 2, twenty on Section 5, with the same membrane on both. The difference is not the sheet; it is how much of the assembly is new and documented. On a tear-off the manufacturer knows everything between deck and membrane. On a recover, part of the assembly is a roof somebody else built. The term prices that difference, and a district should read it as exactly that.

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