Many building codes now mandate intake and
exhaust ventilation for attics. It’s easy to see why. A properly ventilated
attic can save energy, eliminate excess moisture, prevent mold, and prevent ice
damming in winter. And, by minimizing heat buildup in the attic, proper
ventilation can even prolong the life of the roof system.
Frank Farmer, president of American Metal
Roofs, detailed his process for obtaining leads and converting them into sales
in his METALCON presentation, “Building a Profitable Metal Roof Company While
Others Struggle.”
Chuck Howard, P.E., president of Metal Roof
Consultants, was in the metal roof contracting business for almost 30 years,
and he now serves as a consultant to contractors, architects, engineers, and
building owners. He gave a presentation about metal retrofit roofing at
METALCON titled “Do it Right the First Time.”
“When it comes to metal roofs, details are where your money
is made or lost,” said Vaughn Bacon, manager of Technical Services for MBCI NCI
Building Systems, during his METALCON seminar titled “Metal Roofing: The Devil
Is in the Details.”
I was on hand for METALCON 2008, which was held
Oct. 1-3 at the Baltimore
Convention Center, and on
the first day of the show the latest products and services in the metal
building industry took a back seat to stirring presentation.
In May and June of this year Roofing
Contractor conducted a survey of contractor subscribers on the metal
roofing market, and we published the results in the September issue of the
magazine.
In the last decade, conventional wisdom held
that metal roofing has been a relatively small but fast-growing segment of the
market. This year, in the midst of a slumping economy, how has the metal market
fared?
Today’s topic comes courtesy of Brett Hall of Joe Hall Roofing Co., Arlington, Texas, who alerted us to a potentially life-threatening problem that’s gotten some notoriety on the Dallas/Fort Worth evening news.
Service and maintenance problems might differ based on what part of the country you’re in, but when you encounter companies that have a great reputation for service, you see a lot of similarities.
In the late 1970s, John Burt, a pool installer and the owner of Tri-City Vinyl, used a piece of thermoplastic material to patch a hole in the roof of his building, and the idea for his company was conceived. John Burt passed away in 2003, but his vision and philosophy continue to guide and inspire the employees at the company he founded 30 years ago - Duro-Last Roofing, Inc., headquartered in Saginaw, Mich.