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Spray Foam Insulation Keeps the
Trains Running on Time
By: Claire Trageser
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VENDOR TEAM
Cardinal Group Services, Inc.
SPF Contractor
244 West Airpark Drive
Central City, PA 15926
(814) 754-1987
www.cardinalgrp.com
Carolina Equipment & Supply Company, Inc. (CESCO)
Safety Equipment
7251 Cross County Road
North Charleston, SC 29418
(843) 760-3000
www.blastandpaint.com
Graco
Spray Equipment
88-11th Avenue Northeast
Minneapolis, MN 55413
(800) 647-4336
www.graco.com
Maryland Transit Administration
Client
6 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410)-539-5000
www.mtamaryland.com
Volatile Free, Inc.
SPF Manufacturer
19500 Janacek Court
Brookfield, WI 53045
(800) 307-9218
www.volatilefree.com
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For the past 100 years, the Maryland Transit Authority (MTA) has tried to keep its buses, subways, and trains running on time. So it makes sense that when the 27-year-old roof on the MTA’s Operations Control Center needed to be replaced, the state agency required the same reliability and efficiency in its contractors as it does in its trains.
“We went with spray foam because of the speed with which it could be done in a downtown staging situation,” said Harvey Goolsby, the MTA architect for the project. “All we had to do was take to the roof with hoses and get the job done. There is no more economical way to get insulation and accentuate the slopes for draining, and we did both.”
The control center is a vital part of the MTA’s infrastructure, so keeping its roof leak-free was essential, Goolsby said.
“The control center is a very high tech building that holds all the computers that run the subway system, so it’s pretty important,” he said.
Fortunately, Goolsby and the MTA got what they were looking for. Goolsby turned to spray polyurethane foam (SPF) and Central City, Pa.-based SPF contractor Cardinal Group Services, Inc. to replace the control center’s roof quickly, without sacrificing quality.
“There were new offices being built out on the fourth floor, but the roof was leaking,” said Joe Markferding, the owner of Cardinal. “So it was imperative for the MTA to get things as water tight as quickly as possible to make the completion date of the build out on the fourth story.”
The seven-man Cardinal crew got to work on the project on June 15, 2009. They were working with 7,000 square feet of a sloped concrete deck with built-up roofing (BUR) substrate that sat on top of the four-story building in downtown Baltimore, Md.
 This location presented the crew with a problem immediately: traffic.
“Inner-city work is definitely a challenge,” Markferding said. “Getting to and from work because of traffic is a problem more than anything.”
Fortunately, the MTA building had its own parking lot.
“There was off-street parking, otherwise it could be very tough trying to do inner-city work like that,” Markferding said.
Once the crew had navigated through the traffic jams, they were ready to get to work. They began by hydrovacuuming the substrate, which was covered with “a lot of inner-city dirt and gravel,” according to Markferding.
Next Markferding’s crew sprayed 2 inches (3.1 cm) of 2.8-pound density polyurethane foam. They used Volatile Free, Inc. (VFI) 540 100 percent solids Polyurea as a base coat, and then applied VFI 277 white aliphatic top coat.
“You get the best of all worlds with 2 inches of foam on the roof, while the 277 white gives you a white roof for the Cool Roof Program, which is very important,” Markferding said.
Bill Amman, the northeast regional manager for VFI, reiterated the energy-saving potential of the foam used.
 “The architect wanted a high R-Value to save energy,” Amman said. “He specified 2 inches of foam to reach his desired R-value. He also wanted a tough roofing membrane to protect from incidental mechanical damage. He chose VFI’s Polyurea coatings to meet his requirement for toughness and VFI’s 277 white Polyurea aliphatic top-coat for its high 0.84 SRI rating for light reflectance.”
The Cardinal crew used a spray rig equipped with two Graco/Gusmer H-2035 Pro proportioners, over 800 feet of hose, multiple fusing guns, and a refrigerated/desiccant air drying system for the application.
“When we’re out there manufacturing a roof in the field, we find it hard to work out of smaller rigs,” he said. “You basically have to take your warehouse with you so that you have everything on site.”
The crew also followed all OSHA rules and complied with all of MTA’s safety requirements, Amman said. They used industry-standard fall protection equipment from DBI Sala, 3M respirators, Tyvek suits, and safety goggles. Joe Sharpe from North Charleston, S.C.-based Carolina Equipment & Supply Company, Inc. (CESCO) supplied the safety equipment.
All too quickly, Cardinal’s progress on the job hit a snag. After they had started work, the owners decided that unused HVAC units should be removed from the roof.
 “We assisted the mechanical contractor to demo that out,” Markferding said. “It’s unusual that the decision was made after we started the project, but it was no big deal. It wasn’t like it was holding us up or anything. The MTA had its own people who got right on it, which made it relatively painless and kept the job on schedule.”
Another problem? The weather.
“June 2009 will go on record as being a relatively wet spray season in the Northeast, and I’m saying that mildly,” Markferding said.
The rain caused a few days’ delays, but it was nothing the Cardinal crew couldn’t handle.
“This was a small project compared to what we normally do square footage wise, so it went relatively quickly,” Markferding said.
Their consistent communication with the MTA also helped speed the job along.
“Communications never broke down,” Markferding said. “There was a gentleman assigned to us directly from the MTA, and we spoke every day to make sure that everything was laid out for the following day’s plan. We had daily job meetings to work on a game plan for the following day so we knew what would be happening a day in advance.”
Despite the HVAC, traffic, and weather wrinkles, the Cardinal crew was able to quickly get the job done. They finished on schedule, wrapping up their work on June 27, 2009.
Was the MTA happy with their work? Apparently.
“The job went so well that they specified another 80,000 feet on another facility,” Markferding said. “The MTA is a big operation, so they wanted a good roof system that wouldn’t give them any problems in the long term, and that’s what they got.”
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