The Restoration of Westgate Media Center’s Roof

By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor. 

The building now has an environmentally friendly reflective roof that can reduce energy consumption and keep occupants more comfortable.  

Culver City, California-based Hull Brothers Roofing has been taking care of roofs in their community for the last 93 years. They don’t just repair and install roofing; they build relationships with their customers and help them maximize their investments in their buildings. That was exactly the case with the Westgate Media Center roof restoration project that was years in the making. 

Chuck Jewett has owned Hull Brothers Roofing for 28 years, and for 27 of those years has serviced the roofs of the Westgate Media Center buildings. “We started work around 1993 doing leak repairs on the office buildings,” said Chuck. “The property management company sold the building a few years later and the new owner contacted us to install a new roof. The existing roof was a five-ply rolled system constructed in hot asphalt – a true asphalt-based aluminum emulsion with a chopped fiberglass body, but it was way too early to consider re-roofing.”  

For the next 23 years, the team at Hull Brothers Roofing maintained the roof, repairing leaks caused by the penetrations supporting the more than 100 roof mounted air conditioning units. By 2020, it was finally time to do something about the roof and Chuck recommended they go with the EVERROOF® silicone roofing system that could be installed over the existing aging asphalt roof.   

Restore instead  

One of the reasons Chuck was not recommending a tear off and re-roof was because of the open ceiling design of the second-floor units. “Inside the second-floor units you would look up and see the plywood sheathing,” explained Chuck. “A tear off would have been incredibly difficult. We knew in many areas debris would fall inside the units. This made re-roofing a situation that would have been horrible.”  

When the pandemic caused the building tenants to have their staff work remotely, it presented the perfect time to move forward with the installation of the EVERROOF EVER-SILIC® high-solids silicone roofing system on the 600-plus squares roof. “We love the EVERROOF silicone product,” said Chuck. “They have excellent customer support and make it easy for us to share the specifications with the owner to show that they are getting a 15- or 20-year roof.” 

He said that using the EVERROOF system is a greener option for building owners and the environment. “Silicone is green. It allows the consumer to avoid the cost and destruction of tearing off the existing roof and throwing it into a landfill. Because there is no tear off, it’s about 40% less costly for the building owner.” 

The installation process 

The first step in the installation was to use trowel-grade EVER-THANE RF to make sure there would be no leaks during the power washing of the roof. Even the washing of the roof is done in an environmentally friendly manner says Chuck. “When we pressure wash any building, we will plug all the drains on the roof and set up water pumps to capture the dirty water. We pump it to the sanitary sewer and do not allow that job water to go to the streets and enter the storm drains.” 

After the roof was clean, they used EVERROOF’s M100 primer to prepare the surface. Following the application of the primer, they detailed everything on the roof with the EVER-THANE RF – ductwork, flashings, seams, drains and service lines. “We went from one end of the roof to the other,” explained Chuck. “It has a good thick body and is extremely elastic, allowing for movement at seams. At the ductwork we used EVER-CRYLIC and painted the ductwork white.” 

The EVER-SILIC topcoat was applied using regular rollers and spreaders with a 30-inch wide and 9-inch diameter roller. Once the silicone was in place and dry, the crew came back to roll a fresh coating in a long narrow strip where roof granules were broadcast to create walkway pads.  

The finished product is a thing of beauty says Chuck. “You can walk barefoot on the roof, it’s smooth and soft and durable as anything you can imagine.” He notes that silicone is highly resistant to standing water and impervious to UV light. It’s also a cool roof and meets California’s Title 24 building code requirements. 

“There’s an extra special type of satisfaction doing silicone roofs. I feel like I’ve actually made a difference for the environment,” concluded Chuck.    

Learn more about EVERROOF in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit www.everroof.com.