The recent expansion of the River Spirit Casino in Tulsa, along with the addition of the new Margaritaville casino and 28-story hotel tower was the second largest construction project in the history of the state of Oklahoma. The two casinos connect, each with distinctive decor and atmosphere. The resort also encompasses retail shops, convention space, a 480-room luxury hotel and a 3,000-seat entertainment venue. This new landmark covers approximately 14 acres along the Arkansas river shoreline.
Chamberlin's roofing scope along was nearly $4,000,000 of the total project cost that topped $365,000,000. Crews installed 190,000 square feet of Carlisle PVC on the casino expansion and new hotel and 45,000 square feet of 24-gauge Berridge standing seam metal roofing on the Margaritaville casino.
Chamberlin installed a PVC roofing system with two layers of Polyiso insulation topped with a Securock cover board. A bonding adhesive was then roller applied to fully adhere the 60 mil Carlisle PVC membrane on top.
The metal roofing system also began with two layers of insulation plus a DensDeck cover board. In lieu of a long screw running from the metal roofing to the metal deck below, Z-purlins were utilized to secure the metal roofing to the deck in order to meet the required wind uplift value for the roofing system.
These roofs were highly visible by guests, so a quality installation that was aesthetically pleasing was very important. The hotel overlooks the roofs of both casinos and in some areas, the metal roof comes down near eye level. Both casinos had numerous roof planes and four different pitches.
Meticulous detail work was required on this project with multiple hips, valleys, ridges, end walls, side walls, z-clips, cap wall coping and various other areas. Over 3,000 flashing pieces had to be coordinated and installed. Some areas required a little creative thinking, such as installing gutters on a metal fascia. Since the fascia was metal instead of the traditional wood, a cover was created and installed over it to fasten the gutters to.
Chamberlin and the owner both had quality control consultants on site weekly. The PVC roofing installation was clean and neat with tidy detail work. The membrane was smooth with uninterrupted seams and fully adhered. The crew took great care when installing the metal roofing to avoid scratching. When cutting with a saw, they removed the metal dust residue before installing to prevent rusting. In the end, the Chamberlin crew had extremely minimal punch list items and both roofing systems were a sight to be seen. The project was concluded with zero safety incidents.
This project kicked off in November of 2015. The weather at that time in Oklahoma was cold with rain, snow and ice, which caused several delays in the schedule. The adhesive for the PVC membrane cannot be installed in below 40-degree temperatures. Chamberlin rose to the challenge working weekends and increasing manpower to keep the project on track. Chamberlin crew was ahead of schedule for the most of the project and finished on time.
Another challenge was access to the work site and material storage space. The entire expansion and addition were built into the river. Enough space was cleared for the facilities, but not much else. There was extremely limited storage space, so most of the roofing materials had to be strategically ordered to be installed immediately upon arrival.
Additionally, the parking area was off-site and each contractor had to provide their own crew bus to carry the crew members back and forth from the parking area to the job site. Badging was required for all employees and Chamberlin’s crew members’ entry and exit was monitored since they essentially had access to the casinos in an unconventional way. Despite logistical and environmental challenges, Chamberlin delivered quality roof installations safely, on time and on budget.
The Margaritaville casino’s roof included an interesting design element. Four spires comprised of 10-foot-tall fiberglass finials were to be installed at the top of the roof peaks. These spires were dual-purpose, created for aesthetic reasons but also contained lightning rods at the top. Chamberlin’s challenge was to find a sturdy way to mount these. The original metal box specified to hold the spire on the roof peak was not sufficient to support the large finial. Chamberlin created an additional 3/16 welded steel box to cover the original box for additional support and connected the two with threaded rod. A metal rod ran up the middle of the fiberglass finial, and Chamberlin crew members added a nut centered on the underside of the original box to which the metal rod could be fastened. This design successfully held the spires safely in place.