Columns/Blogs

Primitive methods of snow retention date back centuries to Europe. Even then, sliding snow and ice was a concern because of the extensive damage it could cause to roofs and the harm it could bring to pedestrians below. As a remedy, stones and logs were often used to control the movement of snow and ice.

Ventilation can be a confusing topic. What is the purpose of ventilation? Is ventilation required for all types of roofs? What do the model codes require?

This month I'm deviating from my traditional column on technical or green topics. The holiday season and the end of another year got me thinking about some things that I wanted to share. The song tells us this is” The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. And despite the dark and broken world in which we live, we truly do have much to be happy about.

My “Sustainability Begets Resilience” posting ended with a nod to rooftop energy production. So, how will you respond when, not if, a building owner asks you about rooftop solar energy? An appropriate and accurate answer is, “The combination of a metal roof and solar energy is a recipe for a long-term, high-performance roof system,” or something like that. The fact is a metal panel roof is an ideal substrate for a solar energy system.

So where should designers and specifiers start when looking to reduce energy usage in refrigerated facilities? Focus on the equipment, the walls, the doors? The correct answer is all of the above...and more. Those involved with existing facilities should begin with an energy audit while new projects should make energy efficiency an integral part of the design process. In either instance, below are some key areas where refrigerated facility owners, designers and specifiers should focus.

The 2015 Greenbuild Conference and Expo took place in Washington, DC in November. The motto for this year’s conference was “Monumental Green”. The amount of education sessions and exhibitors was indeed a monumental effort. Over 120 education sessions took place over three days, plus numerous additional educational sessions on the show floor amidst more than 600 exhibits of a variety of sizes and shapes.

You finally made the choice to go solar. Seems like it might be pretty easy to install yourself, and save some money, right? Uh…you might want to think again. When it comes to installing an entire solar array on your roof, don’t try it yourself. You’re best to leave all aspects to the experts. One slip up is all it takes to make the process not only frustrating, but time consuming, and wallet-draining as well.

Sustainability is the buzzword started by USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council) that is pushing us to design and build environmentally friendly buildings. And that’s a good thing. However, from a practical - and roofing - standpoint, what we can most readily do with roofs is design them to be resilient. Roof system resiliency is the tangible aspect of sustainability that the “regular” population can get their heads around. Resiliency - the ability to bounce back - is understandable.

Food safety failures are no joke. They can cause serious health complications for the infected consumer, not to mention deliver reputational and financial blows to the responsible business.

On October 21 we celebrated “Back to the Future” Day to remember the famous 1985 movie and its depiction of our future. Even though the prediction from the movie to see the Chicago Cubs win the World Series in 2015 was wrong (thank you Mets), it was fun to think about items like hover boards, flying cars, and cars that ran on food scraps. Let’s not forget that the movie did correctly predict hands-free video games and wearable technologies. This is a good time to take a look at the future of the building construction industry as well.

You’ve finally made the decision to go solar, so what do you do now? What are the next steps, and what should you expect? You want to make sure you do it right, and that you choose a fair, competent, and trusted installation company. Here are some pointers to get you started.

It has been a long time since my last blog on this subject. This is not only because I’ve been busy but also because the landscape of green building programs in general has changed significantly since Part 2, and I wanted to wait to see how things shook out before I wrote something that might be immediately outdated.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That philosophy forms the underlying foundation for current food safety regulations in the United States. Refrigeration plays an important role in ensuring the food Americans prepare and consume is safe to eat, but keeping food cold is one of the major challenges in the cold storage supply chain.

For years we have heard about the Living Building Challenge in the theater of sustainable building certifications. The LEED program is the “800 pound gorilla” in this category but the Living Building Challenge is self-proclaimed as “the world’s most rigorous and progressive building performance standard.”

Deep down you know it…winter is lurking right around the corner. The scorching heat of summer is waning and the leaves changing color and fluttering around our lawns (especially up here in Vermont) are very clear indicators of what’s to come. October means apple picking, drinking apple cider, carving jack-o-lanterns, haunted forests, corn mazes, and Halloween. It also means it’s time to think about getting your roof prepared for winter, as temperatures are dropping significantly during the overnight hours.

Everyone has secrets. Sometimes they're small and sometimes they're life-altering. Sometimes they go to the grave and other times they're exposed and have dramatic repercussions that change the fates of nations. In our industry, it appears that the secret about metal roofing is out because it seems like everywhere I turn lately on TV there's someone championing the benefits of metal roofs, particularly for homes.

Insulated metal panels (IMPs) are becoming the commercial construction product of choice for their combination of practicality and performance. Their single component composition makes them a cost-effective, timesaving option, while providing the energy efficiency to help reduce operational costs for a building's lifespan. And to reap all this functionality, architects and builders don't have to sacrifice style and form.

In my previous post, I talked about the important process of selecting the right materials and appurtenances for your standing seam roof system and how they should be used together for the best result. There are three more parts of the standing seam roof system that, if used, must be carefully specified - pipe penetrations, crickets and snow retention devices.

“Sustainability” has been a term used in the building construction industry for some time now. We have become aware of the importance of a building’s impact to the environment, and its energy efficiency. Recently the concern over the health and wellness of the manufacturers, installers and building occupants has put pressure on manufacturers to be more transparent in their disclosure of chemical ingredients in building materials.

Roofing contractors, architects, specifiers, and design professionals alike look for the competitive advantages when it comes to time, money, and efficiency. With the help of the single component metal roof system, that search is over. The single component roof system finally provides all of these advantages in one single option compared to the traditional Built-Up Roof (BUR) system. Take a moment and discover the good, the bad, and the ultimate solutions that come with leaving BUR for a single component roof system.