BY LANDON WOODROOF
They came from Wales to do the job because they are the only ones who could do it.
When Brentwood put the bid out for the roof cleaning job for the Eddy Arnold Amphitheater at Crockett Park, it got exactly one response. That came from Architen Landrell, a tensile architecture firm 4,000 miles away.
There just are not that many people with the nerve or the know-how to climb atop and clean a fall-and-it’s-all-over, irregularly shaped roof made of specialized fabric like the one capping the Eddy Arnold Amphitheater.
Sam Phipps and Chris Dew are the exceptions. That’s how they came to be in Brentwood Wednesday afternoon, on board a cherrypicker with enough carabiners and rope hanging off them to go mountain climbing.
“It’s very limited, the people in the U.S. who do this sort of thing,” Phipps said. “Companies around here, they don’t climb you know?”
The two got into town Monday night and figured it would take them until Friday afternoon or Saturday morning, working full days, to get the roof in shape.
Although to a casual observer the work they were doing, spraying the dirty white roof with what looked like a pressure washer, could be interpreted as simple, it’s actually much more complicated. It really becomes interesting when they get out of the cherrypicker and start walking around on top of the special PVC fabric.
“Because it’s fabric it moves around and so we have to look at the fittings and nuts and bolts and everything like that because everything moves, the components,” said Phipps, his face ruddy from spending most of his working days high up with nothing between him and the sun but maybe some clouds.
There’s also the element of danger that makes the work so specialized and worth the $33,215 the city is paying for the job.
“People do get a bit spooked at times,” Dew said. “You’ve got to be careful how you walk on this. You put a foot wrong and, pfff, you’re gone.”
The work so far at Crockett Park was going fine, except for the heat. While Phipps was hatless and in a short sleeve shirt, Dew wore a hat and a long-sleeve jacket to ward off the rays.
The company cleaned the roof six years ago and were in the United States to give it and several other structures another go.
“We have a few structures in the U.S.,” Phipps said. “We’ve got one in Buffalo, one in Pennsylvania, one in Detroit.” The latter two cities are where the pair is headed next.
They do work all over the world, though.
“I just came back from the south of France last week,” Phipps said. Last year he was in Malaysia for several months. Dew has done work in Denmark and Saudi Arabia recently.
For the most part they like the travel.
“It’s just so great to meet people all over the world,” Dew said. “If you’re working on a project rather than just traveling for fun you always meet more people.”
Dew’s involvement in this line of work grew out of his former profession.
“I worked on the ropes doing cliff surveys looking for loose rock and things like that,” he said, adding that he also helps set up music events, especially in the summer, including the mammoth annual Glastonbury Festival.
Phipps started out doing general building work and then saw an ad in the paper for this.
“I haven’t looked back since really,” he said.
Part of the attraction of the work is the variety. There’s always a new place to go, a new shape of amphitheater to negotiate.
“There’s never one job the same,” Phipps said.
Around 5:30 p.m., Phipps and Dew plan to knock off, maybe go grab a beer. Dew likes Johnny Cash and expressed some interest in checking out some of Nashville’s music history if he has the time.
Bright and early, though, it’ll be back to work to wash away some more of the grime. They want to make the whole roof as bright white as the parts they’ve already finished with.
Phipps got poetic for a moment. Well, kind of poetic.
“The lifespan of the fabric is about 25 years plus, but it’s how you look after it,” he said. “It’s like a good woman, you look after her, she’ll look after you.”