Repairing the current metal roof was out of the question because of the expense and need for a full tear-off.

Mike Hendrix and his maintenance crew were tired of the phone calls from the distribution center at the Greenville County School District in Taylors, S.C. Another leak meant another repair to the 35-year-old metal roof that covered the distribution center, and more time spent on roof repairs instead of other important maintenance projects.

As the master foreman of the maintenance department for the Greenville County School District, which encompasses 102 schools and administrative offices, Hendrix was accustomed to fixing things. However, the numerous leaks that plagued the 155,650-square-foot distribution center were beginning to take a toll on Hendrix and his staff.

“We needed a roofing solution that could free my staff from constant repairs — a roofing system that was durable, easily installed, and required very little or no maintenance,” Hendrix says.

Moreover, the distribution center housed hundreds of thousands of daily supplies for the school district, ranging from toilet paper to desks to computers. All of this added up to an expensive inventory, which, if got damaged from a leaky roof, would prove to be disastrous. “If we knew it was going to rain hard, we would actually cover up certain items in the warehouse with tarps in order to avoid any damage,” Hendrix recalled.

So Hendrix did his homework and began looking into roofing systems that could be used to reroof the distribution center. Repairing the current metal roof was out of the question because of the expense and need for a full tear-off, which would also be very time consuming and disruptive.

With no roofing solution in sight and more rainy days in the forecast, Hendrix finally received some good news. A roofing specialist at the school district mentioned the Duro-Shield Roofing System from Duro-Last Roofing Inc., Saginaw, Mich. A thermoplastic single-ply roofing system, Duro-Shield could provide the Greenville County School District’s distribution center with the watertight integrity it needed to protect the school supplies. Furthermore, the product was very economical — the school district’s purchase was going directly into the roofing material and the system’s prefabrication rather than the labor installing the new roof.

“The ease of installation was tremendous,” notes Hendrix. “Southerland Construction Inc. (an authorized Duro-Shield contractor in Taylors, S.C.) came to the job site with all the materials needed to complete the job.”

On a metal building, installing a Duro-Shield roof is quite simple. No tear-off is needed. The flutes are filled to create a level surface, and an extra layer of insulation is added to increase the R-value. The roof assembly is then made watertight by installing the membrane. Penetrations are also leak-proofed with Duro-Last custom-fabricated stacks and curb flashings.

“At the center of the building, there is a dividing wall that protrudes through the roof. We were able make that area watertight by flashing it and covering it with the Duro-Shield membrane,” says Brett Southerland, owner of Southerland Construction. Within a short time, the large warehouse was covered with its new roof. The white roof not only performed to Hendrix’s leak-proof expectations, it also provided a more aesthetically pleasing rooftop and made the sometimes-hot warehouse much cooler.

“There are no more leaks, the building looks great, it’s cooler in the distribution center and my time has been freed to do other maintenance tasks,” states Hendrix. “If that wasn’t enough … The warranty covers ponding water as well as consequential damages, which is very important for a warehouse.”

Today, Hendrix and his staff rarely have to deal with the distribution center’s roof. It is virtually maintenance-free with no leaks “We look forward to using Duro-Shield on future projects,” he says. “It really is the perfect fit for a metal retrofit!”