Saint Ann’s Catholic Church in Seal Beach, Calif., has been serving the faithful since 1921. Its beautiful copper dome tower has been watching over the community for 87 years. The base is over 40 feet in the air and only accessible by setting up a scaffold, therefore when the old roof develops a leak, particularly in the vicinity of the dome, it is not an easy repair to make.

Saint Ann’s Catholic Church in Seal Beach, Calif., has been serving the faithful since 1921. Its beautiful copper dome tower has been watching over the community for 87 years. The base is over 40 feet in the air and only accessible by setting up a scaffold, therefore when the old roof develops a leak, particularly in the vicinity of the dome, it is not an easy repair to make. It has a history of not remaining leak-free for very long. Over the years, every attempt to keep it from leaking had failed.

Recently a roofing consultant brought in Ross & Barrows, a roofing contractor from Santa Anna, Calif., who specializes in difficult leak repairs and roof restorations, to fix it once and for all. After reviewing the different options, including custom fabrication of a sheet metal pan or neoprene boot, it was determined that the best chance for permanent success would be to use a combination of fabric-backed EternaBond WebSeal MicroSealant tape to seal the area and then coat it with Neogard as a final surface.

“The details and the limited room to fabricate something custom was an issue,” said Jeffery Eder, president of Ross & Barrows. “Since we had the experience with both EternaBond and Neogard along with the support of Structural Materials, this restoration method was not only possible, it made practical sense.” The EternaBond tape’s history of longevity, flexibility and ability to fuse to the different surfaces present along with Neogard’s expected long life allowed Ross & Barrows to create a customized solution right on the site.

Eder described the procedure they decided on and implemented this way: “We had to heat and scrape smooth the rough edges from the old mastic, and chip everything clean until smooth. We applied SBS pieces into corners as an underlayment and to build up and aid in drainage. The drain was found to be in good condition and was reused.”

“We coated the newly prepared deck with EternaPrime,” he continued. “Then two plies of WebSeal were used on the deck, up over the walls and to the top and inside vertical surface of the walls to make everything weather- and water-tight. White EternaBond RoofSeal was chosen to crest the exposed walls so we wouldn’t have to apply the coating. We chose WebSeal in the other areas because, in our experience, the fabric-backed EternaBond (WebSeal) conforms to uneven surfaces better than RoofSeal and it is designed to be used with coatings. Next, black Neogard pre-coating was applied, followed by four coats of Grey Neogard. When all this was complete, a new coping and bird spikes were installed along with a screen on top to keep birds out as well.”

As difficult as the profile and conditions were, the EternaBond and Neogard worked as easily as expected. The leak is history. The customer hoped their roof could be repaired. Repairs don’t last but restorations do. This roof wasn’t repaired, it was restored.

For more information about EternaBond, visit www.eternabond.com.