National Guard Armory Roofing in Missoula, MT

An armory roof is repaired around the drill calendar, and the drill calendar decides which weeks the building can lose a bay. A readiness center is busiest on training weekends and quiet in between, so a roof job that starts on the wrong Friday collides with a formation, a vehicle movement or an inspection. In Missoula, MT, Montana Army National Guard units share the Fort Missoula enclave with the Army Reserve, and readiness buildings follow site rules that differ from ordinary commercial work.

We sequence armory work by drill period, bay and door line. The commander or facility manager sees which sections open on which days, where vehicles are staged and when each section is dried in. Where the unit has equipment parked outside, the staging plan shows the route it takes during the work, so no vehicle sits under a crane pick or behind a closed gate.

Training dates are fixed by the unit and the state. We ask for the calendar before we set a start date, and we place work in the quiet periods. The commander tells us which dates are off limits, and we write them at the top of the schedule.

The staging area sits away from formations, parking for drill weekends and the vehicle yard. Materials arrive when the gate can receive them. The crane pick happens when the area is empty. If a section must stay open overnight, interior protection goes in below. On a drill weekend, the crew stops work and secures the roof, so no hazard sits above the soldiers. A short end-of-day note goes to the facility manager. Annual training brings units from across the state, and the building can fill with people for two weeks. We plan the work for the weeks before or after, and we keep the roof dry and tied down in between. If the unit changes its dates, the schedule changes with it, and the bid shows the standby cost of waiting.

Missoula winters average about 39.5 inches of snow, and the ground stays white about 120 days. The design ground snow load is 40 psf, with a 102 mph basic design wind speed for Risk Category II. About 45 days each year stay at or below freezing from dawn to dusk.

A drill hall roof holds snow in an even blanket and then lets go in slabs, and a slab that slides toward a door can jam it or strike the header. We check snow guards, door headers and eave gutters before the first storm. Loose edge metal is the first thing wind lifts, so we check it. Drains and scuppers carry meltwater off a large area, so we clear every sump and record its condition. A edge metal and gutter repair in October keeps the doors working through winter. Missoula's design numbers apply to a building in Lolo or Frenchtown as they do in the city.

The walk sorts each roof into one of three groups. A roof with failed details and dry layers takes repair. A sound sheet over dry insulation may take a recover. A roof with saturated insulation or a failing deck needs replacement. We price each and show the years each is expected to hold.

A standing seam metal roof suits a long span and sheds snow well. A TPO sheet suits a low-slope section. The file for each building records the system and the next review date, so the facility manager sees the whole portfolio at once. A readiness center, a vehicle shop and a storage building each get their own entry, and each can be ranked against a hangar or a public office by remaining service, which is the order the budget follows. Vehicle bays at readiness buildings tend to have the tallest doors and the largest openings, so the door header is the first detail checked and the last one closed. Interior protection goes up over the vehicles before a bay opens, and the schedule keeps the apron clear so equipment can move when the unit needs it.