As the women's basketball team raise the roof in Colonial Life Arena, it's starting to show. Colonial Life Arena's current roof is facing a number of damages due to routine wear-and-tear, and the current estimated cost of the roof replacement project is $2 million.
The board of trustees approved an initial $30,000 to be taken from the athletic operating budget, but this does not include the price of the roof membrane itself. Firestone Building Products offered to provide the new roof membrane for free, which significantly reduces the cost of the repairs, according to university architect Derek Gruner.
“A roof replacement project can occur without affecting the interior operation of a building, so there will be no impact to other events in the arena,” university spokesperson Jeff Stensland said in an email.
The project must be approved by the state, which cannot happen until the spring. Pending approval, the investigation of what exactly needs to be replaced will take place sometime between April and August. After the investigations are complete, the committee will come back for a phase two approval with the full board in September 2020. The repairs will likely commence in May 2020, Gruner said.
According to Gruner, this is to be expected from the 17 years it has been in place.
“There’s a life expectancy that can be pretty well predicted," Gruner said. "The roof on Colonial Life Arena had a 15-year warranty, meaning that we should have expected the life expectancy to be somewhere between 15 to 20 years.”
Gruner said the damages to the roof are caused by wind, rain and sun exposure.
“These roofs do tend to wear out. Sometimes seams split, sometimes things puncture the roof, either by people getting on the roof or by objects that strike the roof," Gruner said. "The expansion from heat and the sun can cause roofs to stretch and sometimes they wrinkle. All those things are going to create gaps and cuts in there.”
The university is not focusing on just the roof, but also the potential of water intrusion in the arena itself.
“What you worry about, of course, is roof leaks, just like you might have in your house," Gruner said. "This project is also going to look at potentially water getting around the concourse, too. So it’s not just the roof, it’s also the breadth of the walls.”
These damages were first discovered about two years ago in a routine roofing inspection by Facility Services. Rather than undertaking a complete repair of the roof immediately, the staff attempted to extend the life of the roof through patching compounds, Stensland said.