This is a long story. This one begins in 2014. The year was 2014. Zac had this complicated system of platforms and poles in his head for our HVAC system. See, when you retrofit an old building, there are a few hard questions. Where do you put your trash? (still unanswered, BTW) Where do you put your A/C compressor? In the backyard? on the roof? Do you have to hire an engineer to deem your roof capable of handling the weight? Do you just put it in the backyard? No, then everyone has to listen to it when they sit outside. After all our thinking, our little bier garden in the backyard would be severely compromised if we put the compressor there. The old world ambience would be crushed. There is a little part of the backyard that is elevated with a pecan tree, it could go there, but now you have to run all your mechanicals up a 17 foot retaining wall and dig them into the landscaping. And it would be more susceptible to vandalism. Crack heads love your copper in your a/c compressor. It was decided, the compressors would go on the roof. And for a hot minute, Zac thought we would put all the compressors from the kitchen on the roof. As it turned out, it will only be the A/C compressor and the glycol chiller for the brewery. Both great things to have out of the way.
This is where the story begins. One hot muggy August in 2014, Zac spotted a house trailer frame for sale on Craigslist. $150. You haul and dismantle. The kids had just started school again, which is always a time for refocus and restarting. Zac borrowed the metal cutter from the Dryden’s, and we set out to seek our fortune. We land in some trailer park on the south west corner of Little Rock. We’ve got the van and the trailer, and we spend the next several hours cutting i-beams apart to make a neat little pile of rusty, craggy metal that would turn into our mechanicals platform on the roof. Of course, I had no idea how any of this was going to work, but in these moments I have learned not to ask Zac too many questions. It wears us both out. I don’t understand, and he can’t imagine I can’t see the hologram in his head of the heat and air unit sitting safely on the roof. I just catch the other end of the beams, that I can hardly lift, and hope I’m not doing any permanent damage to myself or others. Kids from the trailer park wander over and stare, the occasional dog runs by. The guys who was selling us this treasure came and got his cash and split. Trusted we wouldn’t start dismantling other trailers. These moments are so curious to me, how did this guy know he could sell a trailer frame? How did Zac know this was just what we needed? The unspoken world of rednecks. There is no manual for this, you just have to be enterprising and see the opportunity that is everywhere in our world. I just like to think of a mall department store at this moment, the polar opposite of this experience. The mall, where everything was already decided, and all there is is a deep need to not stand out and ones wallet. I would have liked to walk these rusty i-beams through the mall. But really, they are too heavy. I digress.
This is what we started with, right?
And this is what we ended with. A pile of metal. Okay.
The end of the day. The kids come home, ask what we did, we dismantled a house trailer frame! WHY? they ask. I cannot answer.
When we bought our building, there were holes in the roof. The roof was in such disrepair, Joe Davis had literal tarps channeling the water into five gallon buckets that he forgot to empty.
This was 2007. We will call this roof patching from below.
Obviously, move number one after we bought this building was to put on a new roof. Problem solved! 10 year warranty, all is well. Well, kind of. The roofing company disappeared. Oh well. It held until now, but there were some problems, and we were ramping up to a huge renovation, so after we secured the big loan, it was obvious we were going to have to address our roof. We called up Daniel Garcia of World Class Roofing, and brokered the deal. He came out and slapped on a new TPO (Thermoplastic Polyolefin) roofing system and we are done forever. Ha Ha Ha. That is so funny. Done forever! Ha Ha.
New roof! Aw, it was nothin!
Some of the fine work.
Actually we had a run in with the historic police that we could not put a metal cap over the front wall of the building which had numerous cracks and was still leaking occasionally down the front inside the building. Daniel Garcia of World Class Roofing did not like this. We coated it in this plastic paint we got online that is engineered by NASA they say and it seems to be holding. That is a whole nuther boring story. I’ll spare you.
This is the part of the roof that needs a non-historic metal cap, but can’t have one.
This is the NASA engineered two part goo that we covered it with instead.
This is the NASA engineered two part goo that we covered it with instead.
Zac ordered up four metal plates with holes in them, and four long poles. When the concrete guys came in, he had them pour the concrete around the bolts and metal plates in the now brewery. Then Robbie Zac and I used the plumb bob to find where the hole in the roof goes directly above the metal plates. We cut four round holes in the roof. Luckily there was no ceiling to deal with. Then Robbie Zac and I hauled the four long metal poles up onto the roof. Then we dropped the metal poles through the roof and they landed in the precut circles on the metal plates that are now laid in the concrete floor. Then we got these funny gaskets that look like Devo hats and put them around the metal poles. Then the roofers came and welded them onto the current roof. Then Zac called the welder, James Winstead. He came and we all hauled the metal beams up onto the roof, and he welded us a mechanical platform. Finally, Zac’s brain could be released of this design, he had nailed it! Only took a couple of years!!
Here are the metal poles.
Here is Zac, figuring out exactly where the roof hole will go
Here is Zac demonstrating how we will simply lift the poles straight up and drop them into the hole.
Robbie and Zac after the pole has successfully been inserted into the hole, and not dropped 20 feet and cracking the concrete. Good job guys!!
Getting the band back together!!!
Here are all four poles, with their roofer caps.
Winstead the welder, making it all happen!
The finished product! And no weight on the roof! Nicely done, ZAC!!!