North Penn votes ahead change order for Gwyn Nor roof repair

UPPER GYWNEDD — Summer season has brought a long to-do list for the North Penn School District and uncovered a problem at one school that’s been there for decades.

School board members voted ahead a change order this week for work at Gwyn Nor Elementary School, fixing a problem found during a roof repair there.

“During removal of the existing roof, we experienced a condition that was not acceptable,” said district Director of Facilities and Operations Tom Schneider.

Roof repairs have been an ongoing topic for the school board’s facilities and operations committee, as they’ve developed and updated a ten-year capital project list of various repairs and replacements needed across the district.

In early 2022 the committee discussed roof repairs needed due to delaminating roof segments and leaking roof panels at Gwyn-Nor, an item that was added to the capital list in late 2021 and among the most urgently-needed repairs in the district, behind a similar roof repair at North Penn High School; contracts for both were awarded in late 2022.

During the facilities and operations committee meeting on July 31, Schneider gave an update, noting that contractors from Detwiler Roofing currently at work at Gwyn Nor had uncovered previous work in need of fixes.

“There’s wood blocking that is on the perimeter of the roof, that attaches the counter-flashings and the parapet capping. This wood blocking was not installed properly during the installation of the roofing, back 25 years ago,” he said.

After discovering that incorrect installation, Schneider told the committee, the contractor had to increase the amount of wood blocking and make the parapet wall more structurally sound, while also adding plywood to the facing areas. The total cost of the change order request is just over $8,800, but the original contract with the roofer included a $7,000 allowance for wood blocking, Schneider said, resulting in a total change order cost of $1,833 beyond the $675,000 contract.

Board member Juliane Ramic asked if the roof repairs would still be done in time for the start of school on Aug. 29, and Schneider said “absolutely.”

“I drove by Gwyn Nor just the other day, and it’s active — it’s very active,” Ramic said.

Committee chair Cathy Wesley then asked for more information about the installation done decades ago, and how the district could avoid any such problems in the future.

“It would not be permissible to receive a warranty for the new roof. If it was installed 25 years ago, and it was acceptable to that roofing manufacturer, it may have been acceptable and designed that way. But we could not get a roofing warranty with that condition as it stands today,” Schneider said.

Wesley then asked if Schneider expected similar problems in other sections of the Gwyn Nor roof if and when further repairs are needed, and Schneider said the current project includes one area of full replacement and one of restoration that carries a 20-year warranty.

“We would probably be looking at something like that (restoration) for the remainder of Gwyn Nor’s roof, at the end of their warranty period. I don’t think we’re going to be doing a tear-off at Gwyn Nor in the future,” he said, adding that similar problems at the other schools are unlikely “because each building is slightly different.”

“This was a unique detail, where the metal panels ride up the roof to the upper roof that we’re replacing,” Schneider said.

A second change order was also voted ahead by the committee, for work on chillers being replaced at Bridle Path Elementary in Montgomery Township. According to Schneider, that work required an electrical shutdown that had to be done on a Saturday, because of extended school care programs being offered in the building during the week.

“This change order is basically just a pass-through,” Schneider said, from the contractor to PECO via the district, seeking just over $2,100 to cover the cost of bringing a crew to the school on the weekend to do the shutdown. Both change orders were voted ahead unanimously by the committee for full board approval in August.

Committee student liaison Kaden Williams asked if all of the district’s elementary schools had been built by the same company, and Schneider said they had not, with construction dates and times varying widely, and Gwyn Nor in particular is one of the oldest.

“Gwyn Nor Elementary and Oak Park (Elementary), the original sections were in the 1950s when it was originally built. Knapp (Elementary) also,” Schneider said, with Knapp now done with a multiyear renovation project that finished in 2022.

“There were two buildings that were built at the same time, Bridle Path and Walton Farm (elementaries), but they were designed by the same designer but were not built by the same contractors,” he said.

And regarding that long-term capital list, Schneider told the committee that no updates have been made since the prior facilities and operations committee meeting in June, but the list will likely be updated once the various roof repairs are complete.

North Penn’s school board next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 8 and the facilities and operations committee next meets at 7 p.m. on Aug. 28; for more information visit www.NPenn.org.

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