Replacing the iconic metal roof of Tampa's tallest building is not for the faint of heart
TAMPA, Fla. - At 42 stories, 100 North Tampa is the tallest building on Florida's west coast, so to put a new roof on that building, you can't be afraid of heights.
"It's 42 stories, and then four flights of stairs, and then another 40 feet to the stairwell to the catwalks," shared Jose Sanchez, the job foreman with McEnany Roofing. "It's very high."
'Very high' seems like an understatement to those standing on the ground, but someone has to go up there to put a roof on those tall buildings.
The building was formerly known as the Regions Bank Building and before that, the AmSouth Building. When it came time to renew the iconic metal roof, building managers returned to the company that put the original one up.
Michael McEnany of McEnany Roofing said, "We put this roof on, believe it or not, when it was first built in 1991...It went almost 30 years."
"It was very, very complicated," he continued. "You can imagine working on this type of pitch; on a building that's the tallest building on the West Coast of Florida from Pensacola to Key West."
When the building was first constructed, high-rise cranes were there for assistance, but there aren’t cranes on-site for repair and re-roofing work.
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"Everything's got to come up and down the elevators," McEnany explained. "Every single piece of material has to come up the freight elevator."
Likewise, every piece that was removed from the rooftop had to come back down those same elevators, but those elevators don't cover the last flights of stairs to the rooftop catwalks.
Everything has to be carried by hand the rest of the way up. This work is not for the faint of heart.
"The first thing we think about is the safety factor," stated McEnany. "When the wind is really blowing, whatever it's doing down here, it's double up there."
Cody Goodin, worksite superintendent, said, "Don't take anything for granted when it comes to safety... Everything's tethered off."
"We do a lot of high rises, but what makes this unique is none of these other high rises have this (steep) metal roof," McEnany said, gesturing the pointed roof shape with his hands.
Goodin agreed, "Access is extremely hard."
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It's like doing construction work while scaling a cliff.
Job foreman Sanchez admitted, "I didn't know it was going to be this challenging."
But they have risen to that challenge as they have been recreating the roof of the building up in the breezes over downtown Tampa since October. They hope to complete this custom job shortly.
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