Supervisors Vote To Hire Consultant About Roof

Damaged clay tile on the Mahaska County Courthouse

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The Mahaska County Board of Supervisors are looking to hire a consultant to help them understand and make a decision on upcoming roof repairs to the Mahaska County Courthouse.

The debate between the three person board has centered around if the existing roof system should be repaired, or if the roof should be

completely replaced with a new type of roofing system.

The front of the courthouse was recently reopened after loose tile caused its closure due to safety concerns. “We still need to figure out a long term plan,” said Board Chairman Mike Vander Molen.

“I did some research on my own, about the tile that’s up there,” said Doland, who also asked for community input. “There’s a desire from the community to keep it a clay tile.”

Doland said he spoke with a contractor familiar with the clay tile installed on the roof, and the current tile are 5.2 pounds each, whereas new tile are 6.9 pounds. “What they found through engineering is that, it’s not heavy enough [5.2 lbs]. I thought that was pretty heavy. The new ones are 6.9 lbs,” said Doland.

Doland also said he spoke with the contractor about putting hurricane clips on and learned that it would require all of the tiles to be removed in order to have the clips installed. The tile are not heavy enough to hold themselves down during wind events, and once one tile cracks it allows wind to more easily access other tiles. The contractor who Doland spoke with said that it’s easier for the plastic roof that had been being explored to have wind damage.

Doland explained that the type of tile currently in use on the roof is no longer manufactured.

Doland asked the contractor about a metal roof system, and was informed that wind resistance would be better upon utilizing a metal roof system.

When crews were clearing off the broken tile, they estimated that approximately 600 tiles need replaced. The county has approximately 450 remaining in its stock.

“I have questions whether the tile were put on complied with code in the first place, because they didn’t have hurricane clips,” said Vander Molen.

“I don’t know what direction you guys want to move, but maybe we need to get an expert in here to look at things,” Vander Molen asked of his fellow board members.

According to documentation presented by Vander Molen, hurricane clips should have been installed when the roof was new. “I have reservations these were put on correctly,” Vander Molen said.

“I’m a little bit over my head in making a recommendation,” Vander Molen said. He said that with the failures recently, he would like someone with expertise give recommendations.

“I’ve done plenty of research, but I’m still not comfortable making a final decision,” said Doland. “I think there’s still some answers out there that we need to have.”

“If we’re going to do it, we need to do it right,” Doland said.

The board approved the motion to have Vander Molen seek out a construction expert to aid in the decision making process.