Working Through the Unexpected

An update on the roof replacement project

The big question on people's minds

We want to bring you up to speed on the roof project, because the scope has grown since we started.

Let's start with the money question so nobody sits through the rest of this wondering. There's good news and bad news, and they mostly cancel each other out. The good news: the EIFS work — that's the exterior wall system — came in well under what we had budgeted for it. The bad news: those savings will be absorbed almost entirely by the windows. We have two quotes in hand, one right around thirty-two thousand and one at thirty-nine. So the surprise is real, but the bottom line lands close to the figure we budgeted at the outset. We're still finalizing the loan, and we'll bring you firm numbers once that's settled.

What happened

Here's what happened. When the crews opened up the walls around the auditorium windows, they found the windows were never installed correctly. Not damaged, not worn out — never installed right, going back to when we moved into this building in February of 2001. And this isn't one bad spot. It's all twenty-four auditorium windows, both sides. There's no pan flashing under any of them. The building paper was laid over the top of the window frames instead of wrapped into the openings. The outside trim is even facing backward. In plain terms: when water gets in, it has no way back out. So it works its way down inside the wall.

The wall system itself doesn't help. The exterior is EIFS — an Exterior Insulation and Finish System, sometimes called by the brand name Dryvit. Our building went up right at the tail end of the years when EIFS was built as a sealed barrier with no drainage path behind it. The industry figured out that was a problem and published new instructions in the late '90s, but most crews didn't follow them until the early 2000s. We landed squarely in that gap. Both contractors told us the same thing: it was essentially designed to trap water.

We have found damage, though minimal. Rotted decking above the janitor's closet and near the kitchen, replaced with new OSB and fire-treated plywood where needed. Water-damaged wall sheathing beneath the EIFS, already cut out and replaced. The ceiling tiles below those windows have been telling us something for years. Best guess is water has been getting in for close to two decades. But the structure held — partly because of steel framing behind portions of those walls, and mostly, we think, because the Lord has been kind to us. Twenty-five years of Ohio winters with water in the walls should have left us far worse off than this.

That's not the only thing our roofing contractor found once the roof itself was opened up. In several other areas of the building, wall flashing had been installed improperly and wasn't overlapping the way it should. More notably, they found missing valley flashing — and that turned out to be the answer to a leak we'd been chasing in the pastoral offices for years without ever pinning down the source. Working alongside our EIFS contractor, they've replaced that step flashing and wall flashing throughout the building, not just around the auditorium. As added protection against future leaks, they also installed Grace Ice & Water Shield along every eave line and valley on the roof — two rows at the eaves, three rows in the valleys.

What can be done

The first question we asked was the one you're probably asking: can't we just take the same windows out, flash the openings properly, and put them back in? The answer is no. These are shop-built commercial units, so pulling one means taking the frame apart and removing the glass — and after twenty-five years, the sealed gas between the panes is spent. One contractor put it this way: when they pull old leaking windows, those windows go in the dumpster. You don't put that back into new work.

Timing is the other piece. Roof flashing and wall flashing have to tie together so water has one continuous path out. If we shingled over those sections now and did the windows later, we'd be tearing off brand-new roofing to get underneath it — paying twice for the same square footage. So the windows come first there.

What the plan is now

Here's where that leaves us. The roof itself is done. Every section that could be finished has been finished. What's left is the run along both sides of the auditorium, and that work is simply waiting on windows.

And those windows may not go in until spring. These are commercial-grade units built to order — not something you pick up off a shelf — and twenty-four of them run six to eight weeks in production once we place the order. We're weighing the two quotes now, and we'd rather take the extra week to choose well than rush a decision on windows this church will live with for the next thirty years. But EIFS can't be applied once nights drop into the low 40s, which around here is around late October. If the math doesn't work, we'll seal and winterize those sections and install the windows in the spring.

We hate the delay. But if there's one thing you can count on with construction, it's this: expect the unexpected.

So let us tell you now what you'll be looking at. If we winterize, both sides of the auditorium will look unfinished through the winter. It won't be pretty. But it will be sealed and protected from the weather, which is what actually matters until the windows arrive.

How this will be avoided in the future

Now here's something we want to own. Nobody ever told us these walls needed regular upkeep, and so for twenty-five years, we didn't give them any. That's not an accusation aimed at anyone — it's simply what happened. This system needs the expansion joints and window perimeters recaulked on a schedule, and it needs paint often enough to seal the hairline cracks before they open into real ones. We didn't know that. We do now. The contractors are helping us set the frequency, and it's going into our maintenance plan so it doesn't depend on any one person remembering. Going forward, we intend to take care of this building on purpose instead of finding out the hard way.

The good men who have been helping

One more thing worth saying. Every step of this has gone through our own men, not just the contractors. The roof committee has been in the loop on everything uncovered, including both window quotes, and they've been up the ladder looking for themselves. Nobody cares about this building the way we do, and we'd rather ask one question too many now than find out later we should have.

How to pray and who to ask questions of

Would you keep praying with us — and keep giving faithfully as the Lord leads? Pray He expedites this in His timing: that we choose wisely between these quotes, that the loan comes together, that the windows come in ahead of schedule rather than behind it, and that the work gets done right the first time. “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1).

If you have specific questions about the project, see Jon Roque. He's been in every one of these meetings and can walk you through the details.