Jennifer Long, Commercial Certified Contractor Program Manager, GAF
Whether you're a roofing contractor or a building owner/manager, roof maintenance can be the key to unlocking significant business value. For the building owner, maintenance can help extend the life of the roof. For the contractor? Well, according to the NRCA, maintenance work can generate twice as much revenue as competitively bidding on new roofs.
Unfortunately, there are three common myths that often prevent people from seeing the value right over their heads.
Before contractors and owner/managers can really make the most of the commercial roof maintenance opportunity, it's important to separate fact from fiction.
Fiction 1: Modern Roofs are Maintenance-Free
Facts: That would be nice, wouldn't it? Recent advances in materials and application technology have certainly made roofs more efficient, durable, and easier to install. Yet despite the efforts of knowledgeable and innovative roofing
technologists, no one has yet been able to develop a 20-year, maintenance-free roof.
The fact is, more than 80 percent of commercial roofs are replaced prematurely, due in part to a failure to follow a
regular maintenance schedule. The good news is, a proactively-maintained roof has the potential to outlast its warranty. According to Roofing Contractor Magazine, a roofing system with proactive maintenance can have an average roof life of 21 years compared to 13 years with a reactive maintenance program, depending on the roofing system and building type. That can mean real opportunity for the roof maintenance contractor as well as more value for the building owner.
Fiction 2: Problems with My Roof are Covered by Materials Warranties
Facts: Material warranties cover manufacturing defects in products, which represent a small percentage of failures.
Poor installation, severe weather, and lack of maintenance are the most common causes of roof failure and are not covered under these warranties. Extended or enhanced warranties also do not cover maintenance costs and usually do not cover problems that can arise from neglecting regular maintenance.
Annual or semi-annual inspections help to locate deficiencies so they can be repaired before they become severe
enough to allow moisture into the building.
For the contractor, these inspections can mean reliable business with the potential for increased profit margins from conducting timely repairs and necessary reroofs. They can also contribute to increased customer satisfaction and
referrals.
For the building owner, regular inspections can identify problems when they're smaller, less expensive to address, and in time to help prevent damage to insulation, decking and items stored inside the building.
Fiction 3: Maintenance is Optional
Facts: This is the big one - the mother of all maintenance myths. And why wouldn't it be? After all, what budget-conscious manager hasn't at least considered saving money by skimping on maintenance? The problem is, standard "No Dollar Limit" warranties require it. The EverGuard Diamond Pledge NDL Roof Guarantee, for instance, states, "You must perform regular inspections and maintenance and keep records of this work:' That means treating maintenance as "optional" could jeopardize the warranty and may actually shorten the lifespan of the roof itself.
There's a saying in the roofing industry that the roof accounts for about 10 percent of a building's cost but causes 90 percent of the problems down the road - that is, long after the installer has left the building. As noted above, a very
small percentage of these problems is likely to involve materials. Too often, these expensive problems involve factors
that could have been prevented or quickly mitigated with a proactive maintenance program.
An annual or semi-annual inspection, for instance, may find blocked drains before they cause a backflow or ponding
issues; rusted or damaged roof hatches or penetration flashing before they become leaks; wear-and-tear from other
trades that access the roof; or even vandalism and accidents that can mar both the look and effectiveness of the roof.
And it should go without saying that inspections should be scheduled following any extreme weather event or the
addition of rooftop equipment.
Considering the benefits of roof maintenance to the owner and roofer, it seems clear that offering a maintenance
contract should be a part of every roofing estimate.
Jennifer Long is Commercial Certified Contractor Program Manager at GAF and has nearly a decade of experience in the roofing industry as a project manager, a sales person, and a training manager specializing in low slope reroofing and preventative maintenance. Jennifer works on a national level to help contractors grow their business through maintenance in order to differentiate who they are in the eyes of their clients and provide unique offerings through the utilization of the tools, programs and services GAF has developed. Jennifer is one of the founding members of the NW/ R organization and an a/I-around lover of the roofing industry.
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