I’m excited about starting off a New Year!  We have some exciting challenges ahead of us in 2012, but the year is off to an amazing start for us.  As you may have heard the last few years have not been very good in the construction industry.  This year however, we have a good backlog of work and an amazing workforce in the field and in the office.

I’ve also gone back to a habit that I had when I started this business in 1981.  I’m listening to motivational recordings while driving and reading great motivational books.  I’m currently listening to Brian Tracy and reading W. Clement Stone.  It feels really good to get going with a Positive Mental Attitude!

We still have some real challenges ahead of us this year.

Here is just one of the many interesting projects that we are currently working on.  This dome and curved dormer windows are going to be receiving a custom ATAS metal roof in a beautiful gold color along with custom trims.  It is a very exciting project and another one that the people who work on can be very proud of what they accomplish.  Just working on a roofing project such as this in the winter months provides some very interesting challenges.

What challenges do you expect to be facing in the New Year?

Whatever challenges they may be, facing them with a Positive Mental Attitude will help to make 2012 one of your best years ever!

I rarely receive any comments here that are not some type of spam.  I would be really interested to hear what you are expecting for 2012 and what challenges you may be up against (especially any roofing challenges).

I wish you the best of SUCCESS for the upcoming year.

Now is the time of year when you want to be thinking about just about anything but your roof.  It’s time for holiday parties, cookies, Christmas trees and decorations.  There are presents to be bought, things to be baked, visits to be planned and hopefully in all of this rushing around we don’t forget the reason for the season.

Image via Wikipedia

At this time of year I often reflect on the blessings that I have.  I feel truly blessed to work with a great bunch of people here at J.V. Heidler Co.  Mel and Norm in the office are among the best people that I have ever known.  They work to go above and beyond for our customers and our company.  I am blessed by the wonderful customers that we work with and by our great suppliers and manufacturers.

The weather this year has been particularly hard on us.  There has been record rainfall and the other day someone told me that it had rained for eight (8) Wednesdays in a row.  This makes it very difficult for us to accomplish our goals, but we have persevered.  Our field staff has done an amazing job of starting to get us back on track after the difficult weather.  I am extremely proud of the quality of their work and their attention to working safely.  We are blessed to have “the best roofers anywhere” working here to help us and our customers to achieve their objectives.

If your roof hasn’t been checked in a while (and you are in our area), give us a call after the holidays.  We’ll be happy to come out and give you our professional opinion on any roofing needs that you may have.  And who knows how much damage Santa and those reindeer may do when they land that sleigh up on your rooftop?

I hope that you, and all of those that you care about, are truly blessed this holiday season!

Today I’m going to take another stab at putting video into my blog post.  I took this video while I was in Korea, from my hotel room window in Youngsan.  I had a great view of the roof with roof drains right outside my window.  This was done while my wife was out shopping.  That way I could focus on the roofing, which is my profession, even though we were on vacation.  What can I say, it’s in my blood.

The modified roof was really very neatly done.  All of the lines for the cap sheet were very neat and crisp.  The coping looked very good and the tile work was magnificent.

There were a few issues with the details around the roof drain.  They look like minor problems, but remember that this is in the drain area where all of the water is designed to flow.  Small cracks like these at the peak of the roof will not allow nearly as much water into the building as they will in the roof drain area.

The flashing of the walls, including the metal counter flashing also looks like it was very professionally installed.  I always enjoy seeing work like this that was obviously installed with care.

The nail and wire sitting on the roof membrane are always a concern.  Any one who walks up there could step on them and puncture the roof membrane, easily causing a leak.  Prevention of this sort of thing can usually be handled by building maintenance staff.  The problem usually arises after some other mechanical trade has been up on the rooftop, maybe to service an Air conditioning unit or something.

This is one of my best videos to date.  I think that I am finally becoming a little more comfortable on the camera.  It really was a beautiful tile roof and although the modified roof had a few issues, it was very neatly done.

Related articles

• Roofing From the Other Side of the World (heidler.com)
• Why Water Isn’t Good For Ya (heidler.com)

During my recent trip overseas, I was somewhat surprised at how many of the high rise buildings were handling “Green Roofing”.  It was very different from what I am used to seeing here in Central Pennsylvania.  It seemed fairly common to look up at where the building meets the sky and see beautiful green growth.  We have installed green roofing in Lancaster and I never really see anything quite like what I was seeing over there. 

It looks as if most of their roof top plants are in containers.  Not just small plants and bushes either, some of them were very large trees.  It really added a beauty to the skyline that I don’t often see around here.  Most of the green roofs that we have installed and that I have seen installed, involve plants that grow fairly close to the roof surface, maybe to a height of 6 to 8 inches.  These are absolutely gorgeous from above, especially if you can look out of a window from a taller floor, but from ground level they look the same as any other building.

I would love to know what your thoughts are.  Do you consider trees and planters on the roof to be a “Green Roof”?

During my recent trip to Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia, I made some interesting observations about the roofs on the other side of the world.  You see , even when I’m supposed to be on vacation, I can’t help but look at roofs.  I guess that it is in my blood.

The first picture is from my hotel room in Ho Chi Mihn city (Saigon), Vietnam.  It shows the predominantly corrugated tin roofs of the shops.

The second picture is of a hut in Vietnam with a thatched roof.  This is one of the few types of roof that I have never installed and unless I get chosen for Survivor, I never plan to.

The third picture is of the stone roofs of Angkor Watt in Cambodia.  These roofs have lasted for centuries. Yeah…they just don’t build them like that anymore!

The last picture is of a beautiful tile roof outside of the Kings Palace in Cambodia.  I guess if you are the King, you can pretty much have any type of roof that you want.  Close by was the Royal Treasury building with a very similar roof.  I’m sure that they set the treasury back a little bit.

The main thing that I noticed over there, especially in Vietnam and Cambodia, is that there is a huge disparity in the roofs from the city to the outlying areas.  There must be a huge difference in the average incomes as well.   I was told that the average income for a worker in Siem Reap, Cambodia is about $75. a month.  The average person has a corrugated tin roof.  The above average person has a tile roof and the below average is lucky to have a thatch roof on his hut.  There is little need for insulation, as the average temperature is fairly high in the tropical environment.  They do have an awful lot of rain, as I can attest to, as we were there during “the rainy season”.  They have had so much rain of late that there has been devastating flooding.

I generally don’t see that much disparity in the TYPE of roofs that I see here in Central Pennsylvania.  Almost everyone is using the same type of shingles or metal or single ply membrane. The disparity that I see here almost always comes from the installation.  Very rarely do I ever see any shoddy materials.  I wish that I could say the same thing for the workmanship, because even if you use good quality materials, poor workmanship can ruin a project causing damaging roof leaks to occur into the future.

If you are living in anything from a grass hut to a Kings Palace, the most important part of the building is the roof.  What type of roof do you have?  How long do you think that it will last?

A "Pipe Boot" in need of repair!

OK I have to admit it.  Our industry frequently uses terminology (that’s a fancy word for words) that no one else would understand.  A lot of industries do this.  I think that technology companies are the worst.  I believe that they make up a lot of stuff just to confuse us.  We don’t try to confuse anyone, but we do frequently fall into that word trap at our company too.  I’ll be looking over a proposal to go out, and wonder if our customers will understand what something we said means?  So today I thought that I would run down some of the more often used ones and tell you what they mean.

"Fishmouth"

• SQUARES: In roofing we use this one a lot and it’s typically the way we purchase a lot of our materials like insulation or shingles.                       One square equals 100 square feet or an area equal to 10 feet by 10 feet.
• E. P. D. M:  That stands for ……get ready for it……Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer.  It’s rubber OK!  Why can’t we just call  it  rubber?
• T. P. O:  This is a tough one Thermoplastic Polyolofin.  I guess they were afraid to call it TP for fear that someone would mistake it for something else?  And who would want their roof covered with TP?
• ARCHITECTURAL SHINGLES:  Also known as dimensional shingles or laminated shingles.  These are shingles that are also now known as “Lifetime Shingles”.
• PLASTIC CEMENT: I don’t know why it’s called that.  It’s not plastic at all!  It’s also known as flashing cement.  For that matter it doesn’t even look like cement.  Some roofers even call this muck or black jack.  It is black and is an asphalt based product.  Beware of anyone who tries to fix your roof using this alone (it won’t last very long).
• BRIDGING:  This term is usually used in conjunction with a single ply roof.  It’s when the roofing membrane runs up to a flashing detail like a wall and begins to pull away.  The membrane should remain tight at a right angle, if it doesn’t you have bridging.
• FISH MOUTH:  Oooh I like this one.  It occurs in the laps of membrane when it isn’t sealed properly.  When looked at from one side, it looks like a fish opening it’s mouth.
• PIPE BOOT:  This is a flashing that goes at the base of a pipe penetration through a single ply roof.  If it was a built-up roof it would be called a vent collar flashing, but when single ply roofing got here, we changed it to a pipe boot.
• PITCH POCKET:  This is used to flash an irregular penetration into the roof.  Many years ago, they used to be filled with pitch I guess.  I don’t think anybody uses pitch any more, but we still call them pitch pockets.  Now they are usually filled with pourable sealer which is pretty self explanatory.
  

  "Pitch Pocket"

There are an awful lot more of these words and phrases that need explanation.  I’ll save some more for another post, but if you run into any roofing words that you don’t understand, please ask me!

What words do you use that are unique to your business, that your customers may not understand?

The roofing industry has recently made some amazing changes to the warranties on shingles (or at least their marketing departments would like you to think so).  There haven’t been any actual changes made to the shingles, but now they have “LIFETIME LIMITED WARRANTIES”.  Once one of their marketing departments came up with this idea, they all jumped on the bandwagon. 

Many years ago, the quality of roofing shingles was designated by the weight.  The heavier the shingle, the more it cost and the longer it would last.  Builders of tract housing at the time, typically used the lightest shingles and they were lucky if they lasted 15 years.  We didn’t install anything less than 25 year type shingles and they weighed around 300 pounds per square (one square = 100 square feet or a 10′ x 10′ area). I distinctly remember that they were heavy, because part of my job, starting out was to carry them up to the roof top!

Now shingles are lighter and they are being marketed as “lifetime”.  Why???….not because it has been scientifically determined that they will last a lifetime, but because you are more likely to purchase them.  If you closely examine the warranty, you will understand that these companies are not really taking very much risk.  Specifics vary by manufacturer, but for the most part the warranties cover defects in the manufacturing of the shingle.  I once had a manufacturer’s rep tell me on a job site that…

They don’t care if it leaks or if the shingles are installed upside down, as long as they were manufactured properly.

These warranties are designed to protect the companies that sell the products.  They are not designed to help you, and as such you should not make your decisions about what to use for your property on warranty length. These new “Lifetime” warranties only apply to individual homeowners with single family homes.  If you have a commercial building or a church, the older 30 -40 or 50 year warranties still apply.

All asphalt shingle product warranties currently available in the U.S. and Canada provide for remedy only if shingles contain manufacturing defects that adversely affect performance; manufacturers determine whether the shingles are defective.  Defects in application labor are not covered by asphalt shingle warranties.

Of all of the problems that I have seen with shingle roofs over my many years in the business, almost all of them have been due to poor installation.  This would not be covered!

The warranty claims process is also very rigorous.  You have to follow specific detailed instructions and everything has to be documented out the wazoo.  If you want to make sure that the investment in your shingle roof lasts as long as possible, make sure that you partner with a good quality roofing company.  One that has been in the business for a while, has good references that you can talk to, is licensed and insured.

Lately we have been setting some weather records for our area here in Pennsylvania.  Last Friday we set a record for the most rain on September 23rd, the most rain for the month of September and broke the record for the most rainfall in a year since they started keeping records.

All this rain and water is not really what I want to be talking about, but it’s hard to avoid it.  After all, one of the main things that we do is help our customers keep water outside of their buildings.  This weather makes it very difficult to keep up with a growing schedule.  I’m not going to discuss that too much either, as you can read Should We Gamble and Of Storms and Roofing Schedules.  One of the side effects of all this weather is we have a record backlog.  Well it’s not just because of the weather.  My staff and field employees have been doing an excellent job of servicing our customers.  They are even impressing me and I’ve been in the business for over 40 years!

The records that we are interested in are of customer satisfaction and quality workmanship.  For us it starts up front with customer communication (I think that it is very difficult to have too much of that!).  Then our Operations Manager, who’s training to run an Ultra Marathon, focuses on going the extra mile for the customer.  I couldn’t help myself, I just had to throw that extra mile thing in there.   Mel really does work very hard, for both our customers and his training.

We really are seeing an amazing response from our customers.  In two cases last week, we had large customers demand of the manufacturers that had warranties on roofs installed for them by others, that we be the only contractors allowed on their roofs.  This is a great affirmation for us that what we are doing to satisfy our customers is working.  These are the types of records we want to be talking about and setting.

What records are you setting ?

OK. Well I have been getting awfully tired of all of the rain that we have been having lately.  We just had an earthquake, remnants of a hurricane and record flooding in our area.  It’s raining today and there is a chance of rain EVERY day this week.  Uuuuggh!  In case you missed it you can see my last blog post about  how all of this is affecting our schedule.

It was during one of these rainy days that I got a call from my mother.  She very rarely calls me at the office, so I knew that whatever it was, it wasn’t good.  She was getting water into her basement.  I know that a lot of people in our area have been having that awful problem during these record rainfalls.  One of my sisters was helping to vacuum the water and dispose of it, but could I come out and see what the problem was?  When I got there it didn’t take long for me to notice a problem up at the roof level. 

We roofers tend to look up there first.  Mom’s gutters were clogged with leaves and twigs causing them to overflow and massive amounts of water were spilling out of the gutter and running right down along the foundation.  (There are a lot of products available to keep debris from your gutters, but almost all of them restrict the proper flow of water.  In torrential rains such as we have recently had, this too will cause the water to overflow the gutters.)  Once we got the gutters and downspouts cleared, the water stopped flowing into the basement.

I’m sure that this is not a cure for all basements, but in some instances this may be all that you need.  First of all, when gutters are installed, they need to be installed with proper slope towards the downspouts. Gutters and downspouts need to be adequately sized for the size and slope of your roof.  You should always make sure that the water drains away from the house.  There should be proper slope along the foundation away from the building.  Water should be directed away from the building with splash blocks or extensions from the downspouts. 

And of course, if the roof itself is leaking, this should be the first thing to be addressed.  If you are getting water into your basement because the roof is leaking, you have a real problem.  Chris recently did a guest post for me and this is what he had to say about what to look for on the roof.

Did you get any water in your basement?  Have you checked your gutters and downspouts?

I’m going to add a link here to good information about drying out a wet basement by my friend Steve Rotay with Paul Davis Restoration.

What a crazy week it was last week.  I spent a good bit of time pumping water from the basement of my house and carrying out wet cardboard boxes.  Roofs were hammered by rain as well.  If there was any possibility of a roof leak, it showed up last week.  The phones were ringing off the hook (they don’t really do that anymore, but it is a cool expression).

We had several crews out doing emergency repair work during some awful weather (THANKS GUYS).  These repairs are generally temporary in nature, and we will have to return to effect more lasting repairs. The materials that we use to stop leaks during a storm are similar to Quik Seal 7, they are great for stopping leaks, but are temporary. One of the side effects of the rain all week last week, is that we did not get to make any progress on any of our scheduled jobs.  We just can’t work on installing new roofs in wet weather.  To install the highest quality roofing system, water can not be present within the system.  This is going to push back when we are planning to get to the rest of the jobs that we have on the books.  It’s very disruptive to material and equipment deliveries that are already scheduled, but will now have to be re-scheduled for a later date.  We try to build a little bit of flexibility into our schedule, but we don’t really count on it raining for a whole week straight or the extremely high level of emergency roof repair calls that need to be handled.

With all of the phone calls coming in, we got a little backed up on estimates as well.  Apparently some people were getting a lot of pressure from their boss to finally get something done about that roof leak!

Oh, and did you know that we are on track to have the wettest year on record for our area?