Secure-Profits Roof Coatings: The Andek Solution

We have finally found coating products that can address all the above issues. Andek offers roof coating products that are reflective, fire retardent, and a roof coating all in one application. They can be applied by your own maintenance staff while still providing you the warranty.

If you are interested in preserving the asset you manage, making your job and the jobs of your maintenance employees easier, and improving GOP take a few minutes to read this. Even if you just replaced your roof in the last few months.

Background

We have been involved in the hotel industry for 20 years and have owned companies servicing the industry for 17 years. I have never met an owner or operator of hotels that looked forward to spending money on the roof. It's been hard to compute a positive return on investment (but we will show you how). As a result, most owners wait as long as possible, do as much patch work as they can get away with, and then they get stuck with a huge re-roofing bill, usually because they have put it off longer than they should so they have to do a major job. That re-roofing job usually entails a major re-capitalization, and depending how well the hotel is doing, that can be a major issue for owners.

We have always believed that products should exist that:

Will reduce your costs by at least 50% compared to competing products. Andek products accomplish that.
Would enable re-roofing to be set up as part of an overall preventive maintenance program. (That way you can plan out a program over a 7-10 year cycle.)
Would enable re-roofing to be expensed like other normal preventive maintenance instead of being capitalized and depreciated. (Different entities have different requirements so check with your CPA to make sure this applies to your individual situation.) By using a preventive maintenance approach a small amount can be budgeted each year to avoid the shock of a major re-roofing all at once.
Could be applied by your own maintenance department instead of hiring expensive outside contractors. (The Andek products can be safely applied by brush, roller, trowel or airless sprayer.)
Provide extended warranties, even though you apply them yourself. (Andek products carry 5-20 year warranties depending on the product and application.)
Can be applied any time of the year.
Show a positive return on investment within 2-3 years. (These roofing products show a positive return within 2 years for air conditioned buildings and 3 years for storage buildings.)

Finally, after looking for several years, we have found professional grade products that are cost effective and meet all the above requirements.

Three products usually cover the needs for most roofing repairs for flat roofs and for steel roofs. (Details on the products follow.) One additional product is added for new roofs to give added strength and extend the warranty to 20 years. Andek has hundreds of coating products for all different applications. We are concentrating on their roof coatings because that's where hotels can realize tremendous labor savings while reducing energy consumption.

Andek products will permanently seal and repair the top surface, but they will do nothing to fix underlying structural damage (such as dry rot, sagging, etc.) It is always best to repair structural damage before applying coatings, but sometimes that's not possible. When those emergency repairs are needed Andek products will stop the leaks until the structural damage can be addressed. Rubberkote 1047 can be applied to wet or dry surfaces and is ideal to apply under standing water.

Our first question when people call about roof repairs is: Do you really know where the leaks start? (Or do you just know where it's leaking?) If you are not sure we suggest non-destructive testing. To have a truly effective preventive maintenance program, non-destructive testing should be done every 1-2 years, or whenever serious leaks develop. Of the three methods available we recommend utilizing a capacitance machine (the Dec Scanner). That's a fancy name for a battery operated machine, similar to the old fashioned carpet sweeper. As you roll it across your roof it allows you to "see into your roof system" and to know the extent of the damage before committing any money. "The most expensive part of the roof, is the good roof thrown away unnecessarily." (Incidentally, any new roof should be tested within the first 6 months, especially when the work was done by an outside contractor. If there are problems you want to take advantage of the labor guarantee. If the contractor didn't do it right, odds are it will take longer than 6 months for the leaks to show up. Nondestructive testing will identify it so you can have repairs completed while you are still under warranty.)