As building managers continue to look for ways to reduce energy costs while facing America’s increasing demands for green compliance, many have begun to look to their roof as a way to satisfy both needs. Suddenly, a building’s roof has turned into an energy asset, with emerging green technology satisfying energy demands through a variety of alternatives. Not only is green building good for the environment, and for a building’s bottom line - it’s also good for the roofing industry.
Metro Health Hospital Foundation in Grand Rapids, Mich., has hired Sustainable Research Group (SRG) to conduct a three-year study of the green roof system and engineered bioswales in the parking lot at its new hospital in Wyoming, Mich.
Another busy roofing season is right around the corner. You take pride in delivering a quality job performed by trained crewmembers. The success formula is pretty obvious: quality products plus quality installation equals satisfied customers.
New Year’s celebrations are always closely followed by the tradeshow season in the construction and roofing industry. It is that time of year when the vagaries of winter weather slow or stop most of the productive work in our business so contractors can devote some attention to new products and trends. Most manufacturers of building and roofing products and equipment take this opportunity to announce and show their new offerings during the winter tradeshows.
When Hamilton Anderson Associates of Detroit designed the Detroit School of Arts, the firm believed that sustainability of the project would lead to LEED certification.
In 2004, Ford Motor Company integrated 21st century environmental design into its manufacturing facility with the construction of the Ford Dearborn Truck Assembly Building.
It seemed that green products took center stage and solar applications provided the spotlight as more than 9,000 industry professionals converged on the Las Vegas Convention Center Feb. 21-23 for the International Roofing Expo. There were 442 exhibiting companies and 1,060 booths in 106,000 net square feet of space in the exhibit hall. At press time, final verified attendance numbers were not available, but preliminary numbers indicate that attendance was flat from last year’s record-breaking number of 9,020.
A critical yet sometimes overlooked factor in determining a contractor’s insurance premium is his or her own loss experience. Particularly in the world of workers’ compensation insurance, premiums are greatly affected by the frequency and severity of losses. For the insurer to properly assign premiums versus potential risk, they look to compare the individual contractor’s loss experience to those performing similar types of work. Simply put, the Experience-Rating Modifier (ERM) is computed as a factor of the insured’s own loss experience that is used to modify the standard premium. Therefore, those with higher-than-average losses will pay more for their insurance than those with average or lower-than-average losses.
So you think you have a best-in-class safety program at your roofing company? No, you know your safety program is top-notch. You may have a good safety program, and you may even have a great safety program, but the bar has just been raised by the Evans Roofing Company of Elmira, N.Y.
Polymer modified bitumen membranes have been utilized with great success all over the world for decades, and there’s no reason to think things will change anytime soon, according to David Allen of BITEC Inc. “They have a good track record,” said Allen, vice president of operations and technical services for BITEC, which is headquartered in Morrilton, Ark. He asserted that modified bitumen manufacturers and their membranes would survive the ups and downs of the roofing market this year and beyond.
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