3 milestones for a successful roof project

By Emma Peterson. 

Risk management is crucial across all stages of a roofing project, but it can be intimidating. Here are three milestones in the project where you should pause and assess.  

In a RoofersCoffeeShop® RLW® webinar, Jon Belnap from IB Roof Systems explained his experience with risk management in roofing to Heidi J. Ellsworth. Jon is the director of specified sales at IB Roof Systems but has worked in positions across the industry. In 30 years, he has been a laborer, journeyman, foreman, estimator, project manager, roofing contractor, manufacturing technical manager and roof consultant. His wide range of experience means that he has seen the industry from all angles and knows better than anyone the different risks that can come up during a project and how to manage them.  

Ultimately, risk management is really about the importance of collaboration and communication with the parties involved — designers, installers and manufacturers. Jon went on to say, “When we all get together and communicate and collaborate, we can work all this stuff out before it ever becomes a problem. Educating one another, being willing to listen to one another, that's what makes these projects a failure or a success.” With these three parties come three distinct milestones where the project needs to be meeting a high-quality standard to ensure success.  

1 - Proper design  

At the beginning of a project, you must have a well thought-through design before anything else can happen. Jon explained, “A well-designed roof is specific for a building and its environment. It's going to consider several factors including things like code, climate, architectural style.” It is key that whoever is selected to design the roof, whether an architect, engineer or consultant, has a written quality assurance plan. This type of plan helps mitigate the risk of the design going awry.  

2 - Proper workmanship  

Equally important is proper workmanship. As Jon said, “It doesn't matter how well the roof is designed, if it's not installed properly, it's going to fail.” In order to manage the risk of a project failure, it is important that the installation crew is knowledgeable and experienced with a successful track record. It is also key that communication between the installation crew and the designers is clear. Jon explained, “They need to be provided with detailed contract documents and installation guidelines that meet the design specs.” 

3 - Quality products 

Finally, Jon said, “All of that doesn't matter if we don't have a quality roofing product because the quality of the roofing materials will directly impact the long-term performance of the roof.” To manage the risk of a premature roof failure, it is important to select high quality products that can stand the test of time. This means looking for products that can withstand environmental factors such as weather damage.  

Read the transcript, Listen to the podcast or Watch the webinar learn more about risk management strategies for successfully meeting each of these milestones.