Long Lasting

Using Resilient Materials on School Rooftops

by Marcus Dodson, Publisher

Carle Manley is the facilities director for the William S. Hart Union High School District in Santa Clarita, California, a job he has held for 30 years.  His job responsibilities include the overseeing of all junior high and high school facilities within the district, an estimated three million sq.ft. under roof combined.  The district includes six junior high schools, one adult school, and ten high schools, and is among the highest performing high school districts in the state.  With over 21,000 students in the district just north of Los Angeles, California, Manley’s focus recently honed in on two of the high schools and a timely reroofing project.  But even his three decades of experience didn’t prepare him for what he found once the reroofing project began. 

         Golden Valley High School and West Ranch High School are two of the six comprehensive high schools in the Hart District and consistently rank in the top 12-13% of public high schools in the country by United States News and World Report.  In early 2024, Manley had specified a reroofing for both high schools and completed a budget for the process.  Included in the budget was a per-square foot pricing for all components within the roofing assembly system that would need to be replaced.

         Each roof assembly had a 15-year warranty and had safely performed to the length of the warranty, and the time had come for an update.  When the day arrived to begin removal of the roofs, everyone was in for a huge surprise: Upon removal and investigation of the roof assembly components, which were originally installed close to two decades prior, the original cover board was in excellent condition and was approved for reuse in the new roof construction and earned a new 20-year warranty. 

         “We were amazed during the tear-off to find the DensDeck® Roof Board was in excellent shape,” said Mark Ouellette, president of Roof Resources, Inc. (RRI), and a 30-year manufacturers’ representative in the roofing industry. 

         Roof Resources, Inc., represents premium roof system and complimentary lines throughout the industry.  RRI operates as non-fee-based professionals working with architects, consultants, contractors, and multiple owner accounts.  The team provides design assistance, customer budgeting guidance, and additional details ranging from schematics to construction documents.  From bidding to project completion and issuance of the warranty, RRI acts as the liaison between contractor and architect, consultant, and owner. 

         “We’ve worked with the Hart District for more than 25 years in various capacities,” shared Ouellette.  “In fact, we bid on the original roofing project just under two decades ago and won the job, so this entire project was very familiar to us.”

         Each high school includes approximately 220,000 sq.ft. of roof.  When the construction team reached the DensDeck Roof Board during the tear-off process, they found the board were in good condition and had maintained their integrity over the almost two-decade long life of the roof. 

         “We looked at the facer and tested the board itself, we were blown away by the superior condition of the DensDeck cover board,” commented Ouellette.  “We were sure we’d need to pull the DensDeck and replace it; the fact that we didn’t, the fact that the school district actually saved a ton of money, the fact that visually we could have sold the DensDeck as new board, which was significant.”

          “When the tear-off took place and the DensDeck cover board was in like-new condition, we were more than pleasantly surprised,” Manley said.  “The cover board was able to handle a second complete reroof, which was a wonderful budget benefit.  We appreciate the sustainability angle: the less we throw into the landfill, the less that’s torn off and thrown away, the less labor we use/the fewer guys we have to send up on the roof.  All of this is better for the environment.  Finally, the time savings: we are always working on a very short timeline in the summer, and the fact that we didn’t have to replace a huge part of both roofs was a time-save for us, across the board.”  DensDeck cover board is on all buildings within the Hart District, as Manley has been specifying the gypsum-based product for more than 30 years.  “With DensDeck cover board on all of our district roofs, I have hope that the next reroof will go as well as this one did,” concluded Manley.  “We will continue to specify DensDeck cover boards well into the future.”