Shortly after opening in September 2010, the new Rice High School in Rice, Texas was damaged by a nearby tornado.

The original metal roof was a bare Galvalume™ 16” x 2” vertical rib, mechanically-seamed standing seam. Damage was largely due to flying debris, with some connector buildings having to be rebuilt all together. The building was structurally sound for the most part, thereby lending itself to a simple metal-over-metal retrofit of the existing roof with structural sub-purlins provided by Roof Hugger, Inc. of Lutz, FL.

The Roof Huggers supplied on the project were specially fitted with an “anti-rotational” arm that was used to brace the Huggers to the existing roof ribs. This was necessary due to the existing roof having a tall stand-off clip and thermal block. The arm was easily bent out from the Hugger’s web in the field by the system Installer. The new 24-gauge “Stand-n-Seam” metal roof was provided by Fabral-Euramax of Lancaster, PA.

The top two photos show Roof Hugger sub-purlins in place, before the new metal roof was installed. The two lower photos show the original roof that was damaged by flying debris from a nearby tornado.