CLEARFIELD – Ken Dengler, of the Garland Company, brought the high school’s poor roofing condition to the attention of the Clearfield Area School District Board of Directors at a special meeting Tuesday night.
“I would classify it as poor – extremely poor,” Dengler said. He said the roof will continue to shrink and split.
“It will just keep going and become very difficult to stop. It will constantly be an issue. It has been an issue for sometime.”
He said he has evaluated the high school roof and presented photographs of it from 2007. He said the school has experienced more problems since the time of the photographs.
According to him, the building’s roof was put on in 1989 and is now going on 21 years old. He said after a 10-15 year period, building issues typically arise and cause issues.
Dengler said the roof is around 123,000 square feet. He said they had a 4,000-square foot region completed in the recent past.
“There is still more that needs to be done. It’s quite a large area,” Dengler said. He said they are currently exploring options to resolve the roofing issues.
Dengler said they had many options, including hot asphalt, cold adhesive or a “happy medium” of the two types. He said he believes the in between option is a viable one for the current situation.
Dengler said he believed they could first lay down the hot asphalt portion of the roofing. He said they could then put a top pour in the cold adhesive. He said he ultimately recommended a three-ply, modified built-up roof.
“Three layers are better than two, and two layers are better than one,” he said. “(You will see a) bigger difference. There are layers. There is redundancy. It’s all heat-welded together.”
He said under his recommendation, the roofing would be OK in 30 years. He said at some point, they may have to replace the top pour to extend its life cycle but not the entire system.
“It’s a better product. The roof could last much longer than the (25-year, no dollar limit) warranty. If it is maintained, it should last for a long time,” Dengler said.
Dengler said the previously completed 4,000-sauare foot section was done in the hot asphalt. He said if they chose the route again for the remaining roofing, it would come at a cost of more than $1.3 million.
He said they also had the strictly cold adhesive option, but it would be more expensive at over $1.6 million. He said if they chose the “happy medium,” it would save them around $250,000.
He said it would take most of a summer to complete the project, depending on weather conditions at the time. He said every day lost because of the weather is a day added on to the project.
Dengler said the project could extend into the school year but didn’t foresee any problems if it was the case. He said once the roof is put on, they will still have a lot of work to do.
Dengler said he is familiar with the school district, noting he’s completed roofing projects at both Bradford and Centre Elementary Schools. He said he’s also worked on a project at the Clearfield County Career and Technology Center.
He said he has also completed projects for the West Branch school facility and the Purchase Line Area High School.