North Park Ice Arena

North Park Ice Arena provides a community hub for ice sports and recreation for the people of Elyria, Ohio. Operated by the City of Elyria Parks & Recreation Department, the rink is home to youth hockey programs, high school teams, and public skating events that bring families and athletes together year- round. The rink shares the park space with playground equipment, an outdoor swimming pool, and a T-ball field.

In recent years, Elyria has prioritized improvements at North Park and other recreation facilities, as outlined in its Parks & Recreation Master Plan. The City's investment underscores the importance of the arena as both a sports venue and a gathering place for the community.

Challenges

Drone footage acquired a few years earlier had identified potential damage to the metal roof of the arena, but no corrective action had yet been taken. Among other factors, a reliable roofing system is essential to help maintain the interior temperature control and moisture management of an ice rink, so it’s easy to understand how the city’s renewed focus on improving its recreational facilities led to a reassessment of the drone findings, and a decision to bring in a roofing contractor. Only by addressing the roof’s condition could the City ensure that the arena could continue to host skating, hockey, and community events without interruption and within budget.

Additional challenges included safety and overspray potential. The sloped shape of the building required 100% tie-off for installer safety. Plus, both the nearby pool and the presence of a second contractor crew, brought in to build a locker room extension concurrent with the roof restoration, meant the work site would have to be carefully monitored for wind to avoid potential overspray.

Finally, the existing red roof was creating a dated appearance. The Elyria Parks & Rec department wanted a more neutral, sophisticated look.

City of Elyria Parks & Recreation selected West Roofing Systems, Inc. based on a positive experience with an earlier project. West Roofing Systems President Chris West and Operations Manager Greg Haas had previously performed an analysis of an Elyria school's roof. While no work was performed because the school was eventually demolished, the detailed analysis, insightful recommendations, and responsive communications from West Roofing had made a lasting impression that led to new business.

Solution

Replacing the metal roof on the ice rink could have cost three times as much as a silicone restoration, while a single-ply solution such as TPO would have required flute-fill, potentially exceeding the weight limitations of the existing metal roof and block wall structure.

West Roofing Systems recommended GAF High Solids Silicone in dark gray for the roof. This gray offered an optimal color compromise for both summer cooling and winter heating. For maximum weatherproofing, they recommended sealing and coating adjoining concrete block walls with GAF FlexCoat Acrylic Concrete Wall Coating over GAF SureBond Primer.

They also replaced 12 damaged wall panels and repaired the concrete walls with acrylic brush grade sealant.After prepping the roof with a high-pressure washer, sealing screwheads with self-leveling silicone, and seams with silicone mastic, the crew masked all rooftop equipment, penetrations and so on prior to coating. The roof received two coats of high solids silicone — the base coat to a dry- film thickness of 10 mils, and the top coat a dry-film thickness of 20 mils. To manage overspray, the team often sprayed during weekends or after hours, or when the wind was blowing away from the pool area. They also hung clear tarps with magnets over the side of the roof to protect building walls.