Polar Products Provides Spray Foam Roof for Lubbock Christian University

Lubbock, TX (June 2008) - Polar Products, LLC recently supplied spray foam and coating products for re-roofing an historic building in Lubbock, Texas. The building, the athletic field house at Lubbock Christian University, was converted from a military hangar utilized in the Manhattan Project.

The 110,000 square foot Quonset type facility was sprayed with 2 inches of PolarSeal 2700 closed-cell roofing foam, and coated with 70 mils of PolarCoat 85A aluminized polyurea, both green based products and both Class 1 rated.

When selecting a new roofing material for the field house, the University chose foam for several reasons. They were looking for an environmentally-friendly, lightweight, and seamless roofing product that provided a better seal than alternatives. In this case, sprayfoam was also much less expensive than the next best roofing option.

Foam Roofing Application at Lubbock Christian University, Lubbock, Texas

Some of the many other advantages of spray foam roofing include a leak free monolithic seal over the entire roof deck, self flashing properties, strong adhesion and wind uplift resistance as well as weather resistance. Foam roofing also provides high insulation value with a rapid payback from energy savings. LCU anticipates a 15% reduction in power and energy costs from the application of foam roofing.

After deciding on spray foam roofing, LCU chose Polar Products for a variety of factors including the durability and longevity of the product as well as the cost. Polar Products advised work crews in the foam application during the project. The actual application took about twelve working days, but the entire project took quite a bit longer because the old material had to first be stripped from the roof. Thompson Foam Insulation of Ponca City, OK did the actual spraying with Graco E-30 and H-40 machines, using Fusion spray guns.

Tear-Off of old Field House Roof

The building itself holds significant historical importance. In 1961, Lubbock Christian University traveled to Las Alamos, NM to dismantle a WWII B-29 hangar utilized in the Manhattan Project. It is one of 5 such storage facilities built for the top secret mission. After the war, the storage facilities were no longer needed, and LCU caught word that the US Government was selling the storage facilities.

The hangar was torn down, and trucked to Lubbock, TX, where workers including the LCU coaching staff and student athletes re-assembled the mammoth facility, converting it into the university athletic field house. The Rhodes-Perrin Field House is the center for intramural and physical education activities. In addition to classrooms, it contains a 220-yard indoor track, badminton courts, volleyball and basketball courts, and offices for the Department of Kinesiology.

PolarCoat 85A Aluminized Polyurea Reflective Roof Coating

Lubbock Christian University’s unique use of spray foam roofing illustrates the extreme utility of this product. Polar Products successfully utilized this practice to enable this historic building to be used for modern purposes, in this case an athletic field house. This example shows the versatile nature of spray foam roofing and insulation.