FONTAINEBLEAU HOTEL - Miami Beach, Florida
The Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami is one of the most famous hotels in the country. It has been featured in many movies and television shows and has hosted presidents, kings, celebrities and other members of the elite. So when the Fontainebleau recently underwent major renovations, the team called upon an elite contractor to handle the roofing.
We have handled many difficult and high-profile projects in the past, but for us, the Fontainebleau was one of the most challenging. In order to make sure that the project received the highest level of attention and dedication to the details, we re-located our most qualified and experienced crew members to Florida on a semi-permanent basis. In addition, both the owner, Pat Butcher, and VP of Operations, Bob Meller, made many trips to Miami to personally oversee the progress. (Click the Professional Roofing Magazine cover to the right for an October 2007 article about the job)
This project presented a variety of challenges, each of which tested our experience and expertise in different ways. For example, the project involved 27 different roof levels, which made set-up very difficult. Each section had varying existing conditions and levels of complexity, from structurally unsound steel decks, to several layers of existing roofs over concrete decks. Portions of the roof deck had to be modified or removed at all wall locations in order to install new wall flashings. Over the deck, the existing roof system was composed of modified bitumen over a layer of coal-tar pitch. Removing this type of roof is very labor intensive, and the pitch dust causes severe skin irritation. Compounded with the southern Florida heat, this situation was not pleasant for the crew. Despite these challenges, the crew expertly installed a new white Firestone modified bitumen roof system. This type of roof is perfect for the hotel as it provides a fair amount of solar reflectivity while also surpassing the stringent, hurricane-zone wind-uplift requirements.
In addition to the new membrane roof, we also installed an epoxy coating over several portions of the building's exterior. The epoxy coating provides a watertight surface, additional solar reflectivity and a long, warranted, service life.
