Ashley Hall is one of the nation’s most prestigious schools for girls. But there was nothing prestigious about the Charleston, S.C. school’s gym. Will Evans, principal of Evans & Schmidt Architects and the father of one of Ashley Hall’s students, said the 1970s-era gym needed a complete overhaul and Evans spearheaded a project to bring the facility up to date. Major work included a complete renovation of restrooms, replacing two large fans that once exhausted air from both ends of the building with a modern, efficient HVAC system and a new ceiling system.

“It was an open-joist ceiling with insulation that was draped on top of the joists with a metal roof placed directly above it,” said Evans. “It was pretty unsightly because the bottom layer of insulation, which was thin plastic sheeting, had disintegrated and was falling in pieces and sheets; sometimes it looked like snow falling onto the playing surface and, of course, that presented a hazard to the girls playing volleyball or basketball.”

Evans turned to the HIGH-R Insulation System to solve the problem. It offered a rigid, smooth surface that could eliminate the safety hazards, a bright finish that assured better lighting efficiency and superior insulating capability.

Unlike traditional insulating methods where sheets of urethane are installed between trusses just below the decking of a metal building roof, HIGH-R Insulation System panels are mounted onto clips attached to the purlins at the base of the trusses. The cavity between the purlins and the roof decking is then filled with blown fiberglass, allowing for R-40 or greater insulation.

“Now all of a sudden we had an all new clean, white ceiling that was newer, better and more attractive. And we had more energy efficient insulation and a better lighting quality,” he says.