Bigham Taylor’s experience shows that working above technically sensitive areas takes equal parts planning, caring and communicating. BT proved this again while reroofing an 85,000-square-foot building at the Menlo Park campus of Abbott Laboratories.
“We take great pride in the fact that we work on occupied buildings and make sure the tenants can continue to run their operations,” says BT Superintendent Rod Freitas.
“On this job, because we were working over clean rooms where noise and vibration would shut them down, we mapped out the roof and showed the client where we were going to work each day,” he adds. “Then we worked 24/7 in order to get it done with the least amount of impact on their business.”
Step one on this project was establishing a safety program, because Abbott engineers would go up on the roof from time to time to test their equipment. So, BT painted a yellow line around the perimeter to make sure Abbott’s technicians where aware of the roof’s edges.
BT tore off the existing built-up cap sheet roof and then installed a new plywood deck over the existing surface. “We had to be extra careful during that process,” Rod reports. “We were in constant communication with the client, making sure we were taking every precaution to keep their clean rooms clean.”
On top of the new plywood, BT installed 1/4” Georgia-Pacific DensDeck Roof Board before mechanically attaching a FiberTite .45 mil KEE system.
Once the roof was completed, Bigham Taylor installed a new perimeter fall arrest system and raised the roof’s site screens by varying heights to help hide the building’s mechanical systems.
The roof itself, says Rod, was straight ahead for BT. But the success of the entire project, he adds, can be attributed to communication. “Our philosophy is to check in with the client every single day, letting them know about everything that’s going on above them,” he says. “We answer our calls or return messages as quickly as possible. We want to be proactive so that tenants can run their business as we are busy on the roof.”
