Maintaining aging institutional and commercial facilities is essential for providing a safe and effective work environment. One of the most important steps in achieving this goal — yet the most overlooked in many organizations — is roof maintenance.
Why do so many organizations overlook their roofing system? In general, roofs present a host of major challenges, from specification and installation to maintenance and replacement. From the maintenance and engineering manager’s point of view, no building component fits in the “out of sight, out of mind” category better than roofs.
When the time comes to gather information and make decisions about replacing the roof, numerous problems such as failing to employ proper roof design, specifying time-tested products and disregarding ongoing roof maintenance, all contribute to this challenging situation.
What can or should you do to streamline the process of roof replacement? The first step is to understand the issues involved in effective roof management. Seven factors affect the long-term performance of a roof system: design, installation, materials, maintenance, construction quality control, warranty, and weather. Of these seven factors, only weather is beyond your control.
At RAMCON, we believe that when there’s a problem, go right to the source. Therefore, we worked with more than 1,000 building owners and managers who ranked the six controllable factors, based on each one’s impact on a roof’s long-term performance. The challenge for you is to fully understand the significance of each factor (listed below in order of potential impact) on a roof’s performance and to avoid automatically choosing the “lowest cost” option. The cost of cheap can be very high.
Managers and owners identified roof design as the most important factor affecting long-term performance. A significant margin exists between the perceived importance of roof design compared to all other factors. You need a detailed specification, which RAMCON can provide to you, so that when you are getting prices, you are getting ‘apples to apples’. If not,, you will simply receive a design from some contractors that is the “lowest cost” option. Essentially, you are not getting the best design...just the cheapest. Every single day, we work with building owners and managers designing sets of specifications that truly meet your needs...let us help you, at no expense to you.
Installation Insights
The labor to install a roof is the most costly factor, and in some cases, the greatest influence on roof performance. If you select a contractor who does not install the roof properly, the roof will not perform up to expectations, no matter the quality of the roof design or materials. One of your primary considerations when choosing a contractor is ensuring they can provide a highly experienced, skilled, and conscientious roofing crew. Ask around to other owners, roofing manufacturers or distributors about RAMCON’s quality and see what they have to say.
Materials Management
New and improved roofing products continually enter the market. Sometimes, ‘new and improved’ can mean less expensive. The cost of the membrane, not its proven performance, is too often the overriding factor in choosing a roofing system. But let’s keep in mind that the difference in cost between a high-quality, time tested roofing membrane and a low-cost commodity brand is usually less than 10 percent of the system’s total cost.
If you are looking for long-term performance, you have to do the research. Or better yet, drop by the RAMCON office and see the products being tested yourself. We maintain a 35,000 square foot training and testing ground that tests everything we install.
Maintenance Matters
It’s imperative to implement a proactive inspection and maintenance program after the roof is installed. All to often managers believe that because a warranty covers the new roof, they can ignore maintenance for the first several years of the roof’s life. This is a costly mistake. Many material or other deficiencies can develop within the first few years of a roof’s service life and the smallest defect can turn into a major problem if workers do not correct it immediately.
Project Inspection
As previously mentioned, you should consider the installation of the roofing system as one of the two most important factors in a roof’s performance. Installation is also difficult, dangerous, and sometimes can be the the largest cost. Because of the high risk and costs associated with the installation, comprehensive construction inspections are vital to ensure the best system is installed. RAMCON has dedicated quality control teams, as well as internal and external risk management teams that inspect every project continuously to ensure it is not only installed perfectly, but with no risks or incidents. We are proud of our .63 EMR rate and work diligently to protect it.
Warranty Considerations
The factor owners and managers ranked lowest in assessing the long-term performance of roofs is the manufacturer warranty. Some roofing membrane manufacturers sell roof warranties, not roofing membranes. Twenty years ago, a 10-year roof warranty for labor and material was the norm. Now, manufacturers offer 20- and even 30-year warranties.
Before paying $0.15-$0.20 per square foot for a 30- year warranty, it might be worthwhile to read the warranty limitations and exclusions. You need to remember that manufacturers write the warranty to protect themselves.
Among the warranty exclusions and special conditions that will make the warranty null and void: lack of proper maintenance, unauthorized repairs, failure to notify manufacturer within the prescribed time about the discovery of a leak, traffic or material storage, abnormal climatic condition and damage due to winds over 42 mph.
There is no substitute for performing proper roof design, using time-tested products, using high-quality workmanship, performing construction quality control, and performing ongoing roof maintenance. The risks of omitting any of these factors are too high to ignore and often lead to costly, premature roof failure.
good stuff
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