The Ford Plant was shut down for nine days beginning on Christmas Eve 2018 ending on January 1st, 2019. During the shutdown, we had 32 roofers, seven sheet metal workers and at times two cranes on board to tear-off 246 squares underneath steel…what we call belly work! All tearing had to be completed by the end of the day of January 1st as Ford was reopening on the 2nd. In addition to this extremely tight timeline and inclement weather we encountered along the way, all crane picks were blind requiring all communication to be carried out by radio.
A closer look at our schedule reveals that we set up the project on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day we started the tear-off. We were given a specific time frame to work within on this day, which meant we were only able to remove 15 squares. The restraints made for a shorter day which worked well as families were able to enjoy the majority of Christmas with their families. On the 26th and 27th we shut down for rain days, and from the 28th – 30th we tore off 186 squares. On New Year’s Eve, site tear-off was shut down due to rain again, but we decided to work and downloaded and cleaned up what wasn’t needed and inspected the roof. We knew that if we hadn’t done this, we would have never made the completion date! On New Year’s Day, we tore off the remaining 45 squares, downloaded, tore down the crane and had everything off the site for Ford’s January 2nd reopening.
All in all, the crew set up, tore-off the existing roof, installed new insulation cover board, base sheet, and base flashing, downloaded, tore down the crane and demobilized in a matter of seven days.
“This project could be the poster child for teamwork,” said Branch Manager Terry Ard. “I want to thank everyone involved for their hard work and dedication to this project over the holiday season, and I’d like to congratulate our foreman Sergio Hernandez on receiving a Certificate of Appreciation presented by Ford.”
