Florida Building Commission

Structural Technical Advisory Committee

MINUTES

MARCH 02, 2016

1:00P.M.

 

Meeting was conducted via Teleconference/Webinar:

public point of access: Department of Business and Professional Regulation

Northwood Centre, Suite 90A, 1940 North Monroe Street, Tallahassee, FL 32399       (850) 487-1824

 

TAC Members Present: Chairman; James Schock; Chair, CW Macomber, Craig Parrino, Joe Hetzel, Daniel L. Lavrich, Do Y. Kim, Jaime Gascon, Warner Chang, David Compton, Cris  Fardelmann

Guests Present: Kurtis Gurley, David Prevatt, Bill Boyer,  Joe Belcher,  Rob Viera, Charlie Kennedy, Mike Eniss, Sal Delfino, RANDY NICHOLAS, William Miller, Dennis Mathis, dwight wilkes

Staff Present: Mo Madani, JOE BIGELOW, JIM RICHMOND, ROBERT LORENZO, Jim Hammers, Robert Benbow, NICK DUVAL and April Hammonds via Teleconference.

Ø Objective: To review  and accept the interim report for the research projects on the Corrosion of Roofing Fasteners

 

Meeting Minutes

Objective

 

1)

 

Welcome and Opening Remarks:  Meeting opened at 1:00pm with meeting protocols regarding muting of phones and personal identification when speaking.

 

2)

Roll Call – Roll Call was taken with a quorum present.

3)

Review and Approval of Meeting Agenda – Motion was entered by Dan Lavrich and seconded by Compton to accept the Agenda as posted.  Unanimous approval.

4)

Approval of Minutes of Decenber 28, 2015 – Motion was entered by Dan Lavrich and seconded by Cris Fardelman to accept the minutes as posted.  Unanimous approval.

5)

Review and accept the Interim Report for the Research Project on the Corrosion of Roofing Fasteners.

 

Dr. Kurtis Gurley of the College of Engineering at the University of Florida provided a PowerPoint presentation to give the TAC an overview of interim report for the research project. He gave a brief background of the past work on this research project. Next, he went over the 1-8 scoring system for the corrosion of fasteners in this research project. He then went over the results from last year’s research project which showed a wide disparity in the performance of electrogalvanized fasteners from different manufacturers, a high failure rate of the TAS 114 criterion for electrogalvanized fasteners, some of the fasteners were electrogalvanized, but not marked as ASTM A641 or TAS 114 compliant, and that the results provided a baseline against which to measure ASTM A641 and TAS 114 compliant fasteners. He then went over the scope of work for this year’s project which included working with Mark Zehnal, Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Contractors Association, Inc. (FRSA) to identify and procure test specimens from suppliers located in North, Central and South Florida region. His observations included ASTM A641 certified EG performance no better than unlabeled EG fasteners from the previous year’s study, HVHZ compliant EG fasteners which are presumed TAS 114 E compliant perform, in regards to corrosion, no better than non-HVHZ ASTM A641, hot dipped fasteners perform much better than EG fasteners and Mechanically Galvanized screws perform better than EP screws. Another major observation of this year’s project was that Miami-Dade approved EG fasteners did not reveal a single EG sample that that passed the TAS 114E criterion of < 5% surface corrosion. Each of the 30 such fastener samples tested had a score of at least 3 (partial light surface corrosion) on both the head and shaft, and most samples displayed significant heavy corrosion. Dr. Gurley then proceeded to provide the TAC with some additional work that needed to be completed for next round of testing which included testing the fasteners after they had been driven into the substrate.

 

Jaime Gascon mentioned that they are a bit concerned with the results that were showing up and they had gone back and checked their records. He then mentioned that they would be looking a lot closer at the test reports they have on file. Next, he mentioned they were concerned with the origin of those samples and that they wanted to get as much information as possible about the origin of the samples so that they could attempt to determine why the occurrences may have been happening.

 

Do Kim commented that they results were very good and that he was very concerned with failure level of supposedly code compliant fasteners.

 

Dan Lavrich  stated that the performance relating to the corrosion requirements set forth in the test criteria that the concern would be whether or not the corrosion or lack of corrosion performance and whether it had an effect on the structural performance of the fasteners had not been tested.

 

Do Kim responded that he understood that the test results may not have had a direct correlation between the test standards and fastener performance in the field but that he hoped that we could get to a correlation through the work of Dr. Gurley and his staff.

 

Mo Madani stated that this report was not looking at the life service of the fasteners but we are looking at the applications of the fasteners such as its performance after it had been driven into the substrate. He then stated the premise for this research project was that because we are seeing premature failure which is an early stage failure not really for the long term performance at this point.

 

Dan Lavrich responded that the real issue is how does the corrosion affect the performance of the fasteners and that the research needed to be continue this research into the next stage which would be the correlation of how the fasteners are expected to perform structurally relating to how they are performing with corrosion. He then noted that re-bar can have high corrosion levels before it is structurally affected and that if you wanted some meaningful data the research would have to be taken to the next level.

 

Mark Zehnal responded that the FRSA has been interested in this information for a long time because some fasteners are corroding away before the life cycle of the shingles are

expired and that it is important to find out how fasteners are affecting not only shingle installation but tile and metal fasteners from other groups as well and that if you put on a 20 year roof people expect the fasteners to last that long.

 

Joe Hetzel then stated that it was his understanding that the ASTM standards are prescriptive in nature as opposed to the TAS standards which are performance based. He wanted to know that if there was a concern that going with the prescriptive minimum ASTM standards are insufficient and that all of these fasteners should be subject to testing of a performance basis.

 

Dr. Gurley responded that some of the fasteners tested were ASTM A641 certified and Miami-Dade approved. He then asked that if a fastener was stamped as Miami-Dade approved it would also be assumed to be TAS 114 compliant which is the performance based testing and that it was true that ASTM A641 outside of HVHZ is just prescriptive with a certain zinc coating and that the research shows that different zinc coatings perform differently and that those fasteners with other zinc coatings. He then stated that those fasteners that are supposed to have passed the TAS performance based testing are not passing that testing.

 

Joe Hetzel responded that is there an issue of acceptance of fasteners only on a prescriptive basis whereas in order to really comply corrosion is a component of the acceptance criteria and that you have to test all of the fasteners for performance.

 

Mo Madani replied that based on the research the prescriptive is complying just as good as the performance and that there is no weakness in the prescriptive to the point where you want to say major changes need to be made to the standard.

 

Joe Hetzel replied that it may not be the standard it may be the enforcement of the standard. He then asked if the products were certified here or overseas during testing.

 

Jaime Gascon responded that the testing is performed here in the states and in order to achieve the listings they review the test reports and that they are seeing successful results in order to issue those listings. He also mentioned that they are comparing the samples to the original submitted reports so that the manufacturers can respond to discrepancies.

 

Mo Madani then asked if Miami-Dade have a QA on fasteners and do they go and take samples and verify manufacturing as approved.

 

Jamie Gascon responded that this apart of the conditions of receiving a listing and recent testing is how they have been able to monitor that. He then stated that they receive testing data over the course of this year, last year and within the last few months. He cannot recall a specific case where they have went to the field to pull samples.

 

Mo Madani asked Dr. Gurley if his findings were that the prescriptive is just as good as the performance.


Dr. Gurley responded that in this group the ones that performed that best were not marked Miami-Dade certified out of the samples that they collected. He asked the TAC to keep in mind that they haven’t expanded the scope yet.

 

Mo Madani then asked that if when Dr. Gurley accepted their samples did he go randomly and select the samples that were really commonly used to find out whether the samples are not really corrosion resistant as they claim to be.

 

Mark Zehnal responded that they had contractors go to the distribution stores where they roofing contracts normally go to buy their products and buy off the shelves what was available and what’s on the shelf is generally what’s shipped to job sites. He then asked is this a problem with the fasteners or is this a problem with enforcement on the jobsite? Is the contractor looking at the box? Is the inspector looking at the box, or is this a problem that arises before the fasteners get to the distributor. He then stated that there may be more than one problem involved in this and the fact the fasteners came from contractors in the industry from different places all over the State of Florida is a concern.

 

Mo Madani replied that these boxes in general are compliant to the code as stated.

 

Dan Lavrich then entered a motion to accept the interim report as presented. The motion was seconded by Jaime Gascon. This motion received unanimous approval.

6)

Public Comment – no public comment

7)

Member Comment – No Member comment

9)

Adjournment

 

 

Staff Contacts: Joe Bigelow, Joe.Bigelow@myfloridalicense.com, (850) 717-1829;

Mo Madani, mo.madani@myfloridalicense.com, (850) 717-1825.

Note: This document is available to any person requiring materials in alternate format upon request.  Contact the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Office of Codes and Standards, 1940 N. Monroe Street, Suite 90, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0772 or call 850-487-1824.