The Modern Protection and Timeless Profile of Hotel LBI’s Metal Roof

Greeting Long Beach Island visitors as they exit the Route 72 causeway, Hotel LBI’s façade calls back to the early 1900s-style grand hotels that used to grace the Jersey Shore.

Explaining the hotel’s intention to Bay Magazine, Christopher Vernon, the owner of the business, has said, “With this new project, we would like to preserve that historic grandeur of LBI in the early 1900s while combining it with the modern amenities of today.”

On the one hand, it was personally important to Vernon to maintain the integrity of the island’s charm since he summered there as a child. On the other, the award-winning luxury hotel sits on the same site as the generation-defining Vacation Inn, which had later become the Quarterdeck Inn and then The Stateroom — imbuing it with a sense of historical context that could not be denied.

Rebuilt from the ground up, the hotel’s exterior mixes tan bricks and white panel siding with ornate railings and impressive columns. These elements reflect the world-class experience of the hotel’s interior while anchoring it to its maritime location. Literally topping the nautically-themed exterior, a standing seam metal roofing system from Drexel Metals adds a Deep Blue Sea accent across the main roof, secondary awnings and circular pavilions.

In addition to complementing the intended design aesthetic, the metal roof also provides substantial benefits, including quick installation and premium weather and salt protection. Further, because the system was installed by a well-trusted roofing contractor in partnership with the material provider, the hotel owner could rest assured the roofing portion of the rebuild would maintain quality without contributing to project delays.

The Roofing System

Hotel LBI chose to use aluminum roofing panels formed into a profile with a broad width seam, which the manufacturer calls DMC 175S. This profile features a 1 3/4-inch seam height and is installed using Snap Lock. The panel type is known for its distinctive look and impressive structural capabilities.

Hotel LBI features a standing seam metal roof from Drexel Metals on the main roof, secondary awnings and circular pavilions. Photos: Drexel Metals

With Snap Lock, the panels have two distinct leg shapes that snap together to eliminate the need for mechanical seaming. This makes installation faster and simpler — without sacrificing the performance capabilities of a metal roofing system. Snap Lock reduced labor hours for a more cost-effective solution for Hotel LBI’s stakeholders and easier installation for Kupex Exteriors, not that the well-trusted roofing installer needed it.

Kupex Exteriors is a certified installer of metal roofing systems and has worked with this profile many times. As a certified installer, a contractor not only receives support from the manufacturer but can also offer material warranties along with labor warranties, giving them a leg up on their competition.

The panels attached to the roof deck with clips and are fastened from underneath, preserving the roof’s crisp profile lines. In addition to the aesthetic benefits, the system provides several layers of protection from wind uplift to hail resistance, water infiltration resistance to a Class A fire rating (the highest a material can receive).

Battening Down the Hatches for Coastal Winds

While the DMC 175S aluminum roofing panels provide many forms of protection, its ability to protect against the damaging effects of strong coastal winds is arguably the most important for this project. Even though installation is simple and quick, the product can withstand extreme weather, which makes it a natural fit for Hotel LBI, given the hotel’s proximity to the coast — an area that’s prone to high winds.

Receiving a Class 90 UL 580 Wind Uplift rating and meeting UL 1897 Extended phase Wind Uplift requirements, this system can endure the incredible pressures of high winds. These ratings work hand-in-hand with the incredibly long service life of standing seam metal roofing systems to provide the project with a roof that will stay functional for decades to come.

Aiding the systems wind resistance, the roofing system also is certified to ASTM E1646 Water Infiltration and TAS 100 Wind Driven Rain specifications. This means the roof will provide premium protection from water in the event of a storm with high winds, ensuring Hotel LBI’s world-class interior will be guarded against water damage.

Because the hotel is within walking distance from the ocean, the roofing system used an aluminum substrate to improve the panels’ ability to resist corrosion from nearby marine environments. Further, the polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) finishing coat provides an excellent resistive layer to many corrosive chlorides, including sodium chloride. These materials work together to protect Hotel LBI’s roof from corrosion, allowing the project to receive the full longevity and durability of using a metal roofing system.

In addition to providing protection against saltwater environments, PVDF offers a higher resistance to UV exposure than other coats of similar shades. This means the Deep Blue Sea that crowns Hotel LBI will remain bright — fading less than 5 Hunter Units over the course of 35 years. Its fade resistance is bolstered by the material’s ability to curb long-term chalking as well.

Meeting the Past in the Present

Hotel LBI represents a shift for Long Beach Island — a return to the grandeur of early hotels with all the amenities desired by modern vacationers. When interviewed about this and other renovations by Jersey Shore Online, William Huelsenbeck, Ship Bottom’s Mayor, stated, “In some ways, [Long Beach Island] is changing … In other ways, we are renewing the old, restoring what we once had.”

Hotel LBI will be able to give island visitors a new and improved vacation experience, one that harkens back to the heyday of the Jersey Shore. And the standing seam metal roofing system provides the hotel-goers with advanced weather protection in a timeless look.

TEAM

Architect: Dever Architects, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, deverarchitects.com

Roofing Contractor: Kupex Exteriors, LLC, Trenton, New Jersey, kupexexteriors.com

MATERIALS

Roofing Panels: 175S 1 ¾-inch Snap Lock panels in Deep Blue Sea, Drexel Metals, drexmet.com

Underlayment: Metshield HT, Drexel Metals

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