Remodeling sales tip: give flat roofs a pitch

EIOTH aging, shoe box shaped lJbuildings with leaky flat roofs constantly in need of repair and a retailer's botom line get a new lease on life with a pitched or slope roof conversion.

Using rafters or trusses and structural wood panels, this remodeling project sale is a profitable market niche for lumber manufacturers and retailers. With more than half of all commercial remodeling jobs in the nation involving roof repair or replacement, the conversion of flat Buildings Suitable

for Roof Conversion

School

Bowling alley

Warehouse

Residential Commercial Community Church

Smallbusiness

Apartment complex

Dormitory

Military housing

Auditorium roofs to pirched roofs pays off with a string of benefits, all very highly marketable.

In addition to pointing out to remodeling contractor customers how a pitched roof conversion can solve chronic leakage problems connected with a flat roof, a salesman should stress it can reduce energy costs, provide greater strength for snow loads, add storage space under the angled top and give a stylish, new look to an often drab building, all for about the same cost as tearing off and replacing a flat roof. The benefit that may cinch the sale is the assurance that for the owner the inconvenience and expense of patching holes over and over in a flat roof will end.

In addition, a salesman would be wise to point out that construction experts estimate that even the best new flat roofjob can develop leakage problems within five years. Pitched roofs, which provide dimensional stabitity and strength to withstand heavy snow and wind loads, often will last for 20 to 30 years without repair.

The contractor can be assured that the conversion isn't complicated. The new trusses are placed on top of the existing flat roof. Then the new auic area can be insulated to realize a dramatic reduction in heating and cool-

Story at a Glance

How to develop profitable sales of trusses, rafters and structural wood panels for converting flat roofs to pitch or slope style ... ways to sell a remodeling project that gives new life to an aging building suitable for all types of structures.

ing costs. There also will be more puddles in the depressed areas of a flat roof. The promise of immediate irnprovement in the appearance of the building often clinches the sale. Candidates for conversion from flat roof to pitched roof are found in every neighborhood. Buildings successfully transfonned range from an 1894 auditorium, a school, a warehouse and a university dornitory to a two bedroom residence.

Retailers wanting more information aboro converting tlat roofs to pitch roofs can contact the Western Wood Products Association, Yeon Building, 522 SW sth Ave., Portland, Or. 97204 - Editor.

,1|f RE bar codes and scanning workfling for building products retailers? More dealers are reporting positive experiences with the technology, although many small stores with limited inventory still choose to record transactions manually.

Improvements in hand-held scanning guns account for a high percentage of the change in attitude. Laser guns, which have higher readability than digital or CCD guns, have become less expensive. Their reliability can be judged by the 'CCD killer" nickname they have acquired.

Laser technology has increased readability by at least 304o and extended the scanning range up to Z inches. Superior, accurate readings are possible even when bar codes are dusty or greasy, curved or extra small, Mark Gebel, national sales manager for Allegeier Computer Corp.,Tustin, Ca, explains.

Because the laser guns can read bar codes as small as a thumbnail. they have made bar coding of lumber, moulding and millwork more feasible. Scanning can speed up express lanes and consumer checkout lines, but since prices for most confractor sales are read from a price book, the procedure is not as beneficial at a contractor desk. Scanner guns which attach to portable, handheld terminals are helpful for inventory counts.

Development of a holster type holder which places the scanner in position to have merchandise passed under it or allows it to be removed for "shooting" an item has also improved the scanning technique. Because scanner guns have become easier t,o use, less expensive and available to plug into existing point of sale stations, more stores and even contractor yards are adding them, Cary Anderson, a consultant with Hyatt, Imler, Ott and Blount P.C., Atlanta, Ga., reports.

'Older models didn't work, but the new, faster models cut down on mistakes and give a store the competitive edge to get customers out the door fasg" he notes.

If a sore has a point of sale computer, a scanner can be added for less than $1,000, according to Gebel. Although a store can purchase 7080Vo of its merchandise barcoded, many locations want to be able to generate and print their own barcodes. This requires apersonal computer and a printer. A high volume printer costs about $2,200, although good quality