When the Atlanta Farmers Market’s 22-year-old roof started leaking over vendors, goods, and customers, the owners knew that a solution was essential. After all, it wouldn’t be right if the market’s roof was leaking on those famous Georgia peaches! To fix these serious problems, the owners decided to go with Insulated Roofing Contractors (IRC) and a reroof solution.

Long Lasting Roof

Clearly after 22 years in service with zero maintenance, this spray polyurethane foam (SPF) roof system had worked. It just happened to be time for an update. “The foam hadn’t been taken care of properly,” explained Josh McKain, marketing director for IRC. In fact, McKain was sure that if it had been taken care of properly, all that would have been needed was a silicone recoat. It made sense, then, that the largest dedicated SPF applicator in the United States would be the one to reroof one of the largest farmers markets in the world.

Over the course of 30 days, the six-person crew from IRC worked to remove portions of the old roof, replace necessary SPF, and apply the new protective coating. To start, they had to remove the old gravel-topped foam. They used infrared equipment to locate the wet areas of the old SPF and then, much like most of their work, they used a machine made in-house to remove those identified areas. “A lot of our tools are manufactured in-house,” McKain said. “We just have a crew in the back that when they’re not working on any of the equipment in the trucks; they work on developing new equipment the crews can use.”

For this particular step, they used components from a dethatcher (or lawn scarifier) and a set of circular saw blades to remove the old foam. Once the old foam was detached, they vacuumed it up, disposed of it, and power washed the roof, leaving a clean surface. That left the crew a thin layer of foam that could be added onto and protected. In fact, those two qualities — fewer materials in the landfill and no need for a completely bare surface — were two of the reasons why this Progressive Materials roofing system was chosen to begin with.

Open for Business

All of the IRC work was completed while the market was still in service — 24 hours a day service. Having the market open at all times meant that the IRC crew had to pay particular attention to mitigating any overspray problems. They couldn’t have any materials landing on people, cars, or food! The IRC crew uses four-person teams to help contain the spray.

“We usually have one guy on the sprayer, one guy on the hose, two guys on a net around the edges,” McKain said. “It turned into a four-man job just to spray.” Using Graco H40 sprayers with pumps made in-house with Graco parts, the crew sprayed 1.5 inches (4 cm) of Progressive Materials SF4200 SPF, a closed-cell foam. They followed that layer with Progressive Materials Pro-Poly Sil LS 2201, which comes from the LS2200 Series Low-Solids Silicone Coating. According to Progressive Materials literature, “the LS 2200 Series roof coating, when applied over polyurethane spray foam, provides a seamless, durable, and waterproof roofing solution for industrial and commercial structures.” The crew applied the silicone in two coats to achieve an average thickness of 15 mils (381 microns) dry film thickness (DFT). Into the topcoat, they broadcast granules made by 3M.

Safety- and Agri-Culture

While working on the roof, the crew “followed normal OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] safety practices for the project,” McKain said. For IRC, that meant wearing safety equipment from Bailey Tools and setting up a fall protection system. “We used DBI/Sala Safety Equipment, set up a warning line system 6 feet [2 m] from the edge of the roof, and tied off anytime we were outside of the warning line system,” McKain continued. They also wore full-body harnesses, lanyards, self-retracting lifelines, and used “either an AES Raptor Mobile Safety Device or installed temporary fall protection anchors into the roof.”

What this rooftop crew didn’t have to do, though, was work around rain. And with no rain delays, they eased into completing the job. That meant that after 30 days of hard work, the Atlanta Farmers Market was left with a new roof, and the Insulation Roofing Contractors could walk away with the knowledge that this latest project should last 10 years. How about them peaches!