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Drexel Metals Rescues Pennsylvania Audubon Society

Company Founder Helped Connect Supplier, Installer for Historic Project.

When board members of the Bucks County Audubon Society in New Hope, Pa., were looking for help with a leaking roof on their historic building, they only had to search as far as a supportive member.

Dick Carroll, the founder and former owner of Drexel Metals, participated in bird counts and other BCAS events in the early 1990s. BCAS, established in 1969, is the second largest chapter of the Audubon Society in Pennsylvania. Its mission is to educate the residents of greater Bucks County about the natural world with an emphasis on energy and resource conservation, including the protection of birds, other wildlife and their habitats. When the cedar shake roofing on the offices started to fail, the group reached out to Carroll.

“I was part of a group that looked at the building when the Audubon Society was thinking about buying it, so I was very familiar with the building,” Carroll said. “It’s a historic structure and the design is quite unique. Now, the roofing needed to be replaced.”

Carroll said he contacted Drexel Metals’ Executive Vice President of Business Development Brian Partyka about the project, whom already knew the issues the Audubon Society was dealing with. He also knew Drexel Metals had the perfect material for the re-roofing of the stone building: Falzinc, a zinc-coated aluminum product that would provide years of durability for BCAS.

“Dick Carroll gave me my start in this industry,” said Partyka. “Dick’s love for birds and Bucks County, Pa., made it an easy decision to assist with this project. So we called in a DM-ARM (Drexel Metals Association of Regional Manufacturers) member, Harvey Building Products of Bethlehem, Pa., to form 6,500 square feet of standing seam roofing panels onsite. The profile chosen for the Falzinc was DMC 150 SL, a 1-1/2-inch snap-lock panel, 16 inches wide. Phil and Mellissa Eiseman of Eiseman Construction of New Britain, Pa., installed the panels—all while the building remained open to the public.

Eiseman, who passed away in early 2015, was proud to be able to be a part of this re-roofing job for a non-profit organization. Eiseman Construction worked almost exclusively on older buildings and does a lot of metal work.

The old cedar shake roofing, which was attached to wood lath and beams, was removed. Eiseman Construction installed insulation board to the lath and beams to better insulate the building and serve as a deck for the metal roofing.

The project took about two weeks and was completed late summer of 2014. Drexel Metals was able to supply the material and Eiseman Construction supplied the labor at a greatly reduced cost.

“Drexel Metals’ founder has a history with the Audubon Society, so it was important to us,” said Partyka. “There are a lot of people who appreciate what we have here, including Dick Carroll and the late Phil Eiseman. We are happy to be a part of that.”