3 Creative Ways To Find The Best Roofing Contractor

Finding a well-qualified roofing contractor for your roofing portfolio seems to be getting tougher these days. The tough economy over the past few years has left many firms barely afloat and hundreds have simply gone out of business. The common response is to “ask for 3 references”. While we certainly have hundreds we are proud of, doesn’t this concept seem flawed? Do you really expect a reference provided by the company to say something bad?!? Instead, try these three innovative ways to find the best.

Talk to the Warranty Holder

While they might not want their comments made public, they will certainly know who the good contractorsare in the area. Every manufacturer keeps quality ratings on their contractors. Think about it, manufacturers are inclined to have quality contractors install the roof perfectly. The better the installation, the lower the incurred warranty expenses. The reason the manufacturer wants a good contractor is the same as you…the roof doesn’t leak! Speak with the major manufacturers, such as Johns Manville, Firestone as well as specialty manufacturers such as Tremco.

Call the Roofing Distributors

Some of the best people to ask are the roofing supply companies. While these companies will not want to appear to favor certain contractors over others, because they sell to all of them, they will generally be willing to tell you who the really competent contractors are. They know who does good work and they certainly know who pays them promptly, which is a pretty good indication of the financial strength of the roofer in question. When you place a call you need to assure whomever you are talking to that you will not reveal their input/participation. The conversation will be “off the record”. Most of these people will then be very glad to help. In Florida, call Beacon Supply and ABC/Bradco Supply, as they have offices throughout the

state.

Creative Specification Writing

By writing your bid specifications “creatively” you can also narrow down the field to the better contractors. Most major roofing manufacturers give awards to contractors for doing high quality work. They give them names like “Master Contractor” or “Pinnacle Council”. By specifying that a bidder must be a “Master Contractor” can limit some of your exposure to poor quality work. Additionally, having a significant insurance requirement keeps financially susceptible firms at bay and focuses your exposure to solid contractors.

What Is Thermal Infared Imaging?

Infrared light or thermography is the use of an infrared imaging and measurement camera to “see” and “measure” thermal energy emitted from an object. Thermal, or infrared energy, is light that is not visible because its wavelength is too long to be detected by the human eye; it’s the part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we perceive as heat. Unlike visible light, in the infrared world, everything with a temperature above absolute zero emits heat. Even very cold objects, like ice cubes, emit infrared.

Infrared Thermal Imaging
The higher the object’s temperature, the greater the IR radiation emitted. Infrared allows us to see what our eyes cannot. Our infrared cameras produce images of invisible infrared or “heat” radiation and provide precise non-contact temperature measurement capabilities. It is a valuable diagnostic tool to identify saturated insulation areas without the need for destructive testing.

How It Applies To Your Roof
During the daytime, wet roof insulation absorbs much more solar heat than dry insulation. During the night, this “solar gain” is released as radiant heat, which is detectable with the infrared camera.

The RAMCON Team use state-of-the-art cameras to capture the “thermal signature” of the roof’s nighttime heat loss. As you can see in the example photos below, the infrared image pinpoints the extent of moisture damage within the roof.

Our inspection teams precisely mark out the damaged areas on the roof surface, so you can save the expense and liability of destructive testing. This allows us to calculate the cost of unit cost replacements before the project even starts…something practically no one else can match!

Case Study: RAMCON Saves Owner $27,999

Our “Case Study” reports are designed to illustrate various ways we have helped clients so that you can begin to discover ways to utilize what we do. All names have been changed to protect confidentiality.

The Call From The Client
One September day we received a call from a client with many “retail” buildings, here is their story:

“We have a problem. We developed a leak on a roof still under warranty at our “ABC” location. The manufacturer came out to investigate and advised us that since the roof was covered in 3” of leaves, they would be unable to find the leak until the leaves were removed. The store manager decided to “help” the issue along and sent a crew of store employees on the roof with shovels and rakes to remove the vegetation. They removed the vegetation and punched “hundreds, if not thousands” of holes in the roof. When it rained the next week, there were literally hundreds of leaks. The manager had to close down portions of the store because of all the water that was pouring in. When the manufacturer came back he advised us, and we agreed, that the roof needs to be replaced in the areas where we damaged it. The problem now is that the manufacturer has brought out a contractor and they have given us a price of over $44,000 for this work. It sounds like a lot of money. Could you take a look at it and see what you think?”

Our Role
We inspected the roof and our estimating team priced the exact same repair specifications for $17,000 less than the previous contractor. As you can imagine, the owner was happy and no leaks have reoccurred, but read on.

There Was More
While on the roof we also found a number of other problems, all warranty related, which we then brought to the attention of the manufacturer. The manufacturer agreed with our findings and then arranged to replace approximately 65% of the rest of the roof with brand new material at no cost to the owner. (The value of this work would have been approximately $40,000). Imagine how happy the owner is now? If we had not found this problem (no one else had noticed these issues, including; the manufacturer’s rep, his inspector, and the contractor) the owner would have also had this expenditure to pay when the warranty expired.

Conclusion
We cannot always cut the price of your project by half, but one of our skills is to know how to address specific problems to ensure you get the best possible price. Building managers often align themselves with a roofer because that is who they have always used, but they are often unaware of quality concerns and the ability to save thousands. We can often save “real” money over what you might otherwise have had to pay.