SPRI activities benefit roofing contractors

From standards development and codes outreach to its annual Contractor Achievement Award, SPRI facilitates the contractor's job in many helpful ways

While SPRI is an organization composed of sheet membrane and component suppliers to the commercial roofing industry, its work is also of significant value for roofing contractors. From code and standards development to contractor recognition awards and educational efforts, SPRI's wide-ranging efforts benefit contractors in a number of ways, some of which are less visible to the public.

For example, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes at the various code organizations, of which there are currently four. SPRI Technical Director Dave Roodvoets estimates that in 2002 alone, he personally spent three weeks attending code hearings or related meetings for SPRI. Furthermore, Roodvoets spent an equal amount of time on developing, modifying or other standards activities. Most of this work, he adds, is backed up by at least five times that amount of effort on the part of member companies. As a result, Roodvoets points out, "The contractor gets relevant codes that result in roofing systems that can be built, not arbitrary restrictions. They get energy codes that sell insulation. They get support for the use of reflective roofs in areas where they benefit, and education of public officials on where they are not beneficial. The contractor now has standards that are accepted in the international code that result, for example, in an understanding of what is required for a ballasted roof."

"And, due to SPRI's sponsorship," he adds, "an edge metal standard has been adopted and is being enforced in the building code." This standard, American National Standards Institute/SPRI ES-1, prescribes the wind loads that roof edge details must resist. It requires that high-quality edge securement, providing more wind resistance, be installed on all roofs."

Paul Yurcich, SPRI's 2003 president, agrees that it is "probably through our codes and standards work that we've been most able to help roofing contractors. This helps contractors keep as current and technically advanced as possible."

Yurcich, market manager for construction at Canadian General Tower Ltd., Cambridge, Ontario, himself spent 10 years working for a commercial roofing contractor before joining the manufacturing side of the industry, so he brings a broad perspective to his new position within SPRI.

SPRI is also developing standards on retrofit drains and on expansion joints. In addition, it is working on documents that will help installers more effectively use ambient adhesives for modified bitumens. New initiatives involve the study of steel decks and the potential higher loadings from sheet membranes with wider fastener spacing.

Responding to contractor needs
As a broad-based organization, SPRI is able address contractor issues as a group and involve all component suppliers. "This results in synergistic solutions that benefit the user," Roodvoets notes.

SPRI also responds to contractor questions through its Web site www.spri.org. Answers to frequently asked questions are included on the site, and specific application questions can be directly answered by members and staff. SPRI's informative CD-ROM, "Flexible Membrane Roofing: A Professional's Guide to Specifications," also contains many answers to technical problems faced by contractors. It provides wind design consideration, application guidelines, installation details and other information that can make the design and installation process easier. All Web sites listed in SPRI's CD-ROM are hot-linked for quick and easy navigation to the desired subject. This handy guide can be purchased for $50, plus a shipping and handling fee, from SPRI.

Contractor Achievement Awards
For the past 11 years, SPRI has sponsored its annual Contractor Achievement Award to recognize the significance of the roofing contractor's role.

The most recent winner of SPRI's Contractor Achievement Award is Great Lakes Roofing Corp., Germantown, WI.

Great Lakes Roofing Corp. earned SPRI's 2002 Contractor Achievement Award for its impressive thoroughness in addressing all four of the contest's required categories: workmanship, health and safety programs, installation and equipment cost savers, and marketing initiatives. SPRI instituted its award to spotlight excellence among roofing contractors who do at least 50% of their sales volume in flexible membrane roofing (including modified bitumen).

This year's Achievement Award winner also emphasizes communication within its own company of its core values of service, safety and quality. Its forward-thinking management style is committed to continuous improvement in a wide variety of ways.

To emphasize how important proper safety procedures are at Great Lakes Roofing, everything at the company starts with safety discussions and training, from the first day of its fiscal year to the first morning of each work week.

Furthermore, SPRI member companies devote significant amounts of time and money to examining topics of industry-wide interest such as roof reflectivity, Underwriters Laboratory testing, and wind design.

For example, SPRI recently sponsored an in-depth, three-year study on reflectivity issues. Conducted at the Envelope Systems Research Apparatus (ESRA) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, TN, this pioneering research examined changes in reflectivity on 18 different roof membranes supplied by 10 different manufacturers. The colors of these membranes ranged from whites to tans and grays.

Reflectivity
Dr. William A. Miller, a research engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and co-chair of SPRI's Accelerated Testing Task Force, looked at what can reduce a membrane's reflectivity and what the loss of reflectivity in roof membranes can mean, depending on what part of the U.S. they're used in. For example, Miller says, a decrease in reflectivity can affect total building energy costs in areas that are primarily concerned with cooling a building. By contrast, in areas of the country where heating a building is more important, any loss in reflectivity will have little affect on building energy costs.

Furthermore, ORNL's research discovered that reflectivity can be restored by washing the membrane surface. Decreases in reflectivity, Miller explains, seem to be caused by a biomass - possible a fungus - growing on the membrane surface that enhances the collection of dirt and other contaminants. Decreased reflectivity does not seem to be caused, he emphasizes, by an initial breakdown in the membrane's formulation or polymer content.

These issues are particularly relevant now that the Energy Star program has made more building owners aware of how energy use can be impacted by so many different factors.

High-wind testing
High-wind testing of roof membranes has been another item on SPRI's research agenda. Over the course of three years, SPRI worked with Underwriters Laboratories (UL), Northbrook, IL, to develop generic thermoset, thermoplastic and modified bitumen system specifications that could withstand wind uplift forces of greater than 200 lbs./per sq. ft. (psf). (The average low-slope roofing system is designed for 60 psf loads.)

A series of full-scale tests run on the 10-ft. by 10-ft. test platform at UL's lab in the Chicago suburbs examined the flexible membrane systems' peel strength, fastener pullout and fastener pullover. This series of tests alone cost SPRI $75,000.

Flexible membrane manufacturers can then use more economical, small-scale tests to measure the wind resistance of other similar materials.

The end result is that contractors now have a much greater variety of products to choose from for installation in coastal and mountainous areas that require more wind-resistant designs.

Wind design seminar
SPRI has also developed a comprehensive, day-long program highlighting the factors to consider regarding wind resistance of low-slope roofing systems.

This well-illustrated course covers a wide range of topics, from wind effects on buildings and how they act on different types of roof systems to the ways that wind loads are referenced by industry organizations like Factory Mutual (FM) Research Corp., Norwood, MA, and the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). SPRI's own publications on wind issues, which include the SPRI Wind Design Guide as well as its ANSI/SPRI RP-4 and ES-1 standards, are also discussed.

Instead of arbitrarily specifying FM 1-90 roofs, whether they're needed or not," Roodvoets continues, "this program aims to help people avoid over-engineering their roofs, which makes them cost more than they should, as well as to prevent roofs from being under-engineered."

This program is now available for presentation to interested associations and related industry groups. SPRI's headquarters is now located at 411 Waverley Oaks Road--Suite 331B, Waltham, MA 02452. Its telephone number is now 781-647-7026 while its fax number is 781-647-7222. You can also reach the association via e-mail at info@spri.org and on the Internet at www.spri.org.