13 Mar What Are Roof Consulting Services?
When you have a leaking pipe, who do you typically call? A plumber. What about a faulty garage door? You’d call a garage door company, right? And, if you have electrical issues in the house? An electrician. You get the idea. As a society, we have been indoctrinated to believe that when we have an issue with one of these building systems, we call contractors to fix the problem. For most cases, it is a good idea to do just that. However, when we call a contractor to fix the problem, we often find ourselves at their mercy and many of us feel we don’t have any other choice but to believe what they tell us and accept their solution to the problem. It’s no different in the roofing industry, which is exactly why roof consulting services exist.
Roofing Industry Assumptions
The big assumption in the roofing industry is that roofing contractors are the only authorities on roofing systems, products, assessments, and installation. In fact, many sales organizations, which include roofing contractors, like to use the word “roofing consultant” as a euphemism for “salesman.” While there are good roofing contractors out there (we have met a few), they are not the only authorities on roofing.
Enter Real Roof Consulting Services
The roof consulting industry began in 1983 when a group of engineers, architects, and consultants banded together to form the Roof Consultants Institute (RCI). The goal of the group was to expand roofing science and technology while assisting building owners with roof consulting services. As a result, roofing consultants emerged as representatives looking out for the best interest of commercial property owners and managers when it came to their roofs.
Roof consultants are independent roofing experts that don’t sell or install roofing products. What they do provide, though, is a variety of roof consulting services to assist commercial property owners with their roofing needs.
So, what exactly are roof consulting services?
Roof consulting services are designed to help building owners and managers make fact-based decisions about their roofs. A roof consultant provides roofing expertise and knowledge to a building owner or manager without pressuring or misleading them into buying an expensive roofing system when it is not needed. Additionally, roof consulting services include:
- Roof surveys or inspections to determine the useful service life of a roof
- Leak analysis to determine the cause of leaks
- Specification writing for roof replacement projects
- Quality assurance inspections during roof installation
- Construction consulting during insurance claims
- Roof asset management for property owners and managers
- Contractor bid oversight and management during the bid process
- Building envelope inspections and designs
- Moisture surveys
- Roofing expert witness services during litigation.
Roof consulting services are dynamic and varying, and roof consultants are an ally in dealing with an expensive building system: your roof.
Knowledge Is Power
At Alliance Consulting & Testing, we’re passionate roofing educators and experts. We want to help you make unbiased, informed decisions about your roof. In our free roof information guide, “10 Most Costly Mistakes When Buying A Commercial Roof” you’ll discover some of the pitfalls that can happen without the right roof consulting services guiding your buying decision.