Coatings vs. Single-ply: Understanding the personality of the roof

CCS Influencer Joe Sorrentino says there are inherent advantages to both taking care of your roof and having a proactive look at life cycle cost.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Joe Sorrentino of JoeSorrentino LLC. You can Read the interview below, Listen to the podcast or Watch the recording.

Dani Sheehan: Hi, I'm Dani Sheehan with CoatingsCoffeeShop®. We are here with Joe Sorrentino for our March Influencer response. How are you, Joe?

Joe Sorrentino: Great today. How are you, Dani?

Dani Sheehan: Doing fantastic, thanks for asking. So, March is all about cost-effectiveness. We are looking at coatings versus single ply. So Joe, from your perspective, when we're talking about rising material costs for coatings, what kind of impact does that have on the market?

Joe Sorrentino: Yeah, I mean, it's a nature of the beast in today's world as far as rising costs, but I really believe that we have to look at those who pay all of our bills, which is the building owner. And I think when you look at roofing budgets for owners looking at costs to do certain square footage and then looking at traditional assemblies, meaning single ply assemblies, which typically will have some type of an insulation system included in it, whereas coatings will not. The cost savings will definitely override all of the material costs. I think the biggest issue would be more of material shortages as opposed to price increases.

The other part to it — as far as impacting the market — I think that the insurance industry is now starting to bring things up in states where there are high wind and water, and we have a lot of them that border and have these type of issues. Florida leads the way. So, there are some things that do impact the growth of the coatings industry in that regard.

I think the other part to it is how the interpretation is as far as roof coatings versus fluid-applied roof systems, which then falls into number of roofs in place and starts to affect some of the benefits and advantages to the fluid-applied systems. Then the other part to it is the regulations and the national energy code requirements that at times require a tremendous amount of insulation, which then change everything as far as the formula goes.

Dani Sheehan: Absolutely. I think that brings up a really good point, too, and I'd love for you to speak on the economics a little bit as well, right? We typically think of coatings as almost always being more economical, but there are instances where single ply is going to be the economical solution, correct? Can you walk me through that?

Joe Sorrentino: Absolutely, absolutely. I think an important part to this is that I call it the "personality of the roof." If we have a large open area, the benefits of large sheets and being able to install those assemblies start to take away some of the advantages I brought up previously, as far as the labor savings within coating systems that can be done, number of people on board.

And the other part to it, depending on the number of one roof in place versus two roofs in place, a single ply system can have its advantages. I think the part that I also alluded to — the local regulatory requirements for thermal and insulation value — there's a practical and a theoretical.

The theoretical is that you can take an insulation and a thermal value, and you'll have a pretty good feel for what that's going to do for the environment inside the building: the efficiency of the heating, venting, air conditioning system, because if it's running at 40% capacity, it doesn't matter how well your insulation values are. You're not getting full capacity out of your actual HVAC system.

The other part to it is the fact that you've got certain windows and locations of projects that then will bring in weather conditions. So, you know, I'll call it the perfect storm: you have an owner that has a specific location. They have a specific need and a specific production schedule for the roofing crew, which then means you're dealing with certain weather conditions. That, once again, can prohibit some of the fluid-applied assemblies to be installed.

Dani Sheehan: Sure. I think that's so important to highlight. The last thing I want to touch on is when we talk about cost and when we talk about cost effectiveness, I think sometimes we, and by we I mean more building owners especially, get kind of caught up in upfront costs. Everything is about what is the price point right now.

So, talk to me about how important it is for contractors to have that conversation with building owners about the differences in evaluating upfront costs versus life cycle and the benefit of the system.

Joe Sorrentino: Sure, I think that, first of all, this is something that's critical when you think you've asked enough questions. What should be the next thing that you do ask some more questions? And I really think because of what I said earlier and what you brought up about the owner's involvement, if an owner has a large group of commercial properties and has a sustainability department and a head in that area, there's a good chance that they really want to understand and also probably already have a roof asset management program. When you look at single ply systems versus coating systems and look at long-term performance in single ply roofing systems, be it KEE, be it PVC, be it TPO, be it EPDM, my point is they all tend to then move towards a fluid applied solution as it gets to the twilight of that membrane being able to have a useful service life.

So with that being said, it doesn't mean that a roof coating system is the best thing out there, it just simply means that there are inherent advantages to both taking care of your roof, and more importantly, having a proactive look at life cycle cost will allow you to look at performances of 20 to 30 to 40 years in useful service life, because if you do everything right the first time and maintain it over 36 months, the good chance is you're going to get long service life out of this building unless Mother Nature or somebody just does something absolutely crazy to it. Which means if you get 25 years out of it and then can put a coating fluid-applied system of any type, you're then in a position to get another 15, that's 40.

And that's not the average life of a roof, and that's typically not the way owners look at it. So back to your original question about contractors bringing it up: yes, it's important. But I think it's also important to make sure that you understand where the owner sits and looks at that building. But it's a critical part when you look at the renewable sustainable warranty program that fluid-applied systems offer owners.

Dani Sheehan: Yeah, absolutely. think that cost effectiveness is not as easy as looking at the dollar signs associated with a project or a specific material. We have to build those relationships, to your point, with the building owners to understand their goals and their purpose. And then we also, as contractors and as experts in the roofing industry, have to really understand the roofing system that we're dealing with before starting a project so that we can offer the best solution for our customers.

Joe Sorrentino: And to that point, when you're working with reputable entities, meaning building owner, manufacturer of product, installer, there is the ability for a building owner to actually take that renewable, sustainable warranty and move it forward in the sale and transaction of a building. I've had personal experience with that. The property manager's facility engineer, his words were, "Joe, that was gold." There were steps that needed to be taken properly. But when you can look at someone negotiating on a 22-story building, the price of a new roof, and say, we don't need one because we're offering you a warranty in place that's sustainable, it's very valuable. It's very valuable.

Dani Sheehan: Yeah. I couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you for your insights as always, Joe. Check out all of the Influencer responses for this month on CoatingsCoffeeShop.com, and we will catch up with you next month.

Joe Sorrentino: Thanks for the time.