Articles
KEEP UP ON THE ROOF
MANAGING ROOFS AS AN IMPORTANT ASSET?
(Donald E. Bush, Sr., RRC, FRCI, CT)
The roofing business in the United States has grown to a 32 billion dollar industry. With this growth has come the complexity that did not exist a number of years ago. This has had a profound effect on the roofing contractor side of the business. It has practically eliminated the roofing specialist that could concentrate on the installation of one specific roofing system. Today’s market place dictates a thorough knowledge of many systems. The out of sight, out of mind reactive approach to roofing will no longer be an acceptable management philosophy.
Roof decks include wood planks, plywood, OSB board, plastic, cementious fiberboard, light weight insulating concrete, structural concrete, gypsum concrete, aluminum, steel, and many others.
Roof insulations include wood fiberboard, perlite, foam glass, fiber glass, polystyrene, urethane, polyisocyanurate, and sprayed urethane foam.
Many roof membranes have become common over the last 20 years. They include built-up asphalt or coal tar pitch multiple ply membranes, modified bitumen systems classified as Atactic-Polypropylene (APP) and Styrene Butadiene Styrene (SBS) and Fabric membranes. Single-ply membranes have emerged over the last 30 years to become the most popular roofing membrane systems being utilized today. They represent numerous chemical and polymer formulations that require significant background and understanding of chemistry and polymers to appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of the different systems. The major single ply membrane being used today includes polyvinylchloride (PVC), Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer (EPDM), Ethylene Interpolymer (EIP) and Thermoplastic Polyolefin (TPO). These systems are similar in appearance, but each has their own installation methods and standards, and strengths and weaknesses.
To further complicate the roofing process, there are specific building code, energy code, insurance requirements, environmental standards, industry standards, and OSHA requirements that must be addressed and adhered to during design and construction.
Standing seam metal roofs are also becoming very popular and, of course, shingles of many different materials are used in most cases for steep roofing systems.
Elastomeric coatings are also extensively used as roofing membrane.
We have not touched on every roofing system available on the market and we have not discussed the many roof related accessories that must be part of most roofing systems. These would include mechanical fasteners, flashing cones, walk pads, pipe hangers, drains, scuppers, gutters, etc...
However, the information provided should provide a clear picture of the complexities of roofing and the difficulty that may be experienced when looking for the right contractors and / or consultants to assist you with your roofing problems.
Obviously, installing a new roof or replacing an old roof can become very complicated and expensive, one that dictates the need for maximum service life with minimum costly repairs throughout the life of the roof. Can we achieve this result by purchasing a long-term warranty that will take care of the leaks when they happen? The answer is absolutely not. A requirement to keep the warranty active is that the owner must provide maintenance for the system. A pro-active maintenance program is the only way to ensure the maximum possible service life of a roof system.
There is an expected difference between revenues generated in any industry and the dollars being allocated for property development and renovation. The owners / investors in the real estate market are scrutinizing transactions from every angle and, because roofing is one of the major expenditures at most properties, it will certainly be viewed under a microscope by these decision makers. Understanding the financial environment of any real estate is the key in dealing with the economic realities and making a good decision about roofing. An in-depth roof asset management program will provide all the information needed to make accurate roofing decisions.
FIVE PHASES OF ROOF ASSET MANAGEMENT
The process of roof asset management was developed to help decision makers deal with important roofing and business issues. The phases involved with roof management are not unique and can be identified in any fundamental problem assessment and decision making protocol. With respect to roof asset management, there are five basic phases that are part of the process (see Figure at the end of this section).
When these quintessential elements of roof management are utilized, the process provides a catalyst to convert from the "re-active" to the "pro-active" mode. As this occurs, building owners and managers will find that it is a lot easier to make good business decisions about roofs, which are the most critical part of protecting the building asset.
Phase 1: Training and Process Improvement
The first phase in developing a roof asset management program is to determine how can you improve your current procedures for maintaining and managing your roofs and then determine what, if any, type of internal training would be required.
If the people responsible for the roofing systems are not very knowledgeable about roofing, how can they make the correct decisions about the roof? How much training will depend on how much is expected. If technical guidance is provided by a roof consultant, then a high level of roofing knowledge is not a necessity at the owner’s level. Good business knowledge, however, is always a necessity.
Phase 2: Initial Roof Assessment and Fiscal Planning
The second of the five basic phases in roof asset management is "Roof Assessment". Before any decisions are made about where to go and what to do, you need to define "Where you are in the process". Good decision makers require accurate and concise documentation of the facts before any action is taken. In the military, for example, the step of "damage assessment" always comes before the step of "damage control".
Roof assessment deals with the first question that most building owners will ask...."What are the problems with the roofs and what caused them?
The second part of Phase 2 is planning. This is used to define your roofing needs and the options you have available to meet those needs. Look at the economic considerations associated with each option. Choose the approach that is consistent with the intended use of the building and evaluate how this approach matches up with your company’s general business strategy and long term planning.
Once the options have been defined, a recommendation needs to be made, evaluated and then decided on as a course of action. Whether it is performed in-house or by an outside firm, the results of the assessment are usually presented in an easy-to-understand summary report for management review.
Phase 3: Roof System Selection and Design
The third primary phase in roof asset management is the selection of a proper roofing system and design criteria for each roofing project. Unfortunately, many building owners have focused all their decision energy on this singular aspect of the roof management process. To a great extent this was, once again, caused by the sales and marketing part of the roofing industry that created illusions of the cure-all roof membrane. As we discovered, there is no panacea in roofing. The key is to have some diversity in the types of systems that you can use in different situations once you have identified the proper design criteria.
To get the desired performance from a roofing system, it is critical that the specifications for the roof be sufficient to meet the needs of the project. This means the specification package needs to be a complete package, which typically includes the items listed in the project contract documents.
How is the project to be handled? Will a bid process be used? How will potential bidders be qualified? A limited, but qualified, bid list of professional contractors would be the ideal approach.
Phase 4: Roofing Project Construction
The fourth phase in the roof asset management process is assuring that the roof is properly installed. This is the most critical step in the process. For example, you can use premium roofing materials and a properly designed system, but if the installation is performed poorly, the system is destined to fail prematurely. On the other hand, if you use lower grade materials, standard manufacturer details and regular preventive maintenance, you can maximize the service of life of the roof by assuring a high quality roofing installation.
There are three primary problems that today’s roofing contractor’s are faced with when trying to achieve the highest quality roof installation.
PROBLEM 1: The enormous variety of roofing systems and installation procedures.
PROBLEM 2: The extreme shortage of a qualified labor force.
PROBLEM 3: Seasonal trends.
Currently, there are hundreds of roof membrane types, insulation brand types and system fastener types available in the marketplace. Most roofing contractors try to install several different types of systems so they can be competitive in different situations. This usually requires that the crews are cross-trained to work with different types of products, depending on what was sold to the client. Roofing contracting has evolved from a "King of a Trade" to a "Jack of All Trades" industry. It is rare, today, to find contractors that install only one type of system or install several systems with dedicated crews that work with only one system. Whether you use a formal bidding process or a negotiated contract, the key is to remain pro-active and take control of your roofing project. In the construction phase, this starts at the preconstruction meeting and ends at the final inspection close-out.
Phase 5: Update Surveys and Roof Maintenance
The final phase of the roof asset management process is maintenance. Whether your roof is newly installed or 20 years old, it needs to be evaluated for maintenance requirements.
Category 1: Preventive Maintenance
Category 2: Corrective Maintenance
Of the five roof management phases discussed, preventive maintenance is the least expensive, but the most beneficial, action that a building owner can take. Ironically, it is this single step that can take owners from a "re-active" to a "pro-active" mode of roof management. By simply performing an annual roof inspection, owners can identify minor roof problems before they become major roof problems. If this is not done, owners have defaulted to re-active status and wait to have the minor roof anomalies become major problems.
Summary
The bottom line to all of this is that roof asset management will save both time and money.
The preventive roof maintenance programs that first developed years ago were the predecessor of today’s more encompassing roof management process. Building owners, managers and the technical community were beginning to realize that roof maintenance was only part of the picture. Trying to maintain roofs that were not installed properly or roofs that did not meet basic design criteria was a losing battle, regardless of how well you performed maintenance.
This situation was further complicated by dramatic changes that occurred in the roofing industry. Building owners were victimized by market driven roofing companies that were selling "leak-free", "maintenance-free" roofs backed by warranties that were written by the roofing company’s attorneys. From this "warranty war" period we learned a simple lesson......if all of the sales rhetoric sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Published by Professional Retail Store Maintenance Magazine (November 2006)