Preparedness is the key to surviving severe weather

Ask A Roofer Expert Will Lorenz says staying on top of minor repairs puts you ahead of the game. 

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Will Lorenz of General Coatings. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Lauren White: Hello everyone, I'm Lauren White here with AskARoofer.com and it is time for our August AskARoofer Expert question. And our topic this month is weather preparedness and resiliency. So Will, what do you have to share with everyone out there about preparing their roofs for severe weather?

Will Lorenz: Well thank you, Lauren. I was glad to be a part of The Coffee Shops and and contribute here and learn a lot of good things too along the way. You're great partners here.

What I would say is is there's both internal and external considerations. And what I mean by that is if you own a roof, it's always good to before storm season, before hurricane season, tornado seasons, to get your roofer up on your roof and and take a look at things. Minor things can be repaired, fixed up so they don't lead to to larger expenditures. Something that might have gotten cut on a membrane or loose, or something that's a metal that's  not fully secure. Or, you know, there's areas in which there's ponding that you can repair or drains that you can open up and fix. That allows you then to weather that storm better, and then if you do have damage you know you're likely not to have as much, and so your cost of of repair is is down, and that's good for your budget and survivability. The worst case scenario is the whole roof comes off, the contents of the building get wet, and you're having to deal with stoppage of your business or in your home, the water damage, and all of that.That's just a disaster. You can avoid that by being smart.

The second thing is with regard to externally as a roofer. It's knowing your customers, and the ages of their roof and being in partnership with them, talking to your portfolio people who might have a number of buildings and offering to get up on there, see what they're doing. And make sure their roofs are in a pretty good condition compared to what what might be coming. Category one and category two roofs usually hold up pretty well with the the new technologies like spray foam and other roof systems. But threes and fours kind of come off, and fives are just a total disaster, and it's best that you know people prepare. if they've got an older roof and they haven't dealt with it, they might want to keep just get that roof done before.

Conversely, as a roofer, you know, when you go into the seasons, it's good to have expenditure available for you know additional product and partners with your distribution because, when there's a a large event, product tends to get short. everybody needs it to put on another roof. And you know, it's best to have some stock yourself so you can run out and do roofs and and be prosperous right away, rather than waiting for material supply to catch up to your now skyrocketing demand. And then, work through with your labor force having them trained and prepared and and ready. The thing you don't want is to have everybody on vacation, when you need them out performing as crews, and so incentivize them to be to be ready to survive those things. And then, when you have to get on there, let's say over the weekends or something, they know that you're gonna take care of them to do that extra work, so that it's beneficial for them and for the company and for the building owner. Because weather comes when it it does, and it doesn't choose the best time for everybody. And in my opinion, there are three roofing seasons. There is new construction, there's retrofit when there's time to do it and money to afford it, and then there is what I call disaster season. And disaster season just comes and but it's also tends to be very important and very profitable. So you want to seize that opportunity and take care of your customers and get those roofs back up and and safe. And so be ready both internally and externally and talk to your customers. I think that's the the best path.

Lauren White: Absolutely. Yeah. A lot of great insights there for getting roofs ready for those real world conditions. So thank you, Will, as always.

Will Lorenz: Thank you indeed. l look forward to it every month.

Lauren White: And for those of you who want more insights from Will or want to learn more about General Coatings, be sure to check out their directories on AskARoofer.com. And Will, we will see you next month for our next topic.

Will Lorenz: You betcha. Thank you very much.

Lauren White: Thank you.