When people think of the name “The Shriner’s,” they often think of guys with tall purple hats with tassels, riding little cycles in parades.
In reality, Shriner’s International is a 501C organization consisting of a network of regional chapters, run primarily by volunteers, that offer support and services to those in need across the US and abroad.
One of the most notable examples of the organization’s work is the many Shriner’s Children’s Hospitals spread across the country. These hospitals provide no-cost transportation and critical health care for children and families with a wide variety of health issues. Many patients’ families do not have the means to pay for such necessary and often life-saving care.
(Left to right: Shriner’s Hospitals in Portland, OR and Sacramento, CA)
In late 2019, the team at Polyglass U.S.A. Inc.’s facility in Fernley, Nevada heard a rumor that the local Shriner’s Kerack in Reno was in desperate need of roof replacement for their facility. This facility supports the local community by coordinating transportation services to the Shriner’s Children’s Hospitals in Sacramento, CA and Portland, OR.
Upon finding out this information, Polyglass Special Projects reached out to the local Shriner’s contacts — Don Hettervik and Cody Conway — to better understand the organization’s needs and challenges, and see if Polyglass could offer some professional help, whether it be design or applicable use of products or budget challenges.
After talking with Hettervik and Conway, and offering to walk the roof and review proposals, the Polyglass Special Projects team concluded that the facility needed far more than the project budget could support. The Shriner’s budget did not allow for a complete reroofing, nor did it allow for additional support to the facility’s aging structure and roof design. After closely evaluating the existing roof, building, and building usages, the Special Projects team decided it was critical to offer and provide assistance on the best means and methods to handle a more complicated reroofing project such as this.
After discussing all options with Hettervik and Conway, Polyglass offered to work with D&D Roofing, a local roofing contractor, on an entirely new roof design that would meet the Kerack’s needs. Based in Northern Nevada, D&D Roofing was founded in 1977 and is now a 100% employee-owned company. For this project, D&D Roofing came up with a new design that provided the building with a much needed new roof and included components that would strengthen the building diaphragm. They chose a multi-ply modified bitumen roof system with exceptional performance and high puncture resistance, unlike the single-ply membrane previously under consideration.
Upon removing the facility’s decades-old roofing system, it became clear that the plywood decking was not serviceable and would need replacing. The new roofing assembly included a coverboard layer of rigid gypsum-based material and Georgia Pacific’s DensDeck Prime, which was fastened to the wood with corrosion-resistant fasteners and plates to provide resistance to high desert wind loads.
After installing the DensDeck Prime, a layer of Polyglass’ SBS self-adhesive (SA) base membrane was installed, along with Elastoflex SA Base Poly, a high-performance polyester reinforcement. As the tear-off of the existing roofing progressed each day, the crew at D&D Roofing quickly and effectively installed the coverboard and SBS SA Base to ensure the building remained in a watertight condition each day.
To add superior weathering and puncture resistance, the D&D Roofing crew installed an SBS granulated cap sheet with a high-performance reinforced polyester mat (Elastoflex S6 G) by torching means, effectively fusing all layer of the assembly tightly as a monolithic layer resulting in 270 mils of membrane. The blended color added UV resistance and a visually attractive look to the completed roofing.
With Polyglass’ contribution by providing all the modified bitumen and related membrane accessories at no cost the Shriner’s for this project, the result was a much heavier-duty roofing system. It also allowed them to reroof the entire facility and make needed deck enhancements to the building.
For decades to come, this local Shriner’s facility can continue to provide critically needed meeting and transportation services for children and their families, giving them opportunities to no-cost medical care, as well as provide local residents in the Reno/Sparks area with a low-cost gathering place they can rent to have gatherings without the worries of the past, a troublesome leaking roof.