As one of the top commercial roofing contractors in Salem, we’ve been called to make repairs or even re-roof after the mistakes of our competitors more times than we can even count. Naturally, commercial buildings are much larger and more complicated to roof than homes are. With that said, the projects often end up being more expensive. When it comes to the bidding process, many substandard roofing contractors return lower bids than are viable to complete the project at an adequate quality. We’ve written about the importance of selecting the right roofer before, but we want to emphasize that choosing the right commercial roofing contractor is of the utmost importance. Here’s a recent horror story to help drive that point.
We were recently contracted to make emergency repairs on a commercial building at the Oregon coast. One of our competitors had previously received the re-roofing contract for the building. There aren’t many ways to cut corners and save costs when it comes to installing an IB flat roof on a commercial building, but this particular roofer managed to save a marginal amount of money by sacrificing the quality of the roof. They didn’t install half-sheets of the roofing product around the outer edges and they installed the roof with about a fifth of the amount of fasteners that they should have used. This resulted in major roof problems during a recent storm. What happened was that wind was able to create high uplift pressure around the perimeter of the building, which pulled the fasteners out of the plywood deck. Additionally, the previous roofers had reused cap metal, which left an even weaker perimeter. The cap metal was detached from the outer walls by the wind, and this caused the roofing material to blow back in the wind. Once the fasteners started pulling out, there was no stopping the domino effect of destruction with the roof. This caused major damage. The company is now involved in a seven figure lawsuit, trying to cover the damages caused by their poorly installed roof. This is just one of many examples of this type of problem that we’ve run into. This is not an isolated case. There’s only so much flexibility in the pricing of a commercial roofing project, so be wary of the bids that are much cheaper than others.
It’s easy to look at a few estimates for your commercial roofing project and decide on the cheapest offer, but it’s really important to keep in mind that cheap bids are often cheap for a reason. Don’t sacrifice quality for a few thousand dollars. Cutting corners to save money in the short-term often results in much more substantial financial damage in the future. This goes double for Salem commercial roofing projects, because Salem (and Oregon in general) is a pretty stormy place. This means that your roofer needs to be especially thorough.
Slate & Slate Roofing recommends that both residential and commercial roofing customers seek out several quotes. Follow the tips on our blog and do your own research on each potential contractor. If you are interested in an estimate from one of Salem’s best commercial roofers, give us a call today at (503) 585-2338 or fill out the short form on the right side of this page.