"Access was our number one challenge on this high-profile project," said George Nunley, Operations Manager for Porter Roofing. "Since it is downtown, we had problems with set up areas, no place to store materials on site and had other trades working around us,"

 

The new Nashville Public Library is part of a major renovation in the inner city of Nashville. It will house priceless art and literature from all over the world.

 

The 170,000 square foot roofing system consists of seven different levels and had to be installed in phases as the project was being built. It was critical to keep areas dry while other areas were being completed. Nunley selected a Johns Manville SBS Modified Bitumen roofing system to do the job.

 

"First we installed Ventsulation® Felt as a base sheet over a lightweight concrete deck to vent moisture vapor. Then we added three plies of Johns Manville GlasPly® roofing felt. We were able to make the roof dry with the felt and then we were able to come in with a DynaGlas® FR cap sheet," Nunley explained.

 

Another challenge were areas where tile met the parapet walls and where metal roof came down to the roof area. This required special detail work. The project also required many Expand-o-Flash® expansion joints, which were easily installed. Nunley found the interim inspections by John McNicholas, the Johns Manville representative, very helpful to the project.

 

Because other sub-contractors had to access areas of the roof that had been completed, it was important for Porter Roofing to continually check those areas for waterproof integrity. Overall, the trades were very cooperative and repairs kept to a minimum. John Porter, president of Porter Roofing said that one of the reasons was the way the job was bid.

 

"This job was bid as a team. The general contractor, Beers/Jones & Jones put the group including us, the architects and other trades together. As a result, we went into this as a team and worked very closely together," Porter said.

 

Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality building and specialty products. In business since 1858, the Denver-based company has sales in excess of $2 billion and holds leadership positions in all of the key markets that it serves. Johns Manville employs approximately 10,000 people and operates 55 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China. Additional information can be found at www.jm.com.