CHICAGO — The Synthetic Roof Underlayment Institute (SRUI) has formed to improve and develop industry standards, educate roofing manufacturers, contractors and industry associations, and to promote the use of synthetic roof underlayments within the residential and commercial roofing communities.

”The purpose in forming SRUI was to promote the value of premium synthetic roof underlayments as a life cycle performance component within roof and wall systems,” said Mark C. Strait, SRUI chairman and president of Kirsch Building Products. ”We want to educate the roofing and building industries in the proper design, engineering and installation of premium synthetic roof underlayments as these industries move away from asphalt-based products.”

The Institute plans to address the recent proliferation of low-cost synthetic underlayments that potentially fail to meet code requirements by educating the marketplace and addressing the problems of such products. One goal of the organization is to create performance-based standards for synthetic roof underlayments that match primary roof materials such as asphalt shingles, metal, tile and slate, etc., which will lead to heightened integrity of the entire roof system.

Six founding directors from leading companies are committed to addressing the concerns of the industry through this new professional organization. The directors are:

• Sal Catanese, Underlayment Specialties Plus

• Mickey Gay, Perma “R” Products Inc.

• Bruce Hayden, Alpha ProTech Engineered Products

• Brandon O’Neil, System Components Corp.

• Gary H. Schinning, InterWrap

• Mark Strait, Kirsch Building Products

 For more information, contact Executive Director Jeff Henry at 847-375-6402 or jhenry@srui.org.