PHP Roofing Blog

Back in 2017, OSHA released new guidelines designed to improve safety for 112 million American workers—with a special emphasis for those who work on rooftops. Where OSHA did not previously specify safety mechanisms for workers near unprotected rooftop edges, the organization now mandates rooftop guardrail systems for those within six feet of a drop. These rules were mandated to come into effect in January 2018. If you haven’t already begun complying, now is the time.

Your roof is a large flat surface that’s exposed directly to sunlight and the elements. In other words, there’s a high possibility for damage when you’ve installed support systems with a high potential to penetrate your roof. The common roof problems presented below depict massive costs when it comes to facility management. Here’s how to keep them in check with noninvasive pipe support solutions and products engineered by PHP Systems/Design.

Very few roofs end up lasting for their projected lifespan. Any issue that arises during the installation of a roof will inevitably become magnified over time as sunlight, rain, snow, hail, and debris do their work. Ironically, even the process of inspecting a roof can in some ways bring about its early demise. Here are just a few of the biggest challenges that a commercial roof may face over its lifespan.

For many roofers and roofing companies, the hazards surrounding a commercial or industrial roof appear to be mostly physical. With trips and falls representing the clearest and most present danger for roofing contractors, many roofing companies have developed detailed and comprehensive plans both to prevent falls and to mitigate damage and liability if a fall occurs. By focusing so much of their effort on preventing falls, however, are roofing companies neglecting other dangers?

There are several different types of commercial roof coatings used today, including silicone, acrylic, aluminum, and polyurethane.  They are sometimes referred to as restoration membranes because roof coatings are often applied over existing rooftop membranes, as opposed to being part of a new roof construction detail.  They can also be used in partial applications to coat and re-coat parapet walls or portions of a roof. 

While 15 years might seem like a long time, building owners know that this average life expectancy for roofing materials and RTUs can fly by quickly.  

That’s especially true when your traditional built-up roof starts showing signs of water damage. Suddenly you’re left with a choice—maintain the rip-and-replace cycle or make an investment in rooftop retrofit projects.

The green building movement has exploded since the turn of the century, pushing the market close to the $100 billion mark.

 Driving the standardization of this movement is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) rating system. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, “LEED buildings have faster lease-up rates and may qualify for a host of incentives like tax rebates and zoning allowances. Not to mention they retain higher property values.” 

There are all a whole host of cutting edge technologies that are poised to transform the traditional architectural design and construction process, and in fact some of them are already doing so.  Whether it be drones, wearable smart vests and helmets, GPS tracking, or 3d printers, it seems that a serious majority of architects will have affordable access to revolutionary new techniques in the not too distant future to both gather information and to communicate ideas in increasingly realistic and virtual ways through the increased use of these technologies.

Commercial roof surfaces can often be an intense complex of pipe networks, platforms, HVAC equipment, and increasingly, smart technology, that needs to be organized and strongly secured to the building rooftop as a vital part of proper building safety and function.  Both in the past and even in the present, it is easy for building owners to feel either real or perceived financial pressures to cut corners or improvise some of this securing and organization by using relatively cheap and temporary means of supports to include impromptu wood blocks and scaffolding, concrete block and rope, and other loose materials.  But all buildings are serious investments.  The problem is that while temporarily effective, such measures often lead to greater costs and consequences rather quickly down the road.   

There is a new technology on the scene in the roofing industry that has only started to scratch the surface in terms of the ways it can transform how roofing and construction work is performed, measured, and maintained.  Spurred largely by the inception of Part 107 in August of 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration's Small UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System) Rule (14 CFR part 107), commercial drone operators can now own and fly a drone without the complexity of obtaining a pilot’s license.  And that has made all the difference.