ROOFING 101
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
All too often, school administrators think about roof system planning just before or during a rain event. Ceiling tile are falling, carpets are soaked, computers no longer function, and classroom instruction is disrupted. With luck, the rain started during school hours and the problem is quickly contained. Severe overnight leaks have been known to close a school. While “out of sight” and causing no problems, roofing is usually “out of mind” in the planning process.
The past several years have been interesting times for school maintenance and construction in Georgia. The Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) has allowed school systems to pay off long term debt and to build schools on a "pay as you go" basis. However, funding on the operational side has failed to keep pace with maintaining aging schools since state and/or local funds are typically used to pay for such projects as roofing repair and replacement. Thus, roof planning in many school districts is more reactive than proactive.
Several things to remember about your roofs:
- Approximately 90% of building problems are attributed to moisture infiltration through the building envelope and most of those are due to roof leaks.
- Roof replacement is typically the single biggest expenditure a building owner will make during the economic life of the facility.
- A weak plan can have long-term consequences that can be quite expensive.
- School board members do not like bad news about roofs, especially if new roofs are performing poorly.
