Mr Roofer

I was reminded yesterday by a very clever commercial customer that investing in roof insulation in an industrial building is a no brainer decision. It literally costs the company concerned nothing!

Apparently interest free loans repayable over 4 years can be arranged to cover the full cost of installing polyurethane spray foam roof insulation so long as it can demonstrated that the potential energy savings over 5 years are equal or less than the investment cost. Hence, a commercial company can have roof insulation installed using polyurethane spray foam without increasing their current buildings cost, a ‘free investment’ if you like since the loan interest is free and the repayments are paid out of energy savings.

In my experience, most pre 1980 industrial units have inadequate roof insulation. The roof in these building is the biggest source of energy loss as expensive heated air is lost through the typically asbestos or steel sheet roof. Sprayed polyurethane is also an excellent foam spray seal that gets into all the nooks and crannies and seals the roof against air leakage, very important under the new 2006 Building Regulations.

Here at Rooftherm we specialise in spray foam polyurethane for industrial roof insulation. There is nothing as commercially effective as polyurethane foam insulation. Glass wool insulation is much less effective per depth and polyurethane foam can be installed in one third of the space needed and produce better results.

The new 2006 Building Regs now require lower U values for roofs. Air leakage in buildings is tackled for the first time under the new building regulations as this can be a major source of energy loss in a building. Minimising and preventing air leakage is easy with spray applied polyurethane foam as this will make buildings be relatively air leak proof. Sprayed polyurethane foam is also very quick and easy to install retrospectively with the only business disruption being the time taken to make cups of tea for the foam insulation installers!

Rooftherm can provide further details and do an energy efficiency assessment of pre 1980 industrial units. These units can often have the roof insulated as a ‘free investment’ as this is usually where the biggest returns are to be made to justify the investment cost. The investment cost is paid out of savings; the loan is interest free (qualifying businesses, SME’s with no dilution of ownership) and payback is typically within 3 to 5 years so savings thereafter feedback to the bottom line.

After a bit of an absence I am back. How I have missed polyurethane foam!

Something passed across my desk yesterday by way of a customer email in the form of “have you seen this web site”. It never ceases to amaze me the rubbish that gets printed on the internet. My customer had entitled his email “Muppets from roofing hell” and you’ll see why shortly.

From a company, advertising with the full support of Google on their Adsense network, a company with no real address and no name given of the person who runs the business and using its internet design company’s P O box number we get:

“… employing tools and techniques to ensure your roof is repaired to a quality standard set by British Standards …”

Firstly don’t we use tools and not employ them? And just what is the quality standard set by British Standards? Reassuring mumbo jumbo to the unsuspecting if you ask me. Complete rubbish in fact.

But there is more. “Class 0 (higher than statutory Class 1) coatings”. Where did that come from? There is nothing statutory about Class 1 or all the sellers of DIY spray foams would be in prison (they are not). Reading the rest of the site is not recommended as more gems are in store. By the way and in passing, there is currently no Class 0 foam polyurethanes on the UK market and to achieve class 0 another material is coated onto the polyurethane.

Moving on to more important things than web sites written by unsophisticated muppets, about a month ago we had an enquiry from a customer with a domestic asbestos roof with the asbestos tiles laid in a diamond pattern. At risk of repeating what I have written elsewhere, there are probably no domestic asbestos roofs left in the UK that are worth renovating and spray seal foam bonding. The reason is because most of these roofs have passed their sell by date with deteriation in the asbestos to the point that the tiles have become porous. Warning signs are a whitish stain on the inside (indicating porosity) and curling edges on the outside, usually moss infested too.

Anyway, without bothering to offer polyurethane foam roof insulation I offered a new roof clad in Ludlow plus tiles to match the neighbours. The customer was taken aback and suggested I think again and quote for renovation with spray foam explaining that 2 other spray foam companies had already done so. I politely pointed out that if that was the case he already had his answer irrespective of price of which company to place his trust and business with. After explaining to him the true state of his roof and why spray foam sealing would be a waste of time he duly agreed not to proceed down the renovation route and today he awarded us his roofing contract. We will dispose of his asbestos tiles by using a licensed asbestos contractor, renew the roof and spray foam the new tiles with 100 mm polyurethane roof insulation. And guess what, as it turned out, the company with the mumbo jumbo web site was one who had recommended spray foam renovation no doubt quoting “British Standards” as they did so.

This brings me back to where I started, if only more people who ply their trade in the roofing and insulation business actually knew what they were talking about then they would not bring the roofing industry into such disrepute that programs of the genre “roofers or builders from hell” or as my customer prefers “Muppets from roofing hell” would be needed.