Today it's tough to keep a roof over your head. Regardless of size, roofing systems are a significant investment — and major headache — for owners and facility managers. If your building has a 50,000-square-foot roof, for example, it will have a net worth of at least $350,000. Without proper design, installation and maintenance, rehabilitation costs can escalate to more than double your original outlay in unanticipated repair costs, lost productivity, damaged property, and insurance claims. Can you afford to manage your roof from crisis to crisis?

SME can help you extend the life of your roof system without burning your budget. We have experience with all types of roofing systems — single-ply, built-up, copper, slate, and metal. Our roofing team has performed roof evaluations to determine short and long-term capital funding requirements as well as developed computerized roof management programs for clients with multiple facilities throughout North America.

First, we review the building history and usage. Then we conduct a visual condition survey and take test cores to document existing conditions. If necessary, we perform an infrared (IR) thermographic survey to identify entrapped moisture.

State-of-the-art IR thermographic equipment generates sophisticated digital images that show individual temperatures for each of the 160,000 pixels in the image frame. Our skilled roof consultants interpret and analyze thermal anomalies to develop predictive and preventative maintenance strategies.

Our roof consulting services cover system selection and evaluation of alternatives, thermal efficiency, and constructability. We develop design documents and plans and specifications to implement preferred rehabilitation strategies. SME can also provide a list of contractors and bidding services such as prebid meetings, bid tabulation, and consultation for contractor selection. During construction, we'll provide field observation and testing to assess compliance with project requirements. SME has a fully equipped laboratory to analyze roofing materials.

Clients also call on SME to develop computerized roof management programs (RMP). Typically, repair and cost information is included for each roof section in a customized Microsoft® Access database. Clients can quickly and easily review the roof condition indexes and pertinent information for each roof, view the roof management diagrams, and print facility summary reports. The database is a powerful, user-friendly tool for prioritizing and budgeting roof maintenance needs.

So, quit wringing your hands over roof repairs. SME will keep a roof over your head and reduce your lifecycle costs. After all, your facility should be an asset, not a liability.

For more information contact an SME office near you.
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© Copyright 2004 Soil and Materials Engineers, Inc.