Making the Leap from Residential to Commercial Roofing: Not-So-Obvious Things You Need to Know Carol J. Alexander As a business owner, you dream of growing your life’s work from a fledgling solopreneurship to a mid-size business and beyond. Whether increasing production, launching new products or services, expanding your territory or taking the leap from residential to commercial clients, growth is a natural progression. All of these milestones take planning, pivoting and purposeful consideration to make them happen, particularly taking the leap from residential to commercial. If you think you’re ready to take that step, you first need to understand the differences between the two arenas. To state the obvious, residential construction includes building homes and commercial construction includes building commercial properties such as shopping centers, office buildings or schools. The not-so-obvious differences are the complexity of contracts and the bidding process, the different materials and tools necessary for working with those materials, the training required to work with the materials, and the added financial and legal obligations.
The Paperwork Trail: Where a Commercial Job Begins Specs and Submittals Commercial projects frequently begin with a property owner contacting an architect to help design a facility. The architect creates the contract documents. This package includes the specifications and drawings.
Mike Vazquez, Regional Commercial Sales Manager for Gulf Coast Supply, simplifies this complex topic this way: “Roofing specifications define the level of quality the roofer will use in constructing the building by laying out what products to use and how to use them. The drawings (blueprints) tell the roofer where the products go.” Roofing contractors use these specs and drawings to prepare bids for the job. If they are awarded the bid, they enter the submittal phase of the paperwork journey. The submittal package is provided to the general contractor proposing the products to be used on the job as outlined in the specs. The general contractor then sends the submittal to the architect for approval. When the architect approves the submittal, the roofing contractor may begin the project. After the roofing is complete, the roofer may complete the process to obtain any warranty specified.
Types of Warranties and How They’re Secured According to Vazquez, two types of warranties apply to metal roofing—the material warranty and the labor and material warranty. Roof Loans Made Easy | Call for Details The material warranty is the guarantee from the manufacturer that its product will perform as defined in the warranty by protecting the owner from defects in the material. It covers only the material. The labor and material warranty guarantees that the product will perform as intended in the manner in which it was installed. One portion of the warranty covers only the materials, as previously described. Another portion of the warranty covers the workmanship. Therefore, to secure a labor and material warranty from the manufacturer, roofing contractors must be trained and authorized by the company to install the product according to the manufacFRSA Credit Union | 407-657-7212 turer’s specifications.
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FLORIDA ROOFING | October 2020
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