Roof Inspections: Are You Managing Your Roof or is Your Roof Managing you?
July 26th, 2010
Proactive vs. reactive, what is your approach? Many owners spend large sums of money for new roofing systems and believe that is all that is needed since they have a manufacturer’s warranty. The fact is that most new roofing systems will perform with little attention for a period of approximately 5 years. After that time flashings, which are the weakness of all roofing components, begin to need some maintenance. Service calls begin in this time period and increase with age. The issue involves the proper maintenance that roofs need as they age. A reactive approach results in minimal repairs being made in an effort to keep the building in watertight condition. The problem with this approach is that minimal repairs may not keep the roofing system in a watertight condition. The more moisture that becomes trapped in a roofing system the greater the rate of deterioration of the roofing system.
Bridging of older EPDM roofs is a prime example. The bridging issue is one that does not result in moisture entering the building until a seam is pulled loose or the EPDM is torn. This can take many years but when the failure occurs it can result in large amounts of water entering the building. Material manufacturers typically don’t pay for repairs of this condition since the building is not leaking so the condition continues until catastrophic failure occurs. This can take a longer period of time than the material manufacturer’s warranty covers. As a result, the costs to replace the damaged roof are higher plus there is the additional damage to the interior of the building.
A proactive approach involves roof inspections by an independent source to identify these problems while they are still minor repairs that can be fixed. This approach can prevent major replacement thus prolonging the useful service life of the roof.
By admin
Posted in: Building Leak Analysis, Roof Inspection, Roof Repair Project, Roof Replacement Project
This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Building Leak Analysis, Roof Inspection, Roof Repair Project, Roof Replacement Project. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
