When items must be stored on the roof and need to be fully secured, this is where the roof dunnage comes into play.
A roof dunnage provides strong support for equipment on the roof, such as condenser units for an HVAC system. The roof dunnage is customized so air may flow around and under the device. One great advantage to a roof dunnage is the ability to avoid having to cut into the roof in order to add equipment on the top of the building, through there are times when it becomes necessary.
Roof dunnage allows for the weight to be spread over a large space, thus ensuring the integrity of the roof for the lower floors. Falling rain avoids pooling around equipment and instead will easily drain away. We make it to your specifications. It may be large or small and employ an expanded metal steel security cage, if desired.
This requires planning. It involves a series of raised beams, which often must consider wind and seismic loads, vibrations and maintenance for the roof. When creating a new building, the roof dunnage can be more easily engineered. On older buildings where a new chiller which weights a few hundred pounds to a few tons, must be installed, an investigation to determine existing roof dunnage must take place, especially if there is no documentation for the current framework. When the existing columns prove to be inadequate, new roof dunnage posts may be placed over them. For those portions that need to be elevated, you may wish to consider knee bracing, so more lateral stability may be attained while performing maintenance on the equipment. Often Structural support beams need to be added. The floors below dunnge to support weights.
The roof dunnage needs to be galvanized or painted and remain on a maintenance schedule. The thickness of the steel is often regulated through engineering codes.
Since the challenges are many when installing the roof dunnage support system, we offer our services. We are able to also fabricate the roof dunnage to hold your equipment. We have been doing this sort of thing for over two decades. Use your knowledge and take out the guesswork and head scratching on how to make them.
