RECOVER TEST SITE WANTED

The SPRI Re-cover Subcommittee along with the Roof Consultants Institute (RCI), and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have initiated a full-scale demonstration project of re-covering a wet roof. Begun in 1994, this project is monitoring the change in moisture content of a wetted fiberboard roofing system that has been re-covered with extruded polystyrene foam and a single ply membrane. With SPRI and RCI members donating most of the material, design and contractor labor and ORNL donating monitoring equipment and scientific support, data has been gathered over the past two years on a 8,000 square foot roof in Pembroke, Virginia. Along with monitoring the drying rate of the roof system, measurements of the physical and thermal properties of the existing and re-cover insulation, as well as changes in the solar reflectance of the single ply membranes, are being measured. The issue of fastener corrosion is also being investigated.

We are now looking for additional installations to continue this study. The building must met the following criteria:

The size of the building should be large enough to be considered representative of a typical building but small enough to control the cost of the reroofing. Ideally, the building should be between 3,000 and 10,000 ft2;

The building should ideally be located in a northern climate and have a conditioned interior;

The roof system must be contaminated with an appreciable amount of water.

The roof system must have the potential to dry downwardly (no vapor retarder);

The roof system should be as 'typical" as possible, i.e., have a metal deck, some insulation, and a traditional membrane;

The deck must be structurally sound;

Access to the roof, edge detailing, and all other aspects of the reroofing should be considered to minimize the overall project cost;

The building owner must be willing to allow us to perform an experiment on his building; and

Ideally, the building should be owned by a nonprofit organization that would benefit from the reroofing project.

If you know of a building that fits these criteria and would like to be a part of this program, please contact SPRI headquarters at 781 444 0242.