OSHA and Roofers

Remember those fiasco days when all the roofers were panicking about OSHA safety harnesses for residential roofers? We followed the rules and our roofers were ridiculed. The other companies roofers either didn't have the "fall equipment" or had it on their backs but didn't attach it to their anchors. The insurance companies were accommodating enough to allow us to charge more for the additional added cost of doing business. Our roofers put a surcharge on their labor.
Later the insurance demanded proof that we were using the equipment and when we went out to photograph them we found that they had copied the roofers who laughed at them but they still wanted the extra pay. All of those expensive devices, about $400.00 per man, disappeared.
Flash forward to 2010. Even though the fall gear requirement is gone, few roofers follow basic OSHA standards. Roofers can't drink from the same cup and all cups must be labeled with each persons name, no electrical tape on extension cords, knowledge of where the closest hospital is (911 will do as an answer), no painted or repaired ladders, and a first aid kit on the premises are a few of the top items needed.
Regular and documented safety training classes must be kept up.
This is the law. Do any of the roofing certification programs require it? No. Do any of the insurance companies that have preferred contractors require it? No! Do any of the trade associations ask about it? No.
Am I just wasting my time? Hardly. We haven't had a major accident in over ten years, and that was me. You know the pilot doesn't put on his seat belt when he's a passenger. Now I have a healthy respect and fear of the ladder.
So when choosing a contractor, ask if he has a safety program for his installers.

Jon Wright
www.jonwrightroofing.com

Roofing and Trade Organizations

Every serious industry has trade organizations. The entities are grouped by raw material producers, manufacturers, distributors, and retail. The retail contractor has local, state, and national groups to join.
These groups offer training gathered through collective and historical means. The training leads to certifications and even awards. Roofers that haven't done this are not serious about their business and are purely sales organizations that happen to be selling roofs.
Starting at the top, the National Roofing Contractors of America or NRCA, was founded in 1886. It offers training through its NRCA University and seminars held at conventions. Their newsletters are very in depth. Further down the pike are the the state, regional, and local chapters that many feel that is a better path.
The manufacturers rally around groups set up around their primary ingredients. Asphaltic manufacturers naturally rally around ARMA, the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturer's Association.
Steel has the Metal Roofing Alliance, the MRA, and wood has the Cedar Shake and ShingleBureau.
Over the last decade the manufacturers have set up their own certifications for the best and brightest to help them become even more so. The requirements vary but GAF, the company that knighted us as Master Elites, would only invite us if we had been in business for over six years, carried insurance, had a good local reputation, and could pass an exam. To keep that certification we must keep a scorecard with our customers. GAF handles this through spying and snooping. On top of this we must keep up a continual training.
Besides these numerous organizations there are a plethora of generic, specific, and general magazines in print and online. The Roofing Contractor, RSI, Professional Roofing by the NRCA, Roofing Contractor, Metal Roofing Magazine, Metal Roofing, and more.
Siding and window magazines exist also as do literature for every trade under the stars.
Professionals either seek out these groups or are sought out by them. If we did not pay attention to what is going on in our industry we could find ourselves out of a job.
One huge example is the new lead abatement regulations on remodeling of homes built before 1978. What this means for remodelers is life and death for their business.
When I read about this in Qualified Remodeler magazine I was spooked. $37,000.00 a day fines from the EPA if a certified lead abatement person is not on the job at specific times, removal and disposal regulations are not followed, chemical testing is not done, and the hoops are not jumped through properly. Lives are at stake here. Not just the physical and metal health of our customers and their children but my own financial one as well. Ecohome magazine also did a spread on this new ruling.
Alexis De Tocqueville was right when he said that democracies are slow to act but then overreact. (There goes my liberal arts education again.)
None of the roofing magazines ever mentioned this new ruling because for the most part it doesn't pertain to roofers but if one found himself removing six square feet or more of wood or metal edge he could be subject to massive fines.
The window and remodeling magazines have been discussing this but not the roofers.
That's why you join, study, and expand your knowledge if your going to be considered a professional. Otherwise you just sell widgets that come in bundles. You might not be doing it right but you also might get fined. If you don't have the foresight and moral fortitude to care about the children living under your handiwork, you might have it when it comes to your own wallet.

Residential and Commercial Roofing.Differences

About all residential and commercial roofing companies have in common is that both work on top and keep water out. It stops there.
Residential roofers want to ventilate while flat roofers don't want any air to escape the building. This can be measured and regulated through the LEEDs program. Escaping air on a flat roof equals a leak. Flat roofs don't have attics to ventilate.
Slope roofing is usually on a wood deck while low slope roofs are primarily placed on metal decks with one of several surface leveling and insulating subroofs. The radical difference in design means that two very distinct concepts are used. The sloped roofs shed water while the flat ones seal it out.
Occasionally the pitched roof on a home will be attached to a flat or near flat section that requires knowledge of flat systems. This is why many flat roofs on homes leak. The wrong type of roofer and roofing system was chosen.
Just because both are called roofers doesn't mean they do the same job.
When a built up roofer gets on a white composition roof to fix a leak, he smears black tar, known as pookie, all over the place. That is what he knows to do. He has no aesthetic section in his brain. He might sprinkle granules on it. That's what commercial roofers do.
When the composition roofer gets on a flat roof, he'll put more and more tar on a leak area, right over the gravel. The asphalt, having no membranes to hold it together, will crack and peel off.
When selecting a roofer, hire an appropriate one, one with the skills that match your needs. You wouldn't hire a dentist to deliver your baby, a defense attorney for your corporate charter, or a welder to fix your motherboard.
We Master Elite are residential roofing experts that emphasize longer lasting leak resistant roofs that perform better than other company's roofs because they really have no idea how to ventilate. They think random holes are appropriate ventilation systems and that air nailing is as good or better than hand nailing. We can deliver the guarantees to back up our service and have our guarantees backed up by the manufacturer.
We also make your HVAC contractor look like a hero because his equipment will last longer with one of our roofs on the home rather than the other guy's. Just yesterday I was talking to an old friend who has been in the business since at least 1989 and he didn't know what "The 300 Rule" is. He never heard of it. Our customers know more about ventilation and its relationship to your entire health and financial structures than other roofing company salesmen. We are pretty weak when it comes to the Wind Uplift Ratings like I-60 or I-90 ratings of commercial roofs. In the commercial roofing industry there are a lot of bad roofers that do not know what they need to know and wind uplift ratings is one of their most important technical issues.
Roofing is a science and it has many branches. A good roofing contractor will know a little about different roof types out of his field of expertise so he'll know how to "tie into" them when they are attached to his roof or so he'll know when to contact someone else when he shouldn't be doing the work.
I asked my primary supplier if he knew a commercial roofer who didn't do residential roofs and he said they all do. He said it was too easy to set up a small division to roof homes. Even my supplier, like my friend, like most roofers, don't know what they need to know to make a good roof system. My supplier flatters me by saying he knows we must do a better job because of the sheer number of roof accessories we buy from him that our competitors don't buy but he is also subliminally judging our quality based on dollars of product purchased per order. He has begun to realize his attic is not vented right. He wants me to evaluate it for him. Yet he still sees that most roofers don't do what we do so he has this opinion that the other roofers are okay and we're good. The reality is that we are very good and the others are horrible.
Jon Wright
www.jonwrightroofing.com

Why Buy an Enhanced Roof Warranty

Roofs wear out. Usually prematurely, if not damaged by hail first. They can fail sooner than expected if the roof is not properly ventilated or leak if not properly installed. The setbacks can be tremendous. Damage to the ceilings, insulation, roof deck, electrical system, furniture, computers, and so on. Usually it leaks on your wife's side of the bed and you now need either a marriage counselor or a Realtor and divorce attorney, besides water remediation services and a new bed. She might not want the bed but she's not letting you keep it. It is exhibit "A."
The Golden Pledge, which is a System Plus Warranty with a 20 year leak guarantee, can pay for itself within the first ten years, sometimes many times over. The System Plus transforms the normal warranty by removing the small print. The warranty becomes transferable, adds labor to the coverage, and removes the pro ration for twenty to fifty years, depending on what product you have. The lifetime GAF products are covered for 50 years under this policy. I call it that because it's just like an extended insurance policy. All other products carry a 100% coverage for 20 years.
The twenty year leak protection plan under the Golden Pledge is more than paper. It is all the accessories GAF has to offer to make a full and complete roof system designed to withstand every type of rain even Mother Nature can throw at the roof except for storms with names like Katrina or Genghis Khan. Nobody warrants those mama jammas, not even da gubbamint. First, all the valleys and eaves are covered with leak barrier, the ridge must be heavy duty, the roof vented according to strict intake/exhaust ratios that protect the system, and the entire roof surface must have a superior felt. And you have to start right by using a superior started that protects against blow off and idiots with a ladders leaned against the roof edge.
Besides saving money on air conditioning, which could easily be at least $500.00 a year or more, saving at least one roof leak repair and resulting interior damage costing around a total minimum of $1000.00 and a roof color mismatch, repeated exterior painting ( see my blog on ventilation ) which cost usually around $2000.00 from my experience, and added HVAC servicing due to longer running times on the machinery setting you back another $500.00 minimum per year, there is one hugely great tremendous expense looming: replacing the roof for the new owners when you sell your home after the bed wetting incident.
That new roof alone in fifteen years could cost $25,000.00 or more. A $5000.00 roof in 2003 cost about $8000.00 in 2009. I doubt we'll see that type of inflation again soon but roofs will certainly have a slow steady rise in cost over the years as asphalt becomes more scare in the market. This cost alone might end that marriage that survived the mildewed box springs and hot summer days with a broken air conditioning system. Now the ex brides hate turns to anger, not a good thing. Aristotle says that the difference between hate and anger is that a man that hates you will avoid you while an angry man will throw himself at you with disregard for his own well being. Now put that on a wet wife. RUN!!! You can now guess what I studied in college.
And while you're trying to sell your in this difficult market you know the next series of roof leaks are on there way. You start to look in all the closets and under that wet bed for more water.
Think about it. Today when you buy a home you pay good money for a thorough inspection for the entire structure. If the roof shows any wear there is a good chance that mortgage won't loan the money because when you walk away from the house after the divorce it will need to roof it to sell it and the insurance company will decline coverage because older roofs are more easily hail damaged.
Roof contractors who are not authorized to offer this extended roof policy argue that hail will damage the roof before the policy expires. I say bring it on. The insurance is required to put the roof like it is and that would be with a brand new 20 year leak coverage. But if the insurance says their is no hail damage (imagine that), if there are marks, cracking, fading, or granule loss, then someone is buying you a new roof. And it's not you. You are covered against such things.
That new roof, after 15 years of marital bliss, plus the other costs of about $7500.00 in cooling costs, and $3000.00 in repairs, adds up to $35,500.00 plus a roof permit. And that fee, which didn't exist in the near past, will have gone up too.
Here in the Dallas Fort Worth roofing market many roofs are hail damaged but many are not. Just ask your local Realtor or real estate company if roofing is more often than not one of the headaches they encounter in the emotional negotiations of selling a home.
The warranty costs less than a buck and change per day. I bet the divorce attorney charges more than that. My second marriage lasted less than three years but my attorney cost over $250,00.00, but I got to keep the roof and the kid. My people told me not to discuss that sad event but here was my chance.
Now I'm not saying that a bad roof will ruin a strong marriage but it might keep your kids from going to the college of their choice. Just what does two years of college cost right now.
www.jonwrightroofing.com