Blue Island, IL - Roof Replacement Project

Modern Drop Forge - Blue Island, Illinois

In April of 2004, The Modern Drop Forge Company in Blue Island, Illinois hired us to re-roof their shipping department. The 15,000 square foot shipping building had a fully ballasted BUR (tar and gravel) roof that was nearly 30 years old, and showing signs of wear, including some blistering, splitting, and worst of all, leaking.

Photo #1: Upon completion of our pre-job safety meeting, we set up our perimeter safety warning lines and went to work. The first step was to remove the existing gravel ballast. This can get messy, but our guys got it done in a hurry. This is us removing the gravel ballast and also shows a nice clear shot of the safety line warning system.

Photo #2: When the gravel ballast was removed, and the material loaded to the roof, work could begin on repairing the splits and blisters in the existing roofing. We also removed and replaced areas of wet roofing insulation. This is always good roofing practice and allows us to install our new system over a firm solid substrate.

The wood fiber recovery board was installed with 3" stress plates and 5" long deck screws. Our fiberglass base sheet is then set in a solid mopping of hot asphalt, which provides a torchable surface for our modified bitumen membrane as well as temporary waterproofing.

Photo #3: Any flat re-roof should have the existing flashings removed so that you can be sure your new flashings are adhered and sealed to a solid wall with good mortar joints. We of course remove only what we can cover in any given work day so that all work areas are watertight before we leave the roof for the night.

Photo #4: With all the necessary prep work complete, the modified bitumen membrane is laid, the walls flashed, the flashings termianted and sealed. The roof installation is complete.

Photo #5: All that was left to do was to to install our shop-fabricated gutter system and solder all the joints in the galvanized steel. This roof required an application of a reflective coating, which the customer chose to do in-house.