Riku Ylipelkonen, Owner, Standard Building Advisors and FRSA Technical Advisor
Home building decisions that resonate with consumers have a lot to do with curb appeal of kitchens, bathrooms, etc. Are these areas attractive, useful and designed to work well? When one has a new guest, a house tour is sure to follow so the bathroom fixtures and finishes can be admired and my how big that closet is! The probability that someone is brought into the attic to see nailing patterns and a walk-through of the roofing system is awfully low. It’s a little higher for readers of this magazine but overall unlikely. The standard for most people is that the building is built to code. That standard seems to be the finish line for most people looking at buying or building a new house. While this is certainly an excellent end goal, there is value in constructing above code requirements in certain cases.
Energy conservation is an area where incremental performance increases having a lasting effect on running costs and maintenance. Buying a cheap foam cooler at the grocery store will hold the contents cold for a day with a bag of ice. If you spend more on a new
high-performance cooler, that ice can last seven days. The same concept holds true for a building. Adding ventilation and air flow to the attic, insulation around the conditioned living spaces and installing the latest window products will all help to keep the living space cooler in the summer. This also helps reduce the run time on the air conditioning units, saving electrical consumption and helps the equipment last longer. This delays the replacement costs further down the road. As a general rule, if you can keep heat and moisture out of the conditioned space and the building materials surrounding the conditioned space, the savings of energy conservation is compounded by the longer service life of the building materials protected from the heat and humidity that works to degrade the materials over time. Insulation placed in the attic above the conditioned space ceilings will work to keep the heat out of the space. However, if the insulation was placed into the roof covering assembly, this would not only help insulate the conditioned space but also the underlayment. Roof deck and attic structure would be cooler and drier as a result. It should be noted that these comments are applicable more to warm climates like Florida. If the main concern is keeping the conditioned space warm, you want to seal and insulate the source of heating inside the space and not allow heat to escape the conditioned space, causing issues with condensation of humidity in the air in the wrong places. Heat transfer to the outside environment causes loss and additional cost to keep the ambient conditions ideal in the space. The main concerns are heat transfer and keeping the building materials dry for a prolonged service life.
Moisture control is an often overlooked value in building design and construction expense. Rain gutters seem to be a lesson learned later in life. In Florida, building site drainage and water management is a long-term concern for building owners. Roofing is a part of this system. Roof systems must keep the inside of the building dry but they should also be designed so the rain accumulation has a proper path to the ground, away from the building. Ponding is a concern, especially if ponds always form after a rain. Concrete slabs and exterior wall assemblies are not designed to endure extended periods of water contact. Buildings that are in developed areas should drain properly and water directed to sewers and away from the building perimeter. For low-slope roofs, rainwater management is often consolidated into the waterproofing system, so it is an important consideration during the roof design phase or when the roof is to be reroofed using current materials and code changes. A considerable amount of flood damage could be mitigated if the slab elevation is raised above code minimums. As our environment changes with time, so have slab height minimums above grade changed. After all, we have learned in recent hurricanes that the water surge is just as dangerous as the wind.
The main culprits of damage to buildings in Florida seem to be water, heat and time. Roofing is the first line of defense for those. As members of the roofing industry, we can all be advocates for the design and material choices to resist the damage of water and heat over time to Florida buildings. A better roof now will deliver more value than a minimum code roof now and another one later.
Riku Ylipelkonen, Owner, Standard Building Advisors has been in the roofing industry for 15 years working for Polyfoam Products. When Polyfoam Products was acquired by 3M and the name changed to ICP Building Solutions Group. Riku worked at ICP as Technical Services Manager until March of 2023, when he left to begin his own company. Riku is an engineer and is working as a consultant with FRSA. He is a member on FRSA’s Codes Committee, Codes Subcommittee, Tile Committee and on the FRSA-TRI Manual Rewrite Committee. Riku is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
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