ASHLAND — It’s time for issues with the Ashland County Jail roof to be addressed.
That was the message from Steve Wrona, a territory manager at The Garland Company, Inc., a Cleveland-based material manufacturer, to the Ashland County Board of Commissioners during its May 7 meeting.
Garland has handled projects with Ashland County for more than 20 years, specifically efforts to maintain county buildings — including roofing and walls, said Wrona, who has worked with the county for the past decade.
The manufacturer helps design plans and create scopes of work for projects.
The territory manager provided an overview of the current conditions of the rooftop on the Ashland County Jail, a facility opened in February 2001. Wrona also shared information regarding possible next steps to correct the issues with the roof.
“We’ve had some issues across most of the building. One in particular is a low slope/wash bay in the back,” he said.
The roof is predominantly a standing seam roof, Wrona said, which is a type of metal roofing with vertical panels. He said active leaks have been a problem at the jail for at least the past 10 years.
“We’ve done a number of upgrades to the building already — added gutters, snow bars, fasteners. We’ve had contractors on site resolving leaks. There’s been kind of a persistent issue with the roof,” Wrona said.
The design of the building presents some challenges when it comes to resolving issues with the roof. Some areas of the roof have exposed fasteners, Wrona said, which date back to initial issues with contractors during installation.
“I think a lot of the issues that may be present with this building, it was through construction and at the end of the day we had a project that was completed with little oversight,” he said.
Commissioner Jim Justice said after several patch jobs, the roof is past the point of repair.
“Band-Aids only work so long,” Commissioner Michael Welch said in agreement.
Ashland County Sheriff Kurt Schneider said the leaks have reached a point where it’s becoming problematic for his staff.
“My staff is working with dripping water. They were in there with the recent rains with an umbrella over their head just making sure that stuff is not getting on the computer systems so they can do their jobs,” Schneider said.
“Maxwell House and Folgers and Home Depot buckets have been great for a while, but we’re beyond that now,” he said.
Problems and possible solutions
Exposed fasteners present major challenges with metal roofing and building movement. In most standing seam roof systems, not a single screw is exposed, Wrona said.
“They like to back out (with building movement), which then leads to holes (in the roof). If you can imagine, a lot of these issues lead to roof leaks and that’s kind of the reason we’re here,” he said.
The building was designed sans gutters and snow bars, causing snow, ice and water to run off of the roof and next to the building — posing structural threats.
Wrona said Garland is having preliminary discussions to determine the best way to proceed in helping the county. The company assists with engineering and selecting contractors to complete the work.
“We’ve worked with some good contractors here in the county. I feel like that’s vital to have success,” the territory manager said.
Some possible corrections Wrona discussed were adding more gutters and snow bars to the roof, proper engineering to factor in building movement, and detailed design addressing fastener patterns and wind pressure.
He said the existing standing seam roofing panels actually look in great condition, but everything around them is old and in need of replacement.
How much a replacement roof may cost
Given the size of the building and scope of the replacement project, Wrona said there are options to be explored while acknowledging a financial burden on the county’s budget. For example, work could be completed in sections, beginning with the highest areas of concern, etc.
“The challenging part is there’s not one specific area that is having trouble. The entire building is having trouble,” Wrona told the board.
“I do think it would be a concerted effort to do the building over time, but not everything needs done at once.”
To replace the entire standing seam roof at the county jail, Wrona estimated it would cost about $2 million.
Schneider said the sheriff’s office plans to set funds aside into its maintenance fund to save for the necessary replacement project.
“Engineer the whole project and then phase in the work is basically what we’re going to try to do,” the sheriff said.
