Published in the ECHO Journal, January 2010
How To Get One More Year From Your Roof or, “Our Members Couldn’t Agree…”
Act I
You discover that your roofs are worn out, but you don’t have the reserves to replace them.
Act II
Fortunately, you agree on what to replace them with. Unfortunately, you can’t agree on how to pay for the work.
Act III
It is now too late to plan on doing any serious reroofing for the balance of this winter. Even if, without a specific reroofing plan, you could get several competitive bids, you would pay a premium price for the reroofing work because of the time of year. You would certainly not be able to get any guarantee that the work would be completed before spring arrives.
It is far better now to plan for reroofing after May. Shift roofing funds from early in this year’s budget to later in the year. For the winter and early spring months retain only enough in the budget for temporary repairs—$0.10 per square foot should be more than sufficient.
If you have not yet done so, and whether or not you have had serious roof leaks, have the following work done:
- Clear all roof drains, gutters and downspouts of leaves, dirt and debris.
- Inspect all flat roofs. Repair all splits and cracks and reseal around vents and at scuppers.
- Replace or repair any missing shingles, shakes, artificial shakes. tiles or broken flashings.
- Make arrangements with roofing repair companies or roofing contractors for 24 hour emergency service throughout the winter. You can locate such companies through your association management company or by looking for contractors who advertise roofing repair work in your local telephone yellow pages. The ECHO office will supply a list of member roofing contractors.
Prior to having any work performed by a roofing firm, your board of directors or management company should do the following things:
- Ensure that the contractor has a ready supply of roof repair materials, particularly if yours is a single-ply roof or artificial shake roof of any type. If your roof is covered by a warranty, ensure that the repair contractor is approved by the material manufacturer to make repairs under the warranty.
- Negotiate hourly or per-call, not-to-exceed repair rates. These should not be more than $85.00 per hour per worker, including materials.
- Establish the speed of response that you expect from the repair contractor, with penalties for non-performance.
- Develop a list of names and phone numbers of both your representatives and the contractor’s personnel who are “on call” and responsible for receiving reports of and correcting roof leak problems.
Finale
Most importantly, get the planning for your reroofing project underway immediately. It takes time to set up the funding, to prepare specifications, solicit bids from qualified contractors, and otherwise prepare to initiate work when good weather arrives.
Otherwise you will be reading this same script one year from now!
Richard Tippett is the principal at ERTECH, Inc., Watsonville, CA. Dick is a member of the ECHO Board of Directors and the Central Coast and the Maintenance Resource Panels.