Salt Lake City V.A. Hospital

There are few places in any city that are more important than a hospital. The staff is under enough stress from their “normal” day-to-day duties that they shouldn't have to worry about structural problems like leaky roofs. This is why it was such a high priority for Salt Lake City’s V.A. Hospital to get a new roof as soon as the leaks began occurring.

Although they knew they were in desperate need of a new roof, they had one slight problem: limited funds. After contemplating the problem for a while, and realizing it wasn't going to solve itself – if anything it was quickly going to start costing them more to do nothing. Their contractor then turned to IB Roof Systems for a dependable roof they found to be trustworthy.

After being presented with the hospital’s daunting dilemma of limited funds but big needs, IB presented the variety of options the hospital could choose from. After considering the many choices, the V.A. Hospital elected to go with IB’s 80 mil white membrane with a fully adhered system.

The V.A. was thrilled with this option because not only was it cost effective, but it was simply a “superior system,” said the contractor. One exceptionally attractive aspect of a fully adhered system is there is only a limited number of chemicals and fasteners used to apply the membrane. This is something hospitals should seek out with the purchase of any roof because it cuts the noise level down to a minimum and the patients aren’t bombarded with chemical odors. Another benefit of the fully adhered system is that it doesn’t require a total tear-off of the prior roof and then starting from scratch; actually the V.A. Hospital was able to have the new system laid right over the top of their previous roof – thus eliminating even more bothersome noise for their patients. Not only was this a better system for the patients and staff of the V.A.Hospital, it was also more convenient for the contractors as, “It was hard to adhere in the winter, but it was easier than any other.”

The way it works is actually quite fascinating; the contractors laydown strips of IB’s membrane which are then sealed together at the seams, creating an air-tight seal. At this point vents are put in to allow air that might get trapped under the membrane to pass out: there's one every 35’ and one in each corner. Once that's accomplished the crew then mechanically attaches the large sheet of membrane, but only around the perimeter, vents, and any other curbs the membrane had to go around, this produces only a minimal level of noise.

Now that the project has been completed for one year, the V.A. Hospital is very pleased with the results. The contractor said, “After that application the only thing they’ll use is IB. They were happy with IB’s performance factor.” But the representative of the V.A. Hospital, Craig Miller, said it best with this short and sweet comment, “It’s just simply a great product!”