SPRI continues outreach efforts

By Stan Choiniere, SPRI President

As SPRI has moved into its 20th year, I can say that I have had the good fortune of seeing firsthand the evolution of SPRI and its maturing into the leading industry organization that it is today.

In the founding days of SPRI, the issues most often faced by the members were related to the acceptance of these relatively new products and proving to the design and roofing community that single-ply membranes were truly viable products.

Once accepted by contractors and designers, the code bodies were the next segment of the industry we reached out to. In these efforts, SPRI members found themselves doing something a little foreign--working with their competitors toward a common goal.

Yet, that is exactly what happened. The various subcommittees addressed what seemed like a mountain of issues on a number of different fronts and found broad success. These successes turned into the strong foundation that single-ply products build on today.

In the early years, the focus was on membrane issues and little else had much time devoted to it. But as time went on, the importance of the other components of a roofing system became clear, and their impact on the performance of the overall system was recognized. With this new emphasis, committees were formed to focus on the issues at hand. Due to this heightened attention, many enhancements were made to improve the performance and acceptance of single-ply roofing systems.

An example of this is SPRI's "Test Procedure for Corrosion Resistance of Fasteners." SPRI's fastener subcommittee recognized the need to improve coating performance and it worked with Factory Mutual to develop the performance standard that lead to better coatings and, ultimately, a better roofing system. This was one of the early projects that was not directly membrane-related but was done for the betterment of our industry as a whole.

This is where I feel SPRI shines--its desire to improve the products that its members supply to the roofing industry, from membrane to deck and including improvements in application techniques as well.

New directions

As our organization and the products manufactured and/or supplied by SPRI's members have matured, the issues we work on have changed. Now, these issues are more often focused on environmental and/or safety issues. For example, our members are modifying formulations to be VOC-compliant, such as the change in isocyanurate blowing agents.

A great deal of time and money has also gone into the evaluation of effects of "cool roofs" and we have seen changes in products to take advantage of the savings identified in these studies.

SPRI'S position and influence in the roofing industry was acknowledged when SPRI became an accredited ANSI canvasser and quickly got two new national standards adopted.

Currently, SPRI is working on at least two new standards for components used as part of the single-ply roofing system.

2001 Initiatives

Two new programs that are rolling out this year are our Wind Design Workshop and my personal favorite--the SPRI Professional's Guide on CD-ROM.

In its early stages, the SPRI Wind Design Workshop has been very well received and, with some polishing, it is now ready to go on the road. This program teaches designers, contractors, et. al., how to properly use Factory Mutual and ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) formulas to determine wind uplift forces, hopefully leading to more accurately designed roofing systems. Contact SPRI about having this program brought to your group.

Our new CD-ROM provides all of the data, product information and design information from SPRI's "Professional's Guide to Specifications" in an easy-to-use, electronic format. It is available from SPRI at a third of the cost of the paper version and will be updated frequently to keep everyone as current as possible.

I'm sure you can see the common threads interwoven in SPRI's many activities from the beginning-namely, information, education and compatibility efforts.

We want to make it easy for the roofing community to use our members' products. We will continue to stay ahead of environmental and code issues. We will give the roofing community the tools they need to correctly select and install our products, and to service them for years to come.

As we look back to the past six to eight months, the industry has seen a softer, less robust market than we had enjoyed over the three years prior. However, the flexible membrane segment of the commercial roofing industry has at least maintained and, in some segments, gained market share. I believe that this stability is in large part due to the efforts of SPRI and its dedicated members.

This column originally appeared in the August 2001 issue of RSI magazine.