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Protect Your Customer’s Interests
Especially on reroofing projects, it is incumbent on the contractor to protect the customer’s interior contents of the building. While the human occupants that a building serves are first and foremost—the furniture, artwork, computers, painted walls, ceilings, etc. that are protected inside the building envelope must also stay protected.
This is why the season of the year the work will be done makes a huge difference in how a project is planned and proactively managed. If the work is going to happen in the summer and the building is in the South, the summer months must be planned for and managed differently than say February, March, and April. Let’s take summer for example:
The heat of the summer and intensity of the sun for building envelope contractors presents many challenges for properly managing our teams doing this demanding work. However, we also have to be ready at all times, especially in June, July and August, for the always-possible popup thunderstorms which tend to occur during the midday hours. While Standard’s project supervisors are constantly watching weather forecasts and radar for any signs of rain, it is our practice to only remove as much existing roof each morning as can be replaced before popup showers become more likely—between 11 am and 3 pm. If the forecast is holding for clear skies through the rest of the day, we continue to work, but at a different pace and continue to maintain a heightened sense of awareness and preparedness for unexpected weather events.
Building envelope contractors that disregard summer weather patterns during roofing projects do so at the contractor’s peril. Failure to dry-in the roof before rain storms can lead to catastrophic results—destroyed electronics, damaged furniture and floor coverings, damaged artwork and other valuables. In addition to the physical, consequential damages from an open-roof event, the damage to the customer relationship can be quite severe. Contractors should always maintain proper levels of general liability insurance, which covers the building contents from damage due to contractor negligence. However, insurance can never pay for a damaged or broken customer relationship due to an open-roof event.