Being in such esteemed company, and with influx of thousands of tourists each year between April and November, periodic upkeep of the historic hotel is imperative.

When the expansive hotel was in need of a new roof last year, management hired NWS inc./Environmental Roofing Services of Saco, ME. To complement the hotel's classic Dutch Colonial architectural style, Colony Hotel management selected Grand Manor Shangle Luxury Shingles in the Georgian Brick color. The shingles had already proven themselves to hotel management in previous re-roofing projects on the premises, which features nine historic buildings on 10 -1/2 acres of land.

"We've had the Grand Manor shingles on two of our other buildings,"says Ron Otte, maintenance manager for the Colony Hotel. " They look great, and they've held up really well. So, when it came time to re-roof the main building, we wanted to use this particular shingle again.

Alex Cote, owner of NWS inc. Environmental Roofing Services, wanted to make sure that his crew was adequately prepared for working with the shingles. He enrolled his employees in the CertainTeed Master Shingle Applicator program, which trains roofing contractors on proper methods for installing the company's shingles and credentials the contractor and staff upon completion.

Cote and his employees completed the course and its accompanying test, allowing the company to achieve "Select Shingle Roofer" designation before the job began.

DIFFUCULT ACCESS

Calling for 480 squares of the Grand Manor shingles, the enormous project began immediately after the hotel closed for the year in November 2005. Before removal of the old roof could commence, a major logistics issue came up. Access to certain parts of the building was limited, thanks to lack of drivable roads on the hotel grounds.  All that was available was a small asphalt foot path, which was not wide enough to support supply and debris removal trucks, Cote says.

" The thing that caused us the most trouble was the six distinct wings at the hotel with an interior quadrangle that's not accessible to any vehicles," he says. "There was only one wing that was even remotely accessible to trucks. We ended up widening the foot trail so that Beacon Sales (of Lewiston, ME) our distributor, could bring the shingles in. It took me two months just to plan out how I was going to do this. It was quite a roofing logistical nightmare.

A delivery truck brought in the shingles and the underlayment, getting it as close as possible to the hotel. The distributor then provided an all-terrain forklift to get supplies up to the roof areas. Things got easier, though, after Cote got on the Internet one night and discovered The Roofers Buggy, a self-propelled vehicle resembling a three wheeled lawn tractor with a hydraulic dump bed on it. The smaller size and all-terrain style of the buggy made maneuvering around the hotel grounds easier, bringing supplies to the site and hauling debris away to the dumpster.

"That thing did just what it was supposed to do," Cote says. "I would have had to have three workers on the ground to do the same job it did, and I'm not sure even they would have been able to do it as well.

With everything now in place, the 14 person crew set to work removing three layers of weather-worn shingles from the roof. The top layer had deteriorated and pieces had been falling off, but the crew was unprepared for what laid beneath, Cote says. "Colony Hotel kept hiring people over the past 80 years to re-roof the building, and they just kept nailing new layers of shingles over the old ones. It was a mess. We tore everything off, right down to the plank.

The enormous roof, featuring 12 A-style eyebrow dormers and 8/12 pitch, offered quite a challenge at eighty feet in the air. The workers removed the shingles and siding on the dormers then installed a layer of Winterguard Waterproofing Underlayment for protection against the harsh New England winters. With 70 mph winds blowing during the installation of the underlayment, the crew had to use button nails for extra insurance.

Another precaution taken was of building crickets behind the chimneys, with underlayment and shingles, to deflect snow and rain and guard the chimney's brickwork from moisture damage. With ample weather coverage in place, the crew could now begin installing the shingles. Following the installation of the shingles, the workers put in copper flashings for the roof's gutter and valleys. Six elliptical dormers were fully copper clad.

Thanks to a particularly mild winter, this part of the project ran smoothly and finished three weeks before the April 1st, 2006 deadline, and immediately went to work re-roofing another building on the grounds, The Florence House.

They have also been contracted to re-roof a third Colony Hotel-owned property, The Boughton House in October and the East  House .These  additional jobs were awarded as a result of the crew's work on the main building, which impressed Colony Hotel management. The hotel re-opened in May to rave reviews.

"Everybody's very, very pleased with the new roof," Otte says."It looks super. It definitely adds a lot to the visual appeal of the property.

Cote established NWS inc. Environmental Roofing in 1972, and now has 21 employees. The company handles both residential and commercial work.

At 61, Cote says he can think of the Colony Hotel job as one of the highlights of the latter part of his roofing career and a legacy to future generations.

"Someday, my kids can drive by and look at it and say "Gee, ol Dad put that roof on The Colony Hotel," he says " It looks absolutely gorgeous.."