09/14/2020: LIVE INTERACTIVE WEBINAR, Commercial Roofing Types and Materials - Second Repeat Presentation, Monday, September 14, 2020, 12pm-2pm Eastern
This is a live, repeat presentation of a webinar that was originally offered on 04/27/2020. Attendees of the previously offered presentation, SKU #RV-W042720, will not receive CEU for attending the 09/14/2020 presentation.
For over one hundred years, from the middle of the 19th Century to the last quarter of the 20th Century, specifying a roof covering for any large, flat commercial building in the United States was a relatively simple task. Only one type of roofing system was used on almost all commercial buildings: a “built-up roof” composed of layers of fabric (or roofing “felts”) embedded in applied coatings of hot tar or asphalt. For the specifier, the only question was how many layers to install: two, three, or four?
The process of installing layers of hot, smoky asphalt is both labor intensive and hazardous. And by the 1970s new roofing types were developed that required less labor and posed fewer worker hazards. These new alternatives included a virtual alphabet soup of chemical polymers – PVC, SBS, APP, EPDM, and more – that offered installation savings and performance benefits, albeit with increased confusion in the marketplace. As a result, the specification and selection of a commercial roofing system is a complicated affair, requiring increased understanding of the key functions of roofing systems as well as a detailed knowledge of the many different commercial roofing types. To help provide structure and simplification to the roof selection process, this seminar reviews the knowledge base and decision path needed for building professionals to make the best roofing selections for their particular situations and needs. The webinar starts with a brief history of commercial roofing, with special emphasis on the key factors that have shaped today’s roofing market. Next, all of the major types of commercial roofing systems are reviewed, with a focus on the specific strengths and shortcomings of each type. Finally, the key characteristics of each modern roofing system are compared against a list of critical functions that modern roofing systems may be expected to perform. Using the key characteristics of modern roofing systems and comparing them against today’s demands on roofs, building professionals can be equipped to evaluate roofing system alternatives in a logical and cost-effective manner.
Review the history of commercial roofing in the United States, and identify the key performance drivers in the development and diversification of modern commercial roofing systems
Understand each of the major types of commercial roofing systems available today for both low-slope and steep slope commercial buildings, and identify their specific performance strengths and weaknesses and how they may affect the environment and the comfort and safety of building occupants
Recognize the key functional requirements of modern roofing systems, and how each of these requirements are related to underlying processes, both physical and social, that influence their criticality. Identify how each of these key functional requirements may affect individual roof system selection decisions
Evaluate the suitability of each major roofing system type against the key functional requirements for a variety of situations and select the best roofing system offering optimal levels of resilience and sustainability
Quantify and compare the environmental impacts of different roofing systems using available Life Cycle Assessment tools
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT: James Hoff
Jim Hoff is an experienced executive and consultant in the building materials industry. Jim currently serves as President of TEGNOS Research, Inc. a consulting organization dedicated to expanding understanding of the building envelope. Since the founding of TEGNOS, Dr. Hoff has provided a wide variety of strategic and technical consulting services to dozens of governmental, non-profit and corporate organizations, and recent clients have included the U.S. Department of Energy, the U. S. EPA, building material trade associations, building materials manufacturers, building envelope designers and private equity firms.
In addition to his industry research and consulting activity, Dr. Hoff also serves as the instructor for the successful "Commercial Roofing Boot Camp" course co-sponsored by Building Envelope Magazine. Jim has published numerous papers addressing a variety of technical and business topics germane to the building envelope industry and is a frequent speaker at building envelope, sustainability, and energy efficiency conferences.
2 hrs. Webinar