What’s Taking You Guys So Long?
Have You Been Lying Down On The Job?

	You want me to get under there and do what?
	Our foreman Jose Gomez lying underneath a chilling unit installing a new roof.
	Another day of working underneath the equipment.

That's a question that could have been asked of our foreman Jose Gomez and his crew when they took on the very challenging task of re-roofing the loading dock/ mechanical well of the Merrill Lynch building at 701 “B” Street in San Diego.

The existing roof was a fully ballasted single ply roofing system that was installed over a lightweight concrete roof deck that was poured over a steel roof deck. Over the years, with building upgrades, new mechanical equipment was added, making for a very crowded and busy roof surface.

The roof is four stories above the street and is pretty small- approximately 30' wide X 60' long. The challenge of roofing this area of the building was the presence of a large mechanical frame (20' X 40') with several very large chilling units sitting on it, but the most challenging part of this project was working under all of this equipment. The lowest point of the frame work was only 12” above the roof with an average height above the roof of only 18”.

Jose Gomez and his crew worked on their bellies for the better part of a week underneath the equipment, removing the ballast (large smooth rocks) and installing a new ballasted 60 mil. Fleece- back PVC, single- ply roofing system.

Without such products as this single- ply roofing membrane this roof could have been impossible to replace without removing all of the equipment.

Most roof areas that are this size could have been removed and replaced in a day, but because of all of the equipment and penetrations on the roof this project took 8 ½ days to complete.

The project could not have turned out nicer. What a great job by Jose Gomez and Company, even if they did lie around all week.

Mike McConnell is the principle estimator for A -1 All American Roofing Co., a full service roofing company. A-1 All American Roofing provides services to building owners and individual homeowners through its residential division. (858) 581-5177 mmcconnell@sbcglobal.net

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