In April we installed a new lifetime Steel Metal Shingles roof on a house in Attleboro, Massachusetts. The house is located on a beautiful quiet street not far from Attleboro Center, as well as Mass / RI border. The new metal roof replace and old, failing asphalt shingles roof, with some shingle blown off by the wind.

The Metal Roof we installed was a Tamko Steel Shingles with real slate looks, in the beautiful Sequoya Red color. Steel metal shingles are an interlocking metal roof system, where each shingle is locked on all four sides and is held in place by clips and roofing nails and other six shingles around it.

Steel shingles metal roofs offer great flexibility in terms of installation, excellent water-tightness, and prevent Ice Dams formation as metal roofs shed Ice and Snow. On top of being an excellent solution to roof leaks and Ice Dams, metal roofs last in the range of 50 years or more!

Metal Roof installation.

The old roof was two layers of asphalt shingles, which by building code, must be removed before the new roof is installed. Removing the old roof is also beneficial in terms of removing extra weight off the house. Although metal roofs are VERY light, weighting 40 lbs per 100 sq. ft. in aluminum, and about 65 lbs. in steel shingles, they won’t add nearly as much weight as 1 layer of asphalt shingles (about 275 lbs per 100 sq. ft.), and can be safely installed as a second layer, it is a good idea to do a full tear off, to allow the repair of any rotten wood, and to improve roof ventilation.

Once the old roofing was tripped off the roof, we installed GAF Deck Armor breathable synthetic underlayment, and sealed all roof penetrations, such as chimney flashing, vent pipes, etc. GAF deck Armor is an excellent underlayment product that work like human skin – it allows the condensation to escape from the underside, while keeping the water from penetrating inside the house. Deck Armor can be installed without the metal roof on it for up to six month, and will keep the roof water-tight. After six month the UV radiation will begin to wear down the underlayment, but the roof will still hold of the water.

After tear-off was complete and underlayment installed, it was time to start installing the metal roof. First we installed all trim along roof edges. The trim was custom made with the vented bottom, to allow the soffit – ridge vent system to work properly. Since the house had no overhangs (soffits), the vented drip edge was the only way to allow adequate air intake into the attic space.

After the starter trim was installed we started installing the metal shingles, working our way from left to right, and up the roof slope. We also had to maintain the correct stagger pattern for vertical impressions in the steel shingles to maintain straight line and system integrity. We also had to work our way up the hip, so each next course of shingles shifted right by about a foot.

Flashing the chimney on a metal roof:

As we were installing new courses of shingles, we flashed all roof penetrations along the way. Pipe flashings are rather simple to install, and does not take a long time. The real time-consuming flashings, are those around the chimneys and skylights. The amount of preparation work and actual flashing time can be will over 5 hours per chimney or skylight. First the old flashing must be completely removed and the chimney must we wrapped with the underlayment, and be completely water-tight. It is also better to cut the channel for counter flashing before the underlayment is installed, as brick dust on the underlayment is difficult to clean off. Sometimes due to time constrains, this is difficult to do however.

Once chimney is properly wrapped with underlayment, you don’t have to worry about rains (it will not leak) and can install the metal roof at a comfortable pace. Once the shingles reach the chimney, we begin installing custom fabricated chimney flashings, starting with the bottom side of the chimney, we first install the head-wall flashing, that overlaps the course of shingles bellow. After the head-wall flashing, we install side-wall flashing that overlaps the head-wall flashing and channels all the water down, away from the chimney.

Once the bottom and side flashings are installed, we can continue running shingles past the chimney, all the way to the top of the roof. The chimney flashing is no longer holding us, as the back-pan flashing can be installed at any time now. We do however install the back pan flashing right away, so that w do not need to com back to it.

Once all the chimney flashings are installed, it is time for counter-flashing or “chimney-collar” which is an “L” shaped flashing inserted in the channels that we previously cut in the brick. Counter flashing will divert all water that is running down the chimney and prevent it from going behind chimney flashing. We once again start at the bottom, so that all counter flashing is overlapped in the right direction as to not let the water penetrate inside and behind the flashing. We pre-measure and cut / bend all four sides, and mark all bends, before the final installation. After we know everything fits, we remove all flashing, insert a thick bead of Solar Seal 900 caulking / adhesive into the channels in the brick, and then insert the counter-flashings, starting at the bottom.

Chimney and skylight flashing are among the most common leak spots on any roof, along with valleys. Improper flashing around the chimney is what causes most leaks, and this is especially true for the metal roofing. Installing shingles on a straight run roof is easy, and it’s almost impossible for such roof to leak, even if the roofing installed never installed the metal roof before.

Proper detail flashing such as the chimney above, is what determines whether the roof will leak or not, and inexperience metal roof installer will not be able to properly flash the chimney. That is why most roofing contractors do not install metal roofs – after one VERY expensive roof failure, they give up. But you as a home owner should always make sure that your metal roofing contractor knows what he’s doing. Otherwise you will have very sorry experience with your metal roof. It is a fact that almost 99%
of metal roof failures and leaks, are caused by improper installation – not the material failure.

After flashing two chimneys, we finished installing shingles on all four sides of this hip roof. Now the roof needed to be finished off with Ridge Vent and Ridge / Hip Caps. We marked a straight line using a chalk line tool, so that the hip caps would lay in a straight line and look beautiful from the ground. We started installing ridge caps from bottom up, and finished it when the reached the ridge line. Then we installed the ridge caps and main roof was complete. Now it was time to install the metal roof on the additions bellow as well as on the shed and a garage.

Installing metal roof on addition, a shed and a garage:

With the main roof out of the way, we could tear of the shingles on the addition bellow it, without worrying that debris will fall on new metal roof. We also removed the vinyl siding along the roof to wall connection so that we could install the underlayment and metal roof side wall flashing. Once the underlayment, drip edge and side-wall flashing was installed, we started putting up shingle and ridge / hip caps – basically repeating the upper roof installation, on a smaller scale.

We also installed metal shingles on another bump-out in the back of the house, a awning in front and a bay window, as well as shed and garage in the back.

Now this house in Attleboro, MA with the new lifetime metal roof looks amazing and the roof will not only protect the home from leaks and ice dams, but will also reduce the energy use during hot summer months, because it is a Cool Roof and qualifies for $1500 federal tax credit for cool roofs!

Check out other metal roof installations that we installed recently – check out our Massachusetts roofing projects. Also check out our metal roofing prices guide to learn how much a metal roof will cost, and compare metal roof prices for different materials – aluminum, steel and copper, as well as different metal roofing systems – metal roof shingles, standing seam roofs and tiles / shakes. We also recommend that you check out what type of metal roofing materials we install in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

Metal roofing is an excellent choice for quality-minded homeowners, as metal roof is virtually the only lifetime roof system that light weight, long-lasting, and most of all – affordable. If you compare prices of metal roof to slate or clay tile prices, you will realize that an average metal roof will cost you only about one third the price of natural slate, while it will look the same or better and last at least as long.

There are many styles of metal roofs and many choices for roofing material – your choices range from galvanized steel / aluminum metal roofs, to premium metals such as zinc, copper and stainless steel roofing. You can choose between a “standard” vertical panel (standing seam) metal roof, or a metal roof made to look as either cedar shingles, shakes, natural slate or flat and barrel tile.

You will also get a wide range of colors to choose from. The result will be such that you will get the look you want with the price you can afford, and the long-lasting performance of metal roofing.

Metal roofing – premium roofing material at down to earth prices:

There is much confusion about the prices of metal roofs, as there is a wide range of metal roof styles and materials to choose form and some will cost a lot more than other. In this metal roofing prices guide, we will show you how much you should expect to pay for different metal roofing systems, and how the choice of metal roofing materials will affect your roofing cost. But before we jump into roof pricing for each type of metal roof, let me clarify one thing: metal roofs are pricey as compared to asphalt shingles roof, but keep in mind that metal roof is a lifetime roofing material and so should be compared to its counter-parts in the roofing market – other lifetime roofs, such as natural slate, clay Spanish tiles, concrete tiles, and lately, synthetic slate roofing.

Asphalt shingles on the other hand are not a lifetime roofing materials and you can expect to replace an average asphalt shingle roof every 15 years. Even the “50 years” or “lifetime” asphalt shingles won’t last more than 25-30 years as they will simply dry out / roast under sun’s heat and ultraviolet rays.





Also we want to mention that metal roofs cost just as much as a cedar shingles roof, but they will outlast cedar shingle by at least 3 times on average, as cedar shingles rarely last longer than 20 years, due to moisture, mold, mildew and moss growth, etc. Also you can get a metal roof that looks just like a cedar shingles roof, at almost the same price.

Benefits of metal roofing:

• Metal roof is a lifetime roofing material, and you can expect an new metal roof to easily outlast your house (when installed correctly). Even the galvanized steel metal roof, which is usually warranted for 50 years, will usually last well beyond its warranty period, unless it is subject to corrosion due to external sources/causes, such as salt-air environment or mixing of different, incompatible metals, such as copper, aluminum or zinc.
• Main benefit of metal roof is that it is made out of the most durable roofing materials available, and metal does not deteriorate with ages, unlike asphalt shingles. Sun’s UV rays have no effect on metal roof performance, with the exception for the paint fading, which happens rather slow and gradually, and goes virtually unnoticed, for metal roofs coated with Kynar 500 / Hylar 5000 coating.
• Metal roofs are light weight, and do not require any special framing to support the wight of a roof systems. Average metal roof weights 50-80 lbs. per 100 square feet, or one roofing square, compared to 250 lbs for asphalt shingles and as much as 800 lbs for slate or tile roofs. Due to low weight of a metal roof, they can easily be installed over  existing shingles, which will further reduce your roof installation price. However there are some exceptions, which we will discuss bellow.
• Metal roofs are Cool Roofs by nature, as they do not store solar heat, and unlike asphalt shingles, quickly cool down as soon as sun goes down. When coated with “Cool Roof” coating, metal roofs will qualify for a $1500 cool roof federal tax credit.
• Metal roofs shed ice and water and are a natural solution for ice dams problems and related roof leaks. Although Ice Dams are more than just a “roof problem”, nearly every asphalt shingles roof will be subjected to ice dams, no matter how well it is ventilated and insulated. Metal roofs prevent ice build up, as any snow and ware will slide off a metal roof. Even when ice build up occurs on a metal roof, continuous vertical panels and interlocking metal shingles design will not let the water back up under the roof and leak inside your house.

Metal Roofing Prices:

Although roof prices differ from region to region, metal roofing prices are more stable and even, compared to cost of asphalt shingle roofs. We will look at metal roof prices based on metal roof type and material. Metal roof prices described bellow, are the going average in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, but there should not be much difference in metal roof cost, where you live, unless the economic situation in your region is very dire. Usually roof prices have direct co-relationship to the cost of living in your area and metal roofs are not exception.

Before we dive into metal roofing prices, lets establish a reference point for which roof prices are given: Our model roof will be a 1500 sq. feet gable roof with one chimney, a ridge and two roof “planes”, as well as 3 bathroom vent pipes. There are also two skylights on the roof and about 50 feet of roof to wall flashing (side-wall flashing). Our “model” roof has a plywood deck with no shingles or any other roofing materials on it and all wood is in sound shape. We will install 3 feet wide Ice and Water Shield along the eaves of our roof and GAF DeckArmor underlayment on the rest of the roof. We also will install 5 snow-guards over each door used in the winter, and over garage doors, and a ridge vent along the ridge.

So here is a basic rundown on roof specs:

• Roof slop – walkable – 3 to 6 roof pitch.
• No tear-off.
• Roof installation to include Ice and Water shield along the eaves / valleys, and GAF DeckArmor over the rest of the roof.
• Roof installation includes Ridge vent cut in and installation.
• Roof installation includes new, color-matching chimney flashing and counter flashing.
• Skylight flashing and chimney flashing for more than one chimney is usually extra, and is not included in the following per-square roof pricing.
• Snow guards are normally installed only over doors which you use in the winter – typically 5 or 7 snow-guards per door. Any additional snow-guards are charge for at about $15 per snow-guard.
• When roof difficulty goes up, the price-per-square goes up. So a roof with many valleys, dormers, side-wall flashing, etc., will cost more, than a simple roof in the picture bellow.

We will list the metal roofing prices for different metal roof materials in the order of low to high price. Also notice that there is a difference in price of steel roof vs. aluminum roof, with aluminum being about a $100 more per square, compared to G90 or Galvalume steel.

Steel shingles metal roof prices:

Steel interlocking shingles is the least expensive architectural metal roof system, though id does not mean that it is “the worst quality”. In fact, steel shingles, such as those demonstrated above, are a very high quality metal roofing system, but cost the least as they are the least expensive metal roof material for us to purchase and a metal roof shingles are the “easiest to install”.

On average, one square of steel shingles will cost you about $800 to install on a simple roof such as the one described above, excluding any tear-off, and other extras such as multiple chimneys/skylights flashing, gutters, leaf-guards, etc. This price includes any one of the three available profiles: Slate, Wood Shingle and Tile.

Aluminum shingles metal roof prices:

Similar to prices of steel interlocking shingles, aluminum shingles will cost $900 per square, which includes the difference in material prices. All other items remaining the same. Aluminum shingles installation is virtually the same as steel shingles, with the exception of using aluminum ring-shank nails and usually not using clips, as aluminum shingles are smaller (1 sq. ft. each) and have a built in attachment “ear”.

Standing seam metal roofing prices:

Standing seam metal roof material costs more to install, and is usually more difficult / time consuming to install if there are any roof penetrations such as sky-lights or chimneys, as the flashing method for roof curbs on standing seam metal roofs is very complicated due to roof design. Additionally, the roofing material prices for standing seam are considerably higher, as the metal gauge is higher compared to metal shingles in both steel and aluminum.





A simple roof with standing seam metal panels will cost about $1000 per square for steel metal roof. As soon as difficulty of a roof goes up, the installation process becomes much more complicated as compared to metal shingles, and the price difference per square  becomes higher than is the case with metal shingles. This is due in part to the lack of a method to install roof staging on a standing seam metal roof, and a need to use the hydraulic lift on most hip roofs, as there is no way to attach a hook ladder on a hip roof.

Aluminum standing seam metal roof will usually cost about $1100 per square to account for material price difference. Also, the snow-guards choices for standing seam roofs offer great range for styles, but also increase the overall cost.

Exposed fasteners (EF) metal roofing – Multi-rib / R-panel / V5 crimp panel / corrugated metal roof prices:

Unlike the architectural metal roofing such as standing seam, exposed fasteners metal roofs cost considerably less, but are also of a much lower material quality and are limited in terms of installation / flashing methods for complicated roofs. EF metal roofs are designed to be a cheap metal roof for farm / industrial / commercial buildings, and are rarely used in residential metal roofing. This type of metal roofing is usually made with a cheap 29 ga steel and acrylic paint / coating, instead of a minimum 26 ga steel and Kynar 500 paint for architectural standing seam. Also the limited flashing method, makes this type of metal roofing a bad choice for complicated roofs. Exposed fasteners also pose a great possibility of a roof leak and will normally require re-sealing and re-tightening in about 10 years, as neoprene rubber gasket dries out and water begins to sip in.

Price of an EF metal roof averages between $600-650 per square. The difference in roof price is due in part to considerably lower quality and cost of roofing material as well as faster, simpler installation.

Specialty metal roofing products – stone coated steel, copper and zinc metal roofs:

Stone coated steel is one example of specialty metal roofing. Although it is pretty common in the south and med-west, it is rather rare in New England, and due to high material costs ad complicated installation, stone coated steel metal roofing is only installed when a specific style of a light metal roof is required. Most common style if stone coated steel roofs is the Spanish tile impressions.

Stone coated steel roofing is usually made form a 24 or 22 gauge, G90 galvanized steel, and is coated with tiny stone granules painted in typical colors of of clay tile roofs installed throughout Southern Europe, with dominating red and orange shades.

Stone coated steel roofs are usually installed over horizontal battens, and installation goes from top to bottom instead of typical bottom-up installation process.

Stone coated steel roofs usually cost about $1300+ per square, including installation of 2×2″ battens, and underlayment. All roof penetration flashing is rather complicated due to design limitations of stone coated steel metal roofs and hence will cost even more than curb flashings for standing seam roofs.

Despite higher than usual roof prices, stone coated steel roofs offer a beautiful look of a Spanish tile roof, at a fraction of the total cost of the real clay tiles, while the roof quality is at lease the same if not better. The relatively light weight of stone coated steel roofs eliminates the need for special framing required to support the weight of real clay tiles.

Spanish tile stone coated metal roof which we installed at Venus De Milo restaurant in Swansea, MA

Copper roofing prices

Copper is rarely installed over entire roof due to extremely high material prices. Copper is usually used for smaller, custom roofs, such as decorative bay-window roofs, curved metal roofs, etc. However if you want to have a copper roof installed over your entire house, the most cost-effective copper roof would be to use copper interlocking metal shingles, which have the same design as aluminum shingles, and are once again, the easiest type of copper roof to install and cost less than copper standing seam.





Since copper is a pretty soft metal, is can be molded and formed to look like almost any type of roof. Copper looks particularly “awesome” when it’s made to look like Spanish tile, especially when the natural green patina occurs on it due to normal oxidation. The Spanish tile copper roofing is by far the most expensive copper roof, when you price it for the whole house. Of course it will still be less expensive per square foot, compared to custom copper roofing.





Copper roof prices:

The least expensive copper roof shingles will cost you about $2000 per square. This number is not very firm though as copper prices are very volatile and have risen dramatically in the recent months (since Jan. 2010). This price includes all flashing made from 16 oz. copper as well as copper shingles which are also made from 16 oz. copper. You also have a choice of 20 oz. copper, but that will bump up your copper roofing cost another $100 per square.

Copper Spanish tile will cost you about $2750 per square, as it is made from 20 oz. copper by default, costs considerably more than copper shingles and the installation of copper Spanish tile roof is also much more complicated.

Any custom copper work will be priced on per job basis as there is really no way to provide standard pricing for custom copper roof work. However, a typical straight panel copper way window will cost you between $2500 and $3000. Any curved copper roof installation will increase the roof price dramatically.

Zinc Roof prices:

Zinc roofing costs virtually the same as copper, though in some cases it is actually less expensive. Zinc roof is usually installed as standing seam, though, custom zinc roofing shingles can be ordered and manufactured as a special order. In general, you can expect to pay $1800-1900 per sq. for zinc roofing on roof sizes over 500 sq. feet.

Metal Roofing Resources:

Use our Roofing Calculator to estimate metal roof prices in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, as well as get free roofing price quote, when you submit a roofing estimate request.

Solar Metal Roofing – Did you know that standing seam metal roof can be combined with a thin-film solar panels such as PV laminates made by UniSolar? Solar metal roofing is the most cost effective way to combine green metal roofing materials with Solar Panels, and get the best price for both!

You can use the Solar Calculator to estimate solar roofing prices based on the roofs size as well as the size of the solar system you are looking to install. Solar calculator will also help you estimate the break-even period and the solar electricity production of your solar PV panels.

References

Metal Roofing prices – a helpful guide to understanding metal roofing prices for materials and labor.

Roofing Costs – related guide to understand roofing prices for common roof types.

Last week, Boston was a host to hordes of roofing sales people, roof manufacturers’ reps and local roofing contractor from all aver Massachusetts and New England. It was the NERCA (North East Roofing Contractors Association) annual roofing convention, where most roofing materials, tools and equipment manufacturers were present, promoting their new products and services.

After being to a few of these shows already, the don’t get any more exciting, but it’s always nice that NERCA sets up up open bars with semi-decent wine, and cheese / crackers / fresh veggies & berries tables. I think for roof sales professionals, these roofing conventions have become a boring necessity as all they do is schmooze with each other and talk about competition. As for me and other roofing contractors, we can always find some new and exciting roofing materials and roofing tools, equipment and services, such as infra-red roof scanners, roof lifts, hydraulic-powered dumpster which can be lifted to the roof level to speed up roof tear-oof and clean up process.
As an Flat Roofs contractor we were there supporting IB Roofs which had a booth there, and I got to meet IB’s new Regional Manager Dana Spurgeon, as well as IB’s local reps in Massachusetts – Jerry Lang and Kevin Laprte (whom I already know of course).

Roofing Equipment presented at Boston Roofing Show:

Besides the obvious and now ritualistic visit to the IB Roofs stand, I wanted to find as many cool, interesting and innovative roofing products at this show, and quickly wondered off, to explore the unknown. My first find was an excellent new automatic hot-air welder by Leister – the new Varimat V2.

This new auto welder, unlike the original Varimat V, has increased and elongated nozzle, and much more powerful fan built into its heat gun, which allows siginificant increas in welding speed from 15 feet per minute for the Varimat V to a maximum 39 feet per minute and realistic 30 feet per minute for the new Varimat V2!

The new Varimat also has new computer controller which lets you save your setting into profiles of various welding speeds and temperature, which can be used for winter and summer roof installation and different roofing membranes, such as TPO roofs and IB single-ply PVC roofing. This new Leister automatic welder is the most advanced tool in its class, and can dramatically speed up roof installation time on large commercial roofing projects. However it comes at a premium price-tag of about $8000 before taxes, requires a more powerful, 6800 watts generator, and of course heavy gauge 240V extension cords, which can easily make the total price for this unit to be over $11000-12000.

Another interesting piece of equipment I found is the hydraulic-powered dumpster lift, which can be driven right up to the roof line and will let roofing contractor to dump old shingles or other roofing materials right off the roof, eliminating clean up, using tarps to cover the exterior walls of the hows and the grass, as well as roofing nails all over your yard, at the end of the day.

Another really interesting piece of roofing equipment is the automatic plates and fastener driver from OMG Roofing. Last year, at the roofing show held at Foxwoods in Connecticut, OMG Roofing demonstrated such unit for flat insulation plates, but did not have one that would quickly fasten the barbed plates used to hold down single ply roofing membranes.

Bellow you can see a video of this plates and fasteners driver in action, attaching a piece of PVC roofing membrane to an ISO insulation over wooden deck roof assembly: Once again, this unit uses barbed plates that are 2 3/8″ in diameter and are made to mechanically attach single ply roofing systems to the roof deck.

Solar Roofing products presented at Boston roofing convention:

Soprema Roofing also had a pretty nice stand where they displayed new Modified Bitumen roofing systems with cool roof reflective layer on the top and SopraSolar roof integrated solar systems. This solar systems, just like the IB’s Solar Wise solar roofing system, uses the UniSolar thing film Solar PV panels, adhered to the roofing membrane.

This new SopraSolar system is a much cleaner installation than Soprema’s original roof-integrated solar systems. The roof integrated solar PV systems are more expensive than regular solar systems, but they offer completely water-tight installation of the roof and solar panels and virtually eliminate roof leaks – calculate solar system cost using Solar Calculator – a free tool that allows you to estimate solar system size, number of kW and how many solar panels you will need as well as solar payback period.

Solar Roofing Tiles:

One more cool roofing product, also using UniSolar thin-film solar panels, which is made in Pennsylvania, is a Spanish roofing tile product, made to easily be installed with clay tiles and provide roof integrated solr panes without any roof penetration or solar mounting racks:

Other interesting roofing materials and products:

Soprema also had a demonstration stand showcasing its PVC roofing systems coated with natural copper, which would actually turn green and the patina process begins. This PVC roof systems also comes with PVC made ribs, so the complete roof system imitates Copper Standing Seam metal roof at a fraction of the cost.

Another interesting product, this time for the sloped roof is a roof vent, which can be installed along th roof eaves, when your roof does not have soffit vents, and improve ventilation of your roof, which will increase the time that your roof will last, make your roof deck last longer and help prevent Ice Dams on your roof.

Ultimate car for the roofing industry:

There was also a rather unconventional vendor present at this year’s roofing convention, who designed a vehicle specially for the roofing sales professionals. This new hybrid concept car features high gas mileage, wide wheel base and extra cargo space for all your roofing samples, brochures and equipment. Unfortunately there is no roof rack on this car, so you won’t be able to take a normal ladder with you, but you can always use a folding telescopic ladder, or as most roofing sales people do – measure the roof off the ground

This new hybrid car is rumored to be a replacement for Toyota Prius, which recently has had a lot of problems with it’s brakes systems and sudden acceleration. This new “bucket” car is supposed to eliminate most problems of a Prius and provide many additional benefits, together with great gas mileage.

Recently, the MRCA (Midwest Roofing Contractors Association) issued a warning bulletin regarding TPO roof failures caused by sun’s UV. You can read more about it on our original TPO Roofing page, as well as my commentary to this bulletin.

At the same time, major roofing distributors are shamelessly pushing TPO into the market and onto roofing contractors without much regard for home and building owners. And bear in mind, because of low prices and “same cool roof” and “welded seams” qualities as PVC roofing has, TPO roofing is now the fastest growing commercial roofing product.

Here is a good example – pictures below will show you “manufacturer’s” stand showing TPO roof designed for residential roofing contractors.

Why residential roofing contractors? Well, the way I was told, these are the roofers who can’t afford to spend $12,000 on hot-air welding equipment, so the roof manufacturer created a system so these guys too could jump on TPO band-wagon.

(The TPO stand above, is displaying outside corner flashing, inside corner flashing, pipe boot, and drip-edge details. When I asked about the caulking along the seams, i was told it’s not caulking. It’s seam tape )

Here comes the best part! This TPO roof system is put together with … no, not hot air. Seams are primed and a seam tape is used to seal overlaps! But, it gets better – since there is no uncured flashing material in TPO world, and these “shingle-bangers” don’t have Liesters (hot air welders) nor do they want to buy them, since cheapest one – hand welder – is $450 before tax. So, this manufacturer uses white EPDM uncured flashing for all detail work such as inside / outside corners, posts, curbs (skylights, chimneys, roof hatches, HVAC equipment, etc.). EPDM rubber on TPO – really?

So basically, here is what you – the roof owner get: Untrained, inexperienced roofing contractor, installing a roof system (TPO roofing) which is unproven and there is a good chance it will fail, using flashing materials made for a different roofing system (EPDM rubber roof). And you loose the only real potential benefit of TPO roof – hot-air welded seams, since now all your seams are glued together, just like rubber.

So I want to know who wins? The manufacturers, the distributors, and partially the roofing contractors – but not the homeowner. Why? Manufacturer sells the membrane and accessories, while does not warranty the product since the contractor putting it down, in not trained / certified. Distributors will always get their cut, and contractors who screw up their work, usually disappear. So you, the roof owner will be left to pick up the slack on repairs – kind of sad I think…

Excerpt from TPO roofing discussion at Roofing.com forum:

The post bellow, is my reaction to recent discussions at Roofing.com – one about Pictures of failing TPO roofs, and another one, which started as a homeowner’s question about IB roof, and turned into a discussion about TPO vs PVC roofing.

If you do not feel like reading the two Roofing.com posts linked above, I will mention that Donl is a site admin at Roofing.com and Cerberus is a very knowledgeable (in my opinion) roofing consultant from Texas, and is an active participant in Roofing.com discussions.

The reason why I’m posting my response here – well, I feel that putting it on my blog instead of at Roofing.com will benefit you much more. There, only interested roofing contractors will read it and then, the post will disappear in a week or so.

To Cerberus and Donl:

Guys, I respect your knowledge and experience, of which you have more than I do. At the same time, it seems strange to me that you both defend TPO so actively – here is why:

Putting IB Roofs aside, I do believe that TPO is a bad product (here in US). But besides that notion I have to say that although these pictures ( http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/559881410NjElbu ) are from ’97 and the membrane was made around 1990, what has changed?

Also, it should be noted the sheets some are showing as failed TPO are from the early years of TPO roofing before there were ASTM testing criteria. Things have changed, so someone showing a failed TPO membrane from the 1990′s is like me showing a failed Carlisle EPDM roof from back when they were using N-100 Lap Adhesive instead of EP-95 or Seam Tapes; it is deceptive!

Cerberus – when you point out that it was one of the original TPO membranes that failed, do you really know what we as industry are dealing with now?

Do you know what exactly is sold at a local Bradco or ABC? Which formulation it is and how long it will last? Not a single TPO manufacturer will tell you what you are buying – they will never admit that they have a problem, unless it is a HUGE f-up.

Can you possibly know when this TPO will fail or will it last 15-20-25 years. No, you can’t know that, judging from what the TPO manufacturers are doing, which is changing the formulation every few years. And why? Is it because the previous formulation failed? And maybe to put even more fillers in the product to make it cheaper?

As much as I don’t like EPDM rubber roofing, as a flat roofing product, at least with it you know what you are dealing with: Membrane won’t fail. It will be the seams that will start leaking. So you can plan accordingly.

With TPO, you have:

- premature curing
- seam failures
- loss of thickness
- and now we find out that “some” TPO’s can’t take the UV

Yes, TPO is taking over commercial roofing market, and as you Cerberus rightfully pointed out – merely because of its low price and Cool Roof / Welded seams features…

Don’t know about you, but I won’t touch TPO just because I can’t put my name on it.

Do understand that I’d love to work with it – it costs much less than IB and I can get it locally. And because it’s cheaper, it would be MUCH easier for me to sell it! Instead I have to fight the competition which sells both rubber and TPO for much less than I can.

But what do I do when it fails, or the seams come apart, or the water separates the sheet through wicking scrim?

I go with a product that I personally can trust – not something that seems good on paper and is cheaper and easier shove onto customer.

And tell me this Cerberus. When I was asking people on this forum for good pictures of failing TPO roofs, you asked me: ” “Why? What are you trying to do?”

Well, I feel and know that TPO roofs are failing (some are here in Boston, and I can’t talk about it) but manufacturers won’t let people talk about it and specifiers cant say that – yes, TPO roofs are failing – because they already specified 1000s of squares. And roofing contractors won’t talk… and now one can say names. And I would probably also keep my mouth shut if I had a lot to loose .. fortunately I don’t work with TPO … And when I work with PVC, I know that it does work. I repaired an old IB (7 yrs. old) and it welded just fine. I repaired old Sarnifil (20+ yrs. old) with IB and it welded almost just fine. I even repaired a cracked Trocal (about 25+ yrs. old) roof with IB and after cleaning off the dirt, it welded just fine. So yea, plasticizers may leech out, membrane me shatter (and actually does when it’s Trocal ) and so on and so forth, but PVC works!

So what I was trying to do is to get information / evidence (pictures) of PVC and TPO roofs that are failing.

And you know what – in the end, it will come out. Or manufacturers will bite the bullet, quietly replace failed roofs and finally get the formula right (by not removing the components that make the system work)… but they will make less money…

Just my opinion…

Additional materials about PVC and TPO roofing:  TPO Roof failures.

TPO vs. PVC conversation – continued on Feb. 23, 2010

Quoted text is the response from Cerberus posted 0n Feb. 22, 2010:

And while you addressed your post to both myself and Donl, you seem to actually be directing the post at me. So, here it is in a nutshell.

1st – I’m not totally 100% comfortable with TPO yet, but that is because as a consultant I like something with a long successful track record. I know that TPO roofing is in its infancy, and like EPDM, Mod Bit, and yes, even PVC, systems in their infancy tend to have problems that need to be ironed out. In the meantime, as a specifier I am required by local codes to specify a roof with 70+% reflectivity and .70+ emissivity. In other words, I can choose between TPO and Derbibrite since PVC membrane isn’t popular in Houston.

2nd – If I was going to use a PVC roof, it would only be Sarnafil. However, now that it is Sika-Sarnafil how do we know they won’t play with the formulation? You asked me that question about TPO, so I am turning it around on you. Afterall, the first thing Firestone did when they purchased Rhoflex mod. bit. was change the formulation and make it cheaper in both quality and price.

I did address both you and Donl. Its just that Donl did not really defend TPO – more like bashed IB 

Anyway, one by one:

Am I starting a witch hunt? NO! … I know of enough TPO failures and some big ones here in New England, but I’m not at liberty to disclose them and can’t compromise my sources.

I really don’t care that much for TPO – I understand that people want to save money and will 99% of the time go with a cheap option – not quality. This is especially true in commercial market, which you (Cerberus) represent. In residential roofing things are different and TPO guys don’t know how to market to homeowners – therefore I don’t care much about TPO unless we are bidding on the same, usually commercial roof.

My problem with TPO is fundamental – until manufacturers stop “scamming” their customers (roof owners and contractors) by putting out crap products, I will have a problem with TPO. When they make TPO a good product, I will like it, but it won’t be as comparative, and PVC will kick its butt Pictures I needed as visual content.

Now about specifying practices: Basically from your last post I conclude that you will specify a roof that you are “not totally 100% comfortable with TPO yet” because local codes requires roof to be 70% cool and people are not willing to pay premium for PVC.

Also you as a roofing consultant know more than most people here do, and certainly much more than your “customers” – that’s why they hire you. I don’t understand why you would “withhold” information about TPO from your customers? Both Good and Bad.

Why did I use term “withhold”? If you told them about high risk potential of their TPO roof failing withing 7-10 years, they would not buy it. Therefore, I assume you do not enlighten your customers.

I want to stress the point that recent MRCA advisory about TPO roof failures concerns mainly the southern US – your territory with high temps and constant UV exposure.

Bottom line – TPO gets specified because it’s cheap – not because its good, and at the expense of building owners.

I don’t specify mod. bit., TPO, BUR, or any one roof for every building, and I certainly hope you aren’t only selling PVC for your low-sloped roofs. To do so either shows you are limited by the manufacturer’s approvals you can get, or lack of knowledge about other types of roofs.

Maybe I do lack both knowledge or manufacturer’s approvals 

You know – I can buy pretty much any roof I want – TPO / PVC / EPDM or even mod. bit. without manufacturer’s approvals. I won’t. I won’t install rubber because it will leak (not right away of course, but still). I won’t install Mod. Bit. … well I never did and don’t want to learn because in my opinion it’s inferior – those seams will separate and roof will once again leak TPO I just don’t trust. So that leaves PVC which I’m very comfortable with and, since we do not do skyscrapers, it fits our needs 99% of the time. Only once we had a roof for which PVC would not work, but the customer was not willing to pay $2000/sq of Soprema liquid-applied (not coating) – He wanted Rubber for $450/sq. Well I think that’s what he got .

So yes – most of the time I will prescribe PVC.

Term “green” has become very popular during last decade and consequently overused, misused and abused. Anything and everything can be called green today, and to make money and to attract environmentally-conscious customers, people will call themselves and their products green, even when it is just a blatant lie to confuse uneducated consumers. Being a roofing contractor, I will concentrate on roofing products and services. For example, many asphalt shingles manufacturers now offer “cool” and “green”  shingle products – to me it’s just a shameless tactics to sell same NOT-green crap  that is painted different color (usually some shade of white). Excuse me, but asphalts shingles are not green, period! The are made with asphalt, can’t be recycled and end up in landfills in 10-15 years.

Since term green is very vague and can be interpreted in many ways, I’ll offer my vision of “green” – green roofing contractor to be exact, which describes the way I think and try to operate our roofing business. I want to mention that when I say “green roofing contractor”, it has nothing to do with with a roofing contractor installing green roofs or roof-top gardens. To me a contractor installing roof-top vegetation is a highly-specialize landscaping company, but not a roofing contractor (unless they also install the actual flat roofing membrane to waterproof the building).


Quick navigation in this article:
What is a “green” roofing contractor and how one is different from regular roofing companies.
Learn about green benefits of Metal Roofing and IB Flat Roof

What is a “green” roofing contractor?

In my mind a green roofing contractor is a company that work hard to help protect environment and reduce its energy consumption and green-house gas production or carbon footprint. Sure, almost any company will have a carbon-footprint as it’s nearly impossible to be carbon-neutral, but here are many ways to achieve a much lower carbon footprint.

Here are some thing we do to make our overall operation as green as we can, all-the-while saving you, our customers, money on roof installation services, by cutting our internal costs:

First of all, we install cool roofing products, such as IB Cool Flat roofs and Metal roofing systems (usually made from about 90% recycled metal).We also try to do this in the most efficient manner possible to reduce waste, conserve resources and reduce our clients’ energy use for cooling of their home or place of business, as a result if installing our cool roofs.

What makes us a green roofing company?

Besides installing  cool and green roofing products, we strive to be green in operating our business. When it comes to estimating a roof, most roofing contractors will go to numerous roofing estimates, many of which they will not sell. Keep in mind that many home owners get as many as 5-10 estimates before they make up their mind and some roofers need to make two trips if they forgot to measure something.

We work differently: to save our time and most importantly, the energy (gasoline) it takes to drive around to hundreds, and the associated pollution, we created a system of making our estimating process as efficient as possible. This benefits everyone, and you – our customers in the first place.

Here is how our “green” roofing estimate process works:

1. When client you (homeowner or small business), contact us by email or on the phone, we collect as much information about your roof as possible. The information which we collect includes:




• Type of your roof including all roof penetrations and other specific details.
• Dimensions of your home.
• Photographs of your house and/or roof. (If pictures are unavailable for some reason, we will use Google Maps’ “street view” and Bing Maps’ “birds view” to get an idea of what your roof is like)
• Number of layers of the existing roofing materials.
• Roof age.
• Whether your roof leaks or not.
• When you plan to replace the roof.
• Any other roof related information, as well as answer as many of your questions as we can.
2. Based on the information we get from you, we assess your roof’s condition, estimate approximate cost of replacement, as well as suggest the most cost-effective solution for you, as well as address ventilation, insulation, ponding water, drainage and other roof-related issues.
3. Once we complete our analysis, we provide you with a “preliminary roofing price quote” which in our experience is about 95% accurate and may/will usually change if A) roof dimensions were provided incorrectly or B) there are more roofing layers that we were informed of and C) any other unforeseen situations, which actually rarely happen (One such situation happened when we were replacing a rubber roof in Boston, MA – there we removed old parapet cap, and found that 4 layers of brick parapet wall were sitting in completely washed out mortar. Therefore we had to rebuild the parapet wall completely, so that we could actually complete the roof installation properly).
4. Once you get our roofing price quote, you decide whether it is within your budget, and whether you want to proceed with the roof replacement and work with us. At this point many customers will ask us about our references, which we will email to you.
5. If you like our products / company / price, and want to proceed, we schedule a mutually convenient time for a Roof Inspection / Estimate, during which we actually measure your roof to make sure our quote was correct, check how many layers your roof has, make sure there will be now unforeseen situations. We also show you the product, and how it works as well as answer any questions you may have. Once we are done inspecting your roof, we give you the final roof price, which may or may not include any extra work, such as new gutters installation  or something else. Besides the extra work, our final price is 95% of the time, the same as the preliminary price quote.

What is so special about the way we estimate roofs?

The process I’ve described above, eliminates 70% of unnecessary “driving-around”, which not only helps the environment, but also saves you – our customers money! Since most roofing contractors provide seemingly “free roof estimates”, while still spending time on gas / expenses, and using their time to drive around estimating roofs, the customers that actually do sign up to work with such contractors, end up paying for all previously unsold roofing estimates. We do it differently – we give you all the information we can, including our pricing, so there are no surprises. When you have this info, you can decide if you want to work with us. To avoid charging our customers for someone-else’ unsold estimate, we implemented a $99 estimate fee, which is included in the price of the roof if you decide to work with us (it is not an extra charge). This way you only “pay” for your own estimate, and only if after the estimate you decided that for some reason you do not want to work with us. If we sign a contract – you do not pay the $99 fee. Bottom line – you, our customers don’t pay for other people who “wasted” our time, as is the case with most other roofing contractors.

When we actually go on the estimate, we also as if you have an appropriate ladder at your house, so we could access your roof. If you do not have appropriate ladder or roof access, we will bring a truck with all needed ladders. But if you do have a ladder we’d rather take a “car” instead of the truck. This may sound “cheesy” of us, but here is why we do it:

To be more green, we purchased a Toyota Prius – arguably the greenest and most fuel efficient  production car in US. The sole purpose of getting it was so that we can use it for estimating roofs. Its roomy enough to hold all the needed samples and small hand tools (such as the Hand welder for IB Roof seam welding demonstration), and can also hold additional materials for when your roof needs urgent repair work, which we can perform after the roof inspection / estimate.

Toyota Prius – Green Roofing Contractor’s estimating vehicle.

We would rather take the Prius to an estimate because we usually have to drive long distances, as our roofing jobs take place all over southern New England – we install roofs in Massachusetts, and as far west as NY borders of Western Mass. and Connecticut. Prius will save a lot of gas when we have to drive this far, and as a result a lot of pollution. And no, we do not do it to merely save a couple of bucks on gas – it will take us about 300,000 miles to break even at current gas prices ($2.59 / gallon of unleaded gas here in Massachusetts), if we compare cost of new Prius vs. new Corolla / Civic.

In the end, the way we perform our roofing estimates, benefits you (financially, as we do not need to up-charge you for costs of doing “free estimates”), us – also financially and time-wise, and the environment. This shows just one of the ways we are trying to be the “greener” roofing contractor.

Another way which makes us a greener roofing contractor is our product line of Cool Roofing products which last a VERY long time without leaks and are mostly recyclable and are often made from recycled materials. These products include IB Cool Flat Roofing membrane for flat roofs, Recycled (or new) Roofing Insulation, and different types of metal roofing materials, which often consist of more than 50% of recycled metals.

In some cases we will also recommend that you do not tear off your existing roof (this only applies to 1 layer of existing roofing materials), which will reduce land-fill waste and your costs of roof  removal and disposal. Look forward to our future article on when you should and should not tear off your old roof.

Green benefits of Cool Flat Roofing products – IB Roofs:

IB roofs’ cool white surface reflects up-to 95% of solar heat, and dramatically reduce cooling costs in the summer, and with additional thermal insulation, winter heating costs are also reduced by as much as 25-30%.

IB PVC roofing is long-lasting – you can expect your IB roof to last 30+ years without any repairs (unless there is a physical damage) while average flat roof, such as EPDM Rubber roof or tar and gravel roof, lasts 10-15 years.  Long on-the-roof service life means that you would replace your non-IB roof at least once or twice before IB roof even begins to leak. Beside enormous, non biodegradable or recyclable waste going to landfills, there is also huge amount of energy involved in installation of a new roof:

From roofing crews, each driving their F-250 or Dodge Ram to work each day, to heavy equipment delivering materials to job-site and diesel-hungry dumpster trucks going back and forth from job site to landfill, hauling the waste roofing materials.

IB Roofs are thinner and lighter than any asphalt-based product, and each roll of IB 50-mil membrane has 500 sq. ft. coverage. Therefore, for an average residential flat roof installation  we need only one trip of a fully loaded work truck or van to bring all materials, tools and 3 roofers to a job site. And we don’t need to bring a crane or haul a tar kettle around.

If you have an new hot tar or asphalt roof put on, also think about all the energy going to heat up that tar or asphalt to the point of boiling. For a torch-down modified bitumen roof, think of all the propane gas being burned to melt each square foot of that roof.

Simply by switching to cool flat roof products, a roofing contractor can in time, reduce their carbon footprint by almost 50%, increase profits, production, have happier and healthier employees (just imagine breathing in tar dust or hot asphalt fumes each day), and help protect the environment overall.

Installation video of Cool, White IB roof – hot air welding:

Green benefits of Metal Roofing:

Metal roofing is the longest lasting roofing material for sloped roofs. Some copper roofs in Europe have lasted more than 5 centuries. Metal roofs are readily made with more than 50% of recycled metals content, and will outlast ANY asphalt shingles roof by at least 3 time (when installed properly), and often will last well beyond its warranty periods.This will significantly reduce the asphalt shingles waste that goes to the landfills every 10 to 15 years, when your roof starts to leak and needs to be replaced.

Metal roofs like IB flat roofs are Cool, Energy Star compliant roofs, and will reflect significant amount of solar heat, as well as minimize heat transfer into your house. Reflectivity of metal roofs depends on the color (lighter colors will be more reflective) and the paint or coating used in manufacturing of a given metal roofing systems. The de-facto coating used in metal roofing is Kynar 500 paint and any of its variations / modifications by third-party manufacturers. These paints have in them cool roof reflective pigments, and will usually qualify of $1500 federal tax credit for energy efficient home improvements.

If your metal roof was installed incorrectly or is way past its warranty period and starts to rust / leak (only steel roofs can rust, as other metals used in metal roofing are usually rust-proof, except for corrosion caused by mixing of different metals, such as copper and aluminum). This old metal roofing materials can be recycled, and there and numerous metal recycling facilities around, where contractors bring old metals.

When we replaced old metal  roofs on IHOP restaurants (which were in part incorrectly installed over 35 years ago) in Hyannis, MA and Brighton, MA, we recycled every single piece of each of those roofs, including clips and nails used to hold them down. For more information, read or article on pros and cons of metal roofing.

Installation video of Standing Seam Cool Metal Roof:

Why hire green roofing contractors?

Basically, when you are dealing with a green roofing company, you can usually expect to work with caring and responsible people, who charge a little extra for their products and services, but will give you a lot more than your neighborhood roofer from yellow pages. It is almost a given that level of workmanship and quality of roofing products will be above and beyond than most roofing contractors. And of course the green roofing contractors will use earth-friendly products and will run their operations in a green way, which will benefit the environment. You don’t have to believe in global worming to agree that using green products and conserving energy / resources is a good thing.

If you live or own a business in Massachusetts, Connecticut or Rhode Island and need a new roof – let us know and we will give you some of the best deals around. Fill out our roof estimate form and we will help you get a “greener roof” and we promise to be gentle with mother earth!

You may use our roofing calculator to estimate the cost of your roof replacement, find out your potential energy savings (in dollars) and compare the prices of IB Roof to “not cool” EPDM rubber and Modified Bitumen (torch-down) roofs.

So is your roofing contractor green?

Replacing old rubber roof with IB PVC roofing membrane in Lowell, MA.

In the beginning of Dec. 09 we installed a new IB PVC roof in Lowell, MA. This roof replaced an old EPDM rubber roof which was installed by a hack roofing contractor about two years ago, and was failing miserably, due to two factors: poor roofing system design on the part of EPDM roofing and horrible installation by the roofing contractor, who as I suspect had almost zero knowledge about flat roofing and rubber installation. Before I go into the IB roof installation, I wanted to talk a bit about the two above-mentioned factors contributing to rubber roof failure.

The roof actually consisted of two roof sections not connected to each other. One smaller roof in the front of this historic home, was about 100 sq. ft. in total, but its shape made using a rubber roof not feasible due to limitations / flaws of rubber roof system design. Another roof section was just over 300 sq. ft. and covered enclosed porch in the rear of the house. This section had a low slope to it (about 2 in 12 pitch) and a hip roof design. The failure of both front and rear roof sections was a result of bad installation by the roofing contractor and EPDM rubber roof shrinkage as well as seam adhesive failure.

Rubber roof failure due to EPDM flaws and limitations and faulty installation my roofing contractor:

When EPDM rubber roofing membrane is installed on a roof connected to a wall of a building, the membrane must be laid down with a flap going up the wall – in essence, the wall flashing and the roof covering must be done with one piece of material to eliminate leaks the the roof to wall connection. therefore the field sheet of roofing membrane is only held down by glue (which happens to break down after 5-7 years). While in some cases this work out fine, very often the rubber shrinks and pulls away from the wall-to-roof connection point. This results in ether detachment of wall flashing, membrane pulling away from the corner of roof to wall connection, or in some rare cases, when wall flashing is securely attached to the wall, the shrinking rubber roof may pull the wall with it – for example it can pull a brick parapet wall.

IB PVC roof is installed differently. All membrane is terminated at the roof to wall connection with heavy duty fasteners (screws r masonry anchors) and barbed plates, to hold the membrane down. A separate wall flashing is installed up the wall and 5-6″ away from the wall, covering the screws and plates, and is welded to the roof, making the wall flashing watertight. The wall flashing is attached to the wall using either an aluminum termination bar, or nailed to the wall in cases when it will later be covered by siding.

At the edges of the roof, a PVC coated drip edge is installed into pressure-treated (PT) wood nailer, using roofing screws to securely attach it to the roof deck, and to prevent wind uplift. Then the IB PVC roofing membrane sis welded to the drip edge. In case of rubber roof, the drip-edge is nailed down with smooth-shank roofing nails. This makes pull-out very easy – strong wing can pull the rubber roof off, or as in this case, the rubber shrinkage pulled the whole assembly away from the roof edge. In rare cases, rubber roofing contractor will use the roofing screws to attache the drip edge. Most of the time, roofing contractor will install drip edge right over soft insulation, with 2 or 3′ roofing nails. You can easily pull off this drip edge by hand, even if its nailed 6″ o.c., as we did on this roof.

IB flat roof installation:

Roof Insulation: The homeowners who just purchased their Lowell, MA home recently, wanted to improve insulation over the back porch, while the front roof was already insulated between the rafters. We used 24–r value, 4-inch Poly ISO insulation board on the back roof and 1/2 inch fan-fold insulation in the front. The design of the rear roof section and the short distance between the two rear windows and the roof, made us use tapered insulation to actually reduce the thickness of ISO board from 4″ to 2″ at roof to wall connection. This allowed us to properly flash the roof to the wall, though gradually reducing insulating value from 24-r down to 12-r at the wall.

Roof tear-off: To keep installation costs and land-fill waste down, while installing the roof in accordance with MA building code (which allows no more than two layers of roofing material, unless approved by structural engineer and building inspector), we removed one layer of rubber roof and the fiber board, leaving old tin roof on the front roof and rolled asphalt on the rear roof in place.

Day one – installation of smaller front roof.

First thing we had to do on the first day was to get a roofing permit from Lowell building department. Since homeowners just recently bought their house, the building department did not catch up with the assessor’s office on current owners of the property (and why would day do any extra work if they don’t get paid for it?),so it took us some time to square things out.After we got the building permit, it was placed in the appropriate spot – front window of the house. Now it was time to get to work.

The roof was installed between to snow-storm – one right after Thanksgiving and another one just a few days later. On the first day we had to shovel all the snow off the front and rear roof, and removed the rubber membrane off the front roof. We decided to leave the rubber on the rear roof until we actually had time to get to it, since it was supposed to snow and rain the day after.

Once the rubber roof was removed, we installed the perimeter wood nailer and laid down the insulation. We then installed the drip edge and sheets of IP PVC roofing membrane, which were pre-cut on the ground, to simplify installation on this already tight roof. IB membrane was welded to the PVC coated drip edge and mechanically fastened down to the roof deck with heavy duty screw and plate in-filed and along the roof to wall connection.

Roof to wall flashing: A separate roof to wall flashing was installed, and welded to the roof, and nailed to the wall and attached with aluminum termination bar along the exposed wall. Inside and outside corners were flashed with IB non-reinforced corner flashing material. which was welded to the roofing membrane.

At the end, an IB 5″ two-way air-vent was installed remove the condensation between the roofing membrane and insulation. In, installation of roof to wall flashing took as lone as the rest of roof installation. Since the roof to wall flashing was the main part of rubber roof failure and the most difficult part of this installation, we had to spend extra time, making sure this one will last a lifetime.

Day two – installation of the rear roof.

Rubber roof tear-off, insulation and IB membrane  installation all had to done in one day, so the roof would be watertight after we left job site for the night. We left all finish and detail work for last day – our main goal was to have the roof covered at the end of work day. Fortunately for us, the rubber roof came off very easily, as the glue barely held it, and drip edge was popping of like popcorn. We also removed the old fiber-board, to maximize the clearance between the window sills and the roof.

Once old rubber roof was removed, we started laying out our 4 inch high wood nailer along roof’s perimeter. We used double 2×6 PT boards with 1/2 inch strips of PT plywood in the middle – this gave us almost 4″ total thickness, to match the thickness of ISO insulation. When the wood nailer was installed, we laid down the double 2″ insulation boards along the outer perimeter of the roof. At this point we had to start the tapered insulation. We first laid down 1″ ISO board and then double sheets of 1/4″ per foot tapered ISO, to bring the total insulation thickness from 4″ to 2″ over 4 feet distance.

Once all insulation was laid out, and fastened down according to FM Global insulation fastening standards (8 fasteners per 4×8 sheet of insulation), we installed the pre-cut rolls of IB membrane, which was fastened down 12″ O.C.

First we installed a perimeter half-sheet roll, and then a full width roll, butting it against the wall. Now it was time for roof to wall flashing and termination. Our roof to wall flashing was made out of 3 pieces of 2 feet wide IB membrane to have appropriate up-the-wall flashing. After roof to wall flashing was installed and all seams welded, we installed two outside corner flashing. Now the roof was watertight, it was already dark, and time to go home.

Day three – installation of drip-edge, cover tape and cedar clapboard siding.

On the last day we installed the special order 5″ wide face drip edge which was installed over the IB membrane, and a 6″ IB cover tape was welded down to the drip edge and the roof. All joints between the 10 foot sections of the drip-edge sealed according to IB installation spec to prevent roof damage from expansion and contraction of the metal. A 2″ foil-tape was placed over the joint and a 5″ IB flashing material was welded on top. We also replaced the old cedar clapboard siding which was rotted and fell apart after we removed it to install the roof to wall flashing. Although it does not seem like a lot of work, it actually to us entire day to complete. As the last finishing touch, a 5″ two-way membrane vent was installed in the center of the roof.

Information for homeowners regarding flat roofs:

Words of caution  we strongly recommend home and building owners to avoid installing EPDM rubber roofing membrane. Besides the faulty design of this roof, there are too many shady contractors, with little or no experience, who can buy rubber roofing material at almost any roofing supply warehouse. You may be attracted to seemingly low price of EPDM rubber roofs, but be aware that low price comes with VERY low quality of workmanship, and to compensate for low prices, these contractors will use cheap rubber glue and accessories.

When you choose to go with a quality flat roofing product like IB Flat Roofs and a professional contractor, you will not be paying twice for a new flat roof and dealing wit roof leaks and finding your rubber roof installer to fix the leaks, like the one bellow:

Leaking rubber roof in Quincy, MA, installed directly over asphalt shingles:

Look at the picture above – it is a 1 year old EPDM rubber that was installed by a shady “rubber roofing specialist” contractor, who disappeared, and does not return home owner’s phone calls. They glued the rubber membrane straight to asphalt shingles roof, which you can see “telegraphing through the rubber. This roof has leaking ever since it was installed. Read more information about rubber roof materials, roofing contractors and their training in installation of rubber roofs (or lack of such training) in our rubber roofing guide for flat roof owners.

If you have a leaking rubber roof in Metro Boston area of Massachusetts, and can’t afford to replace it now with IB PVC roof, we can repair you EPDM rubber roof with high quality EPDM peel-and-stick flashing accessories - MA rubber roofing repair services start at $350 and include 2 hours of repair work, and necessary materials to complete the repair. Fill out the rubber roof repair request form to schedule a a professional roof mechanic to come and fix your commercial or residential EPDM rubber roof.

Getting IB roof installed on you flat roof in Massachusetts:

If you have a flat roof in Lowell, MA, or and other city in Massachusetts, we can install and IB PVC flat roofing membrane on the roof of your home or business – fill out our roofing estimate and price quote request form and don’t forget to use our roofing price calculator to estimate your roof replacement costs, and compare prices to EPDM rubber and Tar and Gravel roofing.

As you may know, we specialize in installation of IB roofs – premium grade PVC flat roofing membranes, with fusion hot-air welded seams which ensure permanent lap bond, and as a result, leaks-free performance. At the same time if you have a rubber roof, which is in fairly decent shape, but has developed some leaks due to lap sealant (epdm rubber glue) failure, we can repair your rubber roof fairly inexpensively, as compared to installing a new IB roof, and extend the service life of your rubber roof. Learn more about our rubber roof repair services in MA, CT and RI. We want you to know that although we repair rubber roofs, we will not install it, because for us it is an inferior roofing material with too many limitations and possibilities to develop roof leaks.

Here we will explain you how these repairs work and what you can expect, as well as show a few roof repairs in Massachusetts which have done recently. We also recommend that your read our Rubber Roofing guide, which explains the shortcomings of rubber roofs, and explains why we advise home owners to stay away from EPDM rubber roofing systems due to product limitations and overwhelming number of dishonest roofing contractors eager to install rubber roofs, without proper knowledge of this system. Instead we recommend installing IB Flat Roof – a PVC single ply flat roofing systems with hot-air welded seams which will not break down as rubber roof seams tend to do after 5-7 years.

We also want to let the flat rubber roof owners know that any rubber roof repair or installation must be performed in temperatures above 40 degrees F, as the primer / adhesives will otherwise freeze or be too cold to properly dry/tack and provide proper adhesion. Unless your roof repair is more of an emergency, we recommend postponing it until the warmer temperature sets in. If your roof repair is an emergency, special measures can be taken to keep the adhesive warm and on a sunny day the black rubber will be warmer then outside temperature, so repair can be done even on a colder day. We strongly advise you against installing a new rubber roof in general and in the winter especially. Read more info on pros and cons of winter roofing, and keep in mind that IB flat roofs can be installed in any tempereature, because they are not glued, but hot air welded.

EPDM rubber roof repair in Brookline, MA:

As  you drive on Newton St. in South Brookline, there is a big apartments complex, located right next to Exxon gas station. This apartment complex has a fairly recent Carlisle EPDM rubber roof which is about 7-10 years old (according tho property manager), but due to some ponding water, this roof has developed leaks in some spots, which the management had to repair, before small leaks escalate into bigger problems. Since EPDM rubber roofs are not warrantied for any type of ponding water (water that  stays on the flat roof for more than 48 hours after rain), I made an note for the complex management that their small leaks can turn into bigger problems if actions are not taken. However, thir ponding water problem was not as severe as in other cases, because the water was able to drain through the Roof Drains located  in different parts of the roof. Also, the skylights which are spread through-out the roof create additional potential leaks.

We’ve inspected the roof with seam probe to find obvious separated seams, and to the owner’s relief, the seams were in more or less decent shape. However the corner flashing on the roof fire exit were worn out and developed holes in them which had to be repaired. We used the peel-and stick quick-applied rubber flashing, which is an uncured rubber material and can stretch to conform to the required shape (and inside or outside corner, pipe flashing, etc.). After installed, uncured flashing material will cure under the sun’s UV rays,, while keeping its new form. Peel and stick rubber flashings are applied with the EPDM primer which ensures better adhesion and longer lasting repair.

Once the uncured flashing is installed, it is already watertight and just need to cure, and take its new permanent shape. The the edges of all flashings are also caulked with EPDM lap sealant for additional water-tightness. The uncured EPDM flashing material is installed on odd-shaped roof penetrations. If you need to flash a straight line, such as lap seam, a special EPDM rubber cover tape is used. It is also a quick-applied peel and stick materials, but already cured, and will retain its existing shape. Read on to learn how EPDM cover tape is used to re-seam a commercial roof to dramatically extend its service life.

Rubber roof repair in Boston, MA:

This is a commercial office building in Boston, which has developed leaks in different parts of seam overlaps between separate sheets of rubber membrane. The roof is a 60-mil EPDM rubber, made by Firestone, with river rock ballast to hold the membrane down. We had to shovel off all the ballast away from the seams, so we could clean and repair them.

Once the loose gravel is broomed ad shoveled off the seam joints, the seams had to be wiped clean with the EPDM rubber cleaner. You should know that many “rubber roofers” will use gasoline to clean the seams, instead of the cleaner, which costs almost twenty dollars per gallon, instead of gasoline being under $3 right now. However, rubber should not be cleaned with gasoline, as oil based products will actually break down the EPDM membrane with time. Even though gas will evaporate before it will have a chance to do any real damage, it will certainly not be beneficial to you as a roof owner if your roofing contractor washes seams down with gas. Rubber roof manufacturers strongly object to roofers using gas to clean the seams. However they can do very little to enforce this, so it is often the responsibility of of an honest roofing contractor to not use gasoline to clean the membrane, and the roof owners should also inspect the roofer while the roof is being installed, to make sure the get quality installation.

Notice in the picture above, while one roofer is cleaning and soaking the seam area with membrane cleaner, the other roof uses rough push broom to clean off the tough dirt, so that there is proper adhesion between the rubber membrane and seam tape.

Once the area is cleaned with membrane cleaner, a rubber primer is applied to the are of contact, and the let to be dried to the point of being tacky. After primer is dry, the peel and stick seam tape can be applied. The special chemical on the peel and stick tape make use of rubber glue (splice adhesive) not necessary. The primer acts as a glue and actually creates a stronger bond than the splice adhesive.

In fact, the introduction of peel and stick seam tapes and other flashing materials for rubber roofs, made the entire system a lot better than it was when only option was the splice glue, which would often fail in 5-7 years after original roof installation. With peel-and-stick roof accessories the rubber roofs now can last 10-12 or even more years, before re-seaming is required.

Once the EPDM primer is applied and allowed to dry for a few minutes, the Peel and Stick cover tape is installed and carefully rolled in using a Silicone roller, to push out any air bubbles and ensure stronger, even adhesion between the roof and a cover tape. When all tape is installed, edges are caulked with EPDM lap sealant for additional protection. Now this roof should last at least 5 more years before additional repair or replacement is required.

On commercial re-seam repair work, we can offer a bi-annual roof inspection / service contract with three years water-tightness warranty, which VERY few roofing contractors can offer. Warranty and service contract can be discussed separately, when we give you a roof repair estimate. Neither is included by default into our standard rubber roof repair service.

Rubber roof repair in Lexington, MA – chimney cracks and copper counter flashing:

A more recent, residential rubber roof repair, that was done on the roof of a “newly historic home” in Lexington, Massachusetts in November, 2009. Homeowners had a new rubber roof installed in 2002 by a New Hampshire construction company which is now out of business, and could not provide roof repair. After about seven years roof began to leak around the chimney. Prior to this leak, the original roof installer was supposed to install a lead counter flashing around the chimney. They skipped this part of roof installation, and had to come back and do it, after homeowners confronted them with the issue.

As I came to inspect the roof I noticed that there were large soft spots around the chimney corners. The lead flashing was eaten by squirrels on all four corners of the chimney, and the chimney itself had multiple cracks in the brick, mortar, and old cracks which were sealed with some type of exterior caulking, which was now failing. Other then that, to my surprise I could not find any actual leaks in the rubber roof. The design of the house, which is a butterfly roof sloped down from the center, makes this roof virtually leaks-free unless the roof  installation is a complete hack job. It was also more or less properly installed with 3″ peel-and-stick seam tape, seams overlapping in the downward direction, and single-piece pipe boots.The only part that could leak was the chimney membrane  flashing, but it was also in a very decent shape and seam-probe test shown no separations between the roof and chimney flashing.

Only after the lead flashing was removed, I found a small separation in the chimney flashing at the corner, which was eaten by squirrels. This flashing separation could potentially leak, though would be a minor contributor. I concluded that most of the leaks come through the chimney cracks, which had to be thoroughly cleaned off old caulking and wire-brushed, to allow the new sealant to properly adhere to the brick. I also recommended to replace the damaged lead counter-flashing with new Copper flashing, which would last a lot longer and squirrels would not chew it.

I started out by removing old lead flashing and cutting a continuous 1″ deep grove into the chimney, in which new copper flashing would be permanently inserted. This grove was made in the brick itself, and not into mortar joints, which are much softer and do not provide sufficient strength for the counter-flashing. Once the cuts were made and all the brick dust was cleaned out of the grove and the roof, I began cleaning out the cracks in the brick and removing old caulking.

Once all prep-work was completed, it was time to flash the only rubber material separation found around the chimney. I thoroughly cleaned the rubber membrane with rubber cleaner, applied EPDM primer and installed the peel-and-stick, uncured flashing, which covered both sides of the corner, as well as base of the corner flashing and the seam separation that I found after lead counterflashing was removed.

After all cracks were thoroughly cleaned, wire-brushed and the corner flashing was installed, I began making the new copper counter flashing. We used a 16 oz. copper sheet to cut and field bend a 12 inch wide flashing which would be inserted into the groves. The 16 oz. copper is very thick, as compared to aluminum or steel – it is almost 1/16″ thick metal. This makes it a bit difficult to work with, even though it is softer than steel.

The new copper flashing pans were first cut and bent, to properly fit around the chimney, but wer not permanently put in until all four sides of the chimney were done. The first pan was installed at the bottom of the chimney. Then the side pans overlapped the bottom pan at the corners of the chimney and than the back pan overlapped the the side pans, making it an completely watertight chimney counter flashing.

As we were installing the copper pans, we had an unexpected visitor on the roof. The visitor snuck up behind our back, and quietly climbed onto the roof. This visitor was more than unexpected, as would never imagine seeing on go to the roof. It turned out to be a neighbor’s cat which was very pretty and absolutely not afraid of us, or the noise we were making. The cat climbed up the ladder, inspected the situation, made sure we were doing good job and disappeared for a while. It later came back for a final roof inspection.

Under strict supervision of the neighbor’s cat we carried on with installation of the copper counter flashing. Once all pan were, cut, bent and tightly fitted, we removed them from the chimney and installed premium roofing caulking sealant (Solar Seal 900) which would hold the pans in place as well as make them watertight. We also sealed all the cracks in the chimney, to make sure water was neot getting through those cracks.

Once all the caulking was applied, the pans went back in, and permanently sealed with additional bead of caulking. the pans were also locked into each other to prevent separation by strong wind. The chimney ar rubber roof repair was now complete with a new, long-lasting copper flashing reglet.

Rubber roof repair in Massachusetts:

This will be the last report about our rubber roof repair jobs. We now have a dedicated website about rubber roof repair in Mass. as well as Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. There you will find all the information about our EPDM roof repair projects, services, warranties, as well as Do-it-yourself installation and repair guides specific to rubber roofs. At this time though, that site is still in development, so you can learn about our rubber flat roof repair service and schedule an appointment for us to fix your rubber roof.

Upon the completion of your roof repair or instead of, we can provide you with a quote to install a new IB Roof. You can calculate an approximate cost to install IB roof and compare prices with EPDM Rubber as well as Built-up and modified bitumen roofs, with our online roofing calculator. We can also provide you with a complete roof inspection and a roofing estimate which will include exact cost of new roof installation as well as our suggestions about insulation and roof repairs.

Massachusetts is our home state and here is where we install majority of our roofs (with Connecticut being in second place). In Massachusetts, roofing market is very different, depending on location, and although there are a lot more sloped roofs, not only in Mass., but in the rest of the country, we still install more Flat roofs than Metal roofs. As for geographic location of your home in Massachusetts, up north, toward the New Hampshire border, roofs are more prone to Ice Dam roof leaks and damages than houses located in the southern MA.

Although Massachusetts is not a very big state, the your location can have a dramatic effect on the amount of snow fall in the winter, and thus your chances of having Ice dams and and related roof leaks. For example on the same day, an average roof in Sharon or Norwood will have 1-2 inches of ice alone the eaves, whereas an average roof in Lowell will have 5+ inches of ice build-up. If you go further north of south away from Boston the amount of annual snow accumulation and ice dams will increase or decrease respectively.

Why do I mention Ice dams and roof leaks in the intorductory part? It’s simple – most commercial roofs are flat, and are not prone to ice dams, though they have their own list of problems that I will discuss bellow. Residential roofs on the other hand are the ones mostly affected by ice dams. These are both sloped roofs and low-slope / flat roof, and we have the best and longest lasting solutions for both - Metal Roofing for sloped roofs and IB Roof for low slope flat roofs, such as shed dormer roofs, and completely flat roofs.

Bellow we will give you a quick overview of most recent and some older roof installations that we’ve completed in Mass. Keep in mind that these are not the complete job profiles. Complete job overviews will be posted separately, as time permits us to write them. In the overviews bellow I will provide basic information about each roof, accompanied by a few pictures and short description of roof installation process and challenges we had to face.

Before we go into job reviews, here are a few additional articles you may find useful, when choosing a roof product for your home and a roofing contractor to install it:

How to prevent Ice Dams – comprehensive guide on which focuses on the root cause of Ice dams which is usually a combination of poor ventilation and and inadequate insulation in the attic space or between roof rafters. This guide will help homeowners minimize heat leaks in the attic, improve ventilation and eliminate the effects of ice dam leaks by installing a Metal Roof or an IB low-slope roofing membrane.

Low-slope roofs – Overview of common problems associated with low slope residential roof such as shed dormers or roof on most cape-style homes located in the norther MA. Common issues with such roofs include rotten roof decking / rafters and Ice-dams. Since this roofs are prone to Ice dam leaks, most of the rot damage is an effect of ice dams and although many roofing contractors will insist that using Ice and Water shield will do the trick, our experience shows that most of the time I&W fails to protect the roof even if entire roof deck is covered in Ice and Water. Therefore we believe that best solution for permanent protection of low-slope roofs and eliminating ice dams is the use of metal roof of IB flat roofing membrane in conjunction with solving ventilation/insulation issues described in the article above.

Roofs we installed in Massachusetts:

Low slope shed dormer roof in Westminster, MA

This roof we installed in early May of 2009. The house is located in heavily wooded are of central Mass, just north of mount Wachusett. Westminster, MA is located along Rt. 2, and not very far from New Hampshire border. These areas get major snow falls in the winter, together with colder temperatures than those in Boston and ice dams are a major problem in Westminster, even for high slope roofs. Low slope roofs such as the one we replaced there, are very likely to have ice dam leaks and other problems such as rotten roof deck, wet insulation, and mold.

The roof has been leaking for some time around the chimney in the center of the roof and was patched many times with tar, but rather unsuccessfully. Also, due to Ice Dams and roof leaks caused by ice formation along the roof eaves, the home owner installed heating cables to stop the Ice dam leaks. These however did not help either and after one more unsuccessful roof repair, home owner decided to get an IB roof installed.

The home owner and their cousin who is a roofer in NH, did the roof tear-off and replaced all rotten plywood decking, to reduce the cost of roof installation, while we installed the roof itself, insulation, chimney flashing, ridge vent and snow guards (snow retention system).

Note – even though before we installed IB roof, home owner’s main concern was to get ice and snow off the roof. After IB roof was installed, our concern was that due to roof’s pitch, which was about 3 in 12″, the snow and Ice would just slide off the roof in a large pile, crushing down onto deck and perch bellow it. Also there was a grill on the deck which was not movable since it was tied to a gas line.

The chimney flashing, which may seem to take not to much time, actually took about 6-7 hours to properly flash. The reason ot turned out to be so lime consuming it that it is located in the center and separates the ridge vent as well as creeping onto another side of the roof. Due to its position, size and the way IB roof is installed it not only took long to work around, but also slowed down the rest of roof installation. Because the the ridge vent buts into the chimney, we had to make sure that not only ridge vent is raised an inch off the roof level to prevent the wind-driven rain from leaking into the house, but also that it is completely tied to the roof, and flashed up the chimney. Once the chimney flashing was installed and counter flashing reglet had to bi installed as well.

All in all it took us 3 days to install this roof, though 3rd day was rather short. What really slowed us down, was the first heat wave of that spring and unrealistic number of bugs / flies / mosquitoes in this wooded / swampy area of central Mass.

Roofing membrane used: 50 mil mechanically attached IB PVC flat roofing system.

Insulation used: 1/2″ fan-fold Styrofoam insulation with clear plastic / metal facing.

Total roof square footage: Approximately 500 sq. ft.

Standing seam metal roof in Wayland, MA.

Right after the roof in Westminster was installed, we started getting ready for a big metal roofing project, which used .032 Aluminum standing seam metal roof in 1 3/4″ snap lock profile with 16″ wide pan and stiffening ribs. This roof took about two weeks to install between tear-off of old asphalt shingles, siding removal, replacement of rotten wood replacement, delays with material shipments and wrong type of flashing being delivered.

Actually one of the delays happened because our supplier ran out of Grey aluminum coil after 80 % of roofing panels were rolled out of their mobile standing seam roll-forming machine, which was based in Manchester, NH. As the supplier received more aluminum coil 3 dais later the send a different truck, from New London, CT. As that truck arrived and rolled off the first test panel, just out of curiosity I decided to compare first batch to the second one. It turned out that the machine on the New London truck was set up to be 1/8″ wider than Manchester truck. This, over the course of 23 panels gave us an extra 3″ of panel which converted to two extra panels – 1 1/2″ wide – on either side of the rear roof section and exactly 23 panels on the front. We had to send the truck back and wait for the Manchester, NH truck to deliver and roll out the same coil. Even the guys working for the supplier were not aware if this mismatch between the two machines.

In the end the Manchester truck delivered the right-width panels and we were able to finish the jobs without any more delays. The homeowner – Glenn – was also very concerned with snow and ice falling off the roof and damaging the gutters bellow, so we installed a commercial-grade double rail snow retention system to eliminate the possibility of snow falls form the roof.

We already posted a full review of this roof installation on our blog, a few months back, so if you want to know more details, read the standing seam metal roof in Wayland, MA job profile.

Rubber roof in Boston, MA.

In August of 2009 we’ve completed a rather small, but very tricky and complicated flat roof installation in Boston, on one of the traditional Boston-style homes/buildings, which you can see all alogn Mass. ave, Comm. ave as well as Blue Hills avenue, on which this house is located. It was originally a EPDM rubber roof, which had over 50 percent of seams separated due to adhesive failure. The two-tower wood design made this roof much more difficult to repair and our client – Jim – chose to eliminate the hassles of frequent roof repairs and decided to have an 80-mil IB roof installed.

Although this should have been a pretty much straight-forward roof replacement, with rubber tear-off performed first and a new IB roof installed, I sensed that it will not be an easy job. Until we opened up the roof I could not say for sure what obstacles we’re going to face, but once we did remove the rubber, we found that entire length of the masonry parapet wall was damaged by water and poor quality of brick mortar. We also found that we would have to rebuild the parapet walls much as 4 layers of brick deep.

Because a chose a careful approach to the rubber removal, by only pulling back the rubber membrane off the parapet wall, and not cutting it, we were able to do entire brick repair work and roof preparation, while having the roof watertight each night with original rubber membrane.

Once all brick repair war was complete and mortar had sufficient time to cure, we installed a 2×8 pressure treated perimeter wood nailer to which IB wall flashing and drip edge would be attached. Only on the last day did we remove the whole rubber roof, installed new insulation and laid dawn the new, mechanically attached IB PVC flat roofing membrane.

We had to come back one more time to install the new gutter and downspouts, IB two-way membrane vents and 9″ IB attic vents over specially cut holes in the roof deck. These attic vents were installed to vent out the moisture that accumulated in the small attic space when the old rubber roof was leaking. Once in place these oversize vents will eventually dry out the attic and prevent any future mold growth.

Now Jim can enjoy his watertight roof and get sun baths sitting in his beach chair on the roof of his home, and not worry about damage to membrane – he chose a very durable, commercial grade 80-mil IB roof. He will also enjoy a cooler home, due to IB cool roofing features.

You can read the complete job profile about this Flat roof in Boston, MA on our Cool Roofing Blog.

Flat roof in Framingham, MA

One of the more recent roofs we’ve installed was in Framingham, MA, where we installed an IB roof on yet another shed dormer roof for Ed Kelly – a high-end remodeling contractor out of Northborough, MA. The builder had his crew remove old asphalt shingles off this roof an replace most of the old decking with new 3/4" plywood. We were there to install just the membrane and flash it 2 feet up the sloped roof.

During my conversation with Ed (builder), he told me me why he chose the seemingly more expensive IB roof over a cheaper rubber EPDM membrane. His main reason was the IB’s hot-air welded seams, and hassle free roof performance. Before, Ed would use a rubber roof on a few of his projects, end all but one of them leaked due to problems with seams, and required expensive rubber roof repair. Ed decided to end his flat roofing nightmares and constant rubber roof leaks, and went with IB roof.

The entire job took us one day to complete. The roof was ready to start, as we arrived to the job site in the morning, and before dark we packed our tools and were ready to leave, as the roof was all done. The roofing crew which did the tear off and deck replacement was putting the new asphalt shingles and aluminum fascia trim back on, as we were driving away.

Roofing material: 50 mil white IB roof, mechanically attached.

Insulation: 1/2″ fan-fold Styrofoam.

Total roof size: Approximately 450 sq. ft.

Flat roof deck in Wellesley, MA

Just before the Framingham flat roof job described above, we did another job for Ed – an 80 mil IB roof that would be a water-proofing membrane for a roof deck over a garage being built as an addition to an already huge home in a very secluded area of Wellesley.

Once again, a complete job profile for this roof deck is already on our blog, so there is no point to rewrite it here – read the Wellesley, MA  flat roof deck installation overview.

Solar flat roof in Medford, MA

This job, was actually sponsored by Cool Flat Roof (us) and IB Roof Systems, as it was a non-profit project, competing in the 2009 Solar Decathlon competition, sponsored by the US DOE. We installed an IB roof on a Boston solar home with some help from the project volunteers and Architecture students from BAC and Tufts.

Once again, we have a complete coverage of the installation of the IB flat roof and the Solar PV panels on this roof - Solar roof installation in Boston, MA.

Low slope shed dormer roof in Hingham, MA

Yet another shed dormer roof and also with major ice dams problems and leaks. This roof was just a year old when we removed the old asphalt shingled, and installed a new 50 mil IB traditions roof with asphalt shingles pattern printed onto IB white roofing membrane. This roof was completely covered with Ice & water shield which failed miserably and forced homeowner to climb up the slippery ladder all winter long, sometimes two times a day, to brake off the ace along the roof edge.

Homeowner – Paul – tried everything, from sodium-filled socks above the skylights to heating cables – nothing seemed to help, as with lack of proper ventilation and inherent limitations of asphalt shingles, his roof was still leaking, as it faced north, and sun never shined over it in the winter.

Paul wanted a permanent solution to stop roof leaks and not a single roofing contractor that Paul contacted could explain to him how they would stop the leaks or promise that their roof will work. Some even offered to  install asphalt shingles with Ice & Water shield – Really? Paul already had shingles with Ice and Water and it was not working.

Initially, Paul contacted us about getting a metal roof installed on his house, but after examining the roof, I suggested ti install IB roof instead, and residential flat roofing solution form IB  - Traditions Classic seemed to be the best option as it combined all the benefits of IB roof with the classic look of architectural asphalt shingles printed onto the membrane. After a little decision making, Paul and his wife chose to go with a seamless one piece IB roof. In this case there would be zero possibility of ice dam leaks.

All skylights now have seamless 1-piece plashing whelded to the roof, and the rodge vent is raise by an inch above the roof level to prevent wind driven water from penetrating the roof.

Now that Paul has a new IB Traditions roof, which is in effect a seamless, one piece blanket over entire roof, he and his wife won’t have to worry about roof leak and breaking ice off the roof any more.

With this, we conclude the first part of our Massachusetts job profiles list. We will update it as we have time to add more pictures and descriptions to each job, and will also add complete job profiles for each roof, when we have a chance.

Getting IB roof or a metal roof installed on your home in Massachusetts:

If your roof is leaking or you have Ice dams,and are tired of fighting with the ice, using heat cables, sodium-filled socks, raking your roof, and risking to fall of a ladder, you need to contact the low-slope roofing experts ( us ), request a free roofing price quote and schedule a roof inspection / estimate. You can also use our online roofing calculator to estimate your roof replacement cost and compare the roof prices of IB PVC membrane to Rubber roofing and Modified bitumen / Tar and gravel roofs.

Forewords: If you are a building inspector / official, please try to understand that this rant from contractors point of view… Or at least be objective and unbiased.

Pros and cons of building permits:

Why do we need building inspectors (and do we really need them)? Well, they are supposed to inspect – right? They are there to protect homeowners from shady contractors, and ensure that construction goes in accordance with state / national building codes. That’s why we also have specialty trade inspectors (electrical, plumbing, mechanical, etc). But do they really do their job? Another question – why do we need building permits? Yes, to pay the building inspector for doing his/her job – do the inspections. Yea, right!

I will purposely omit building inspectors in charge of large construction projects such as bridges, sky-scrapers, factories, etc. There is a lot more responsibility there and these inspectors are a lot more knowledgeable  than your average “Joe the building inspector”.

In my being a roofing contractor, I had to pull many permits in the last 6 years – for almost every job we did. In all this time, only once have I seen a building inspector at a job site, and he was there to harass the home-owner about the “illegal kitchen” that came with the house they just purchased. In the beginning of my construction life, I needed to get permits, but did not have sufficient / adequate insurance and in some cases did not have the Home Improvement Contractor registration in a state I was doing work. Luckily for me, I was able to get permits, and because I have dignity (I’d like to think so) I did decent work without code violations and nothing bad ever happened. I once had a “stop job” order posted at a job site, where we forgot to pull a permit. Ahh… the good old days.

When you get into serious contracting like the Metal Roofing and IB Roof installations, you can’t afford not to have proper insurances and licenses. Your clients by default expect everything to be current and you to be fully insured – both worker’s comp and general liability.  And besides, it is easier to show proof of insurance than to explain why you do not have it, or better yet to ask home owner to pull “owners permit”. It is also much easier to get a permit in 5 minutes instead of waiting 3 days and hoping that inspector is not a complete a$$ or is looking for a bribe – for some reason, I have a very strong suspicion that some building inspectors in Lynn, Revere, Malden and other surrounding towns in Massachusetts, purposely jerk contractors around, as if telling them – “give me $300 and you have your permit”. I really believe so. Or they just hate people in general. But let me get back to building inspectors.

My experience with building inspectors and permits:

I will try to be logical here, and present information in chronological order. Here is a work day of a building inspector as I see it:

In 85% of the times I walked into a building department of any city and town, building inspector is not there. Apparently they are out, doing inspections. But as I mentioned before, I had never seen and inspector on my job site, to inspect my roof. If inspector is in the office, he (I will use a “he” as all building inspectors I’ve met, were guys) will make you wait 2-5 minutes before asking you what you need. Apparently they need to feel as if they have power and are in control. After the initial coldness I did get permits, so there is nothing to complain about. But there is. And it is about how I got my permits and why do we actually need to pull them and pay for them. It is my honest belief that permits were instituted as means for towns to raise money, and biased on this assumption I’m more than happy to pay the fee. But any building inspector will tell you that permit is to pay for the inspection and enforcement on the building codes.

So I will tell you a few instances of how I got some of my permits, how horrendous the process can be for a contractor, and why so many contractors, including honest, illegal and shady ones, never pull permits. There is a provision in Mass. Building code that inspector has up to 30 days to issue the permit. We installed a Metal Roof on an IHOP restaurant in Hyannis, MA (down at the Cape Cod). When I vent to pull the permit (which was an hour drive one way) I almost got rejected, as my Worker’s Comp certificate was generic and not made out to Town of Barnstable. Fortunately, my insurance agent faxed in a copy 2 minutes before town hall closed.

As a side note, due to insurance fraud, in MA, your insurance agent cannot really give you an “all purpose” worker’s comp certificate, and the actual insurance company must print one out and mail it to you. This takes at least 3 days. Imagine a regular residential roofing company which installs a roof in one day and works 5 days a week. They have to get worker’s comp certificate for each roof, for every town they work in.

As my insurance certificate came out of fax machine, the office lady called over the building inspector to look at my paperwork (after being there for an hour and a half, he never looked a it). He asked me for HIC registration ONLY, although all commercial work required me having a CSL (construction supervisor license) and HIC implies that i do home improvement. When I offered the inspector my CSL, he said that he did not need it. Neither did he need my general liability insurance. Once he verified what he was looking for, he said: “You are all set – you can start in two weeks.” Why??? Why on earth do I have to wait two weeks??? I can loose a contract in two weeks. “Fortunately” half the roof on the restaurant was blown off by a storm wind, and it was more of an emergency roof work – this was the only reason he “allowed” us to start right away. So why do we need to wait two weeks I still don’t know. Time spent to get the permit – 4.5 hours.

Another time we did a roof in Grafton, MA. An IB low-slope roof on a residential home. Nothing fancy – a pretty straight forward roof. As I applied for the permit, I was told to firs fill out 7 different forms, pay three different departments for some ridiculous things (even the health department) and I also had to submit a SPEC for IB roof installation, including MSDS sheet (why?). They did not expect me to be back for a few days, but I was determined to either get a permit or permission to start work the same day as once again I drove pretty far to make sure every thing is ready for us to start when we planned to. I quickly ran to town library and printed about 20 pages of IB specifications describing exactly the parts of the roof we were going to do (I love IB online Quick Spec writer). When I brought back the whole package, the inspector was so surprised that he gave me an “ok” to start any time. Later, his secretary told me that he will actually read the spec. If I had know, I’d print out 200 pages, of exiting reading material.  Time spent to get the permit – 5 hours.

There are many other stories I can tell about pulling a building permit. I do want to say that not all inspectors are evil. One time we told a building inspector in Abington, MA that we did not have MA HIC – only the one from Rhode Island. He was cool enough to tell us: “get the homeowner to pull the permit”, which we did and all worked out well. I also absolutely love the Boston building department. The flow of contractors there is so heavy that they do not have time for stupid things like full spec for a small residential re-roof. They check your insurances and licenses, collect a fee and give you a permit.

Many towns in MA and CT will give you permission to start and mail you the permit. Some will make you run around as a squirrel. They will want 3 days before you can start a job. So I adopted and “evolved”.  Now I call the building department of any city or town where I’m going to work and tell them that I have a 3 hours drive to just get to their town, and if the could “please let me start the same day I apply for a permit”. This usually worked great. For example, when we installed an IB flat roof in Andover, CT – I never actually met the building inspector in person. I spoke to him on the phone – told him roof leaks and is covered with tarps (which was true) and we need to start ASAP. He gave an ok and all I had to do, was apply for the permit and provide proof of insurance and a construction license.

The second flat roof which we did in the Andover, CT – I still had to talk to him on the phone. This time he wasn’t as happy but since we already came to town, I “begged” him to let us start the job, without looking at it. Once again it was a complete tear-off and pretty straight forward, so he gave us a green light. But from now on, I have to apply for permit by mail and he wants to see my work. Next time I’m in Andover, I’ll give him a call ahead of time. Here you can see the pictures of our second roof in Andover, Connecticut and on of a roof in Westminster , MA: http://www.coolflatroof.com/flat-roofing-blog/low-slope-roofing-on-shed-dormers/

Why you should have a building permit for any construction work:

Bottom line – not all building inspectors are evil. Some are very nice, some are just bored and need things to do, and some need to feel powerful. All depends on your luck. I learned how to coexist with any building inspector, and no do everything in advance – even have my insurance agent fax over my certificates before I arrive at city hall.

Why did I write all this? Well – this is my blog and I can do it! Where else can I talk about it?

What is the point of all of this? I just had to get it out of my system after years of contractor – inspector interaction. Also my friend tried to pull a roofing permit for a VERY simple and straight forward roof – a measly 9 squares  on walkable gable roof in Malden, MA. And the inspector wants to inspect … maybe he had a bad day, but my buddy has to wait a few days until he can start. Really? So this was my inspiration.

Also, I want to make a point that many inspectors let shady contractors with fake certificates slide through or don’t even check for insurance and construction license, all-the-while they make other contractors chase their tails and waste time (and money) as if they have nothing to do. They also harass homeowners and issue stupid fines for stupid violations that should be grandfathered in. This creates situations where homeowners  and contractors knowingly do not pull permits. It also creates risk for homeowners to be left out if a shady contractor does bad job and screws them – without a permit they cannot use the Mass. Homeowner Protection Fund.

Can this be fixed? I don’t see a solution since there are too many hack inspectors and contractors out there and homeowners really need to do their due diligence – check references, call people, look at the jobs, licenses, insurance certificates, etc.

I encourage any homeowner to read my article on how to choose a roofing contractor. You should also know that it is pretty easy to “scam” the building permit process. For example, a roofing contractor must have a full roofing general liability insurance, which can easily cost $10,000+ per year, and worker’s come which runs at about 35-40% of payroll ($35-40 for every $100 you pay your guys). Many contractors will buy a siding insurance for $500-700 per year and use that certificate to pull permits.  The can also claim to be “sole proprietor” on the Worker’s Comp form when they apply for a permit and get away with not having the insurance at all – even if they have employees.

As for licenses – in Rhode Island there is no construction license at all – only a contractor registration. You can do everything with it, except for electrical, plumbing, etc. In Massachusetts, only recently have they implemented a mandatory requirement for CSL to perform roofing, siding and windows work. Before, any hack could get a roofing permit with just and HIC registration.

So once again, always do your due diligence when choosing a contractor.

As for the contractors – have your paperwork ready, do good work and, good luck guys!

PS. I’m not an angel and did not start my roofing business with $20,000 to buy all proper insurance. I did my share of getting around the permitting issue. Every one goes through it, but some remain in that stage forever. As for me – I prefer to do everything the right way or not do it at all.

As I’m writing this, the 2009 Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC is nearing its completion. Twenty teams from around the globe are competing to build the best Solar Home, judged in ten different categories, including: architecture, engineering, net metering, living comfort as well as others. This year, Massachusetts – home to some of the  greatest colleges and universities in the world – is represented by Team Boston - the joined efforts of Tufts, Boston Architecture College and a team of volunteers, all with the common goal to create green and sustainable home designs that could be readily available and affordable for actual home buyers and home builders. You can read my 2009 Solar Decathlon Review with pictures and videos I took there during Columbus Day weekend.

Cool Flat Roofs and IB Roof Systems are proud sponsors of Team Boston’s solar home.  We provided the project with IB flat roofing materials (provided by IB Roof Systems) and a professional installation, as well as last minute roof design changes, and modifications to roof penetration placement and drainage setup.

The Boston solar home construction is all finished, the Solar Decathlon competition is almost over – the houses will be disassembled and and transported to their final placements. Team Boston solar home has already found its buyer in Cape Cod, where it will be available for public tours. Building this home was a bit less glamorous, and here I will tell you about our part – the installation of a flat roof.

Roof Design:

The roof was designed to allow for house to be transported in 3 sections, and to host 3 rows of solar panels, as well as collect all rain water. The house design team had to work really hard to make all three major requirements work together. The roof and the house were separated into 3 different sections, with separating parapet wall inside and around the perimeter. To avoid roof penetrations and as a result – roof leaks, the solar PV and hot-water racking systems had to be placed on top of parapet walls – both interior and exterior.

The roof drains and all roof penetrations had to be placed so they would be away from future solar system racking steel beams. The roof itself was designed so that all water in each section, would run toward the roof drain, with an overflow scuppers as back-up drains.

We utilized the 1/4″ (1/4″ rise to 1′ run) tapered insulation system, which would go from 1″ at the lowest spot to 5″ at the highest point. The roof drains were place at the lowest points of each roof section, while all roof penetrations were moved to the highest points on the roof.

Roofing Material: Because of multiple inside corners and roof penetrations, IB Flat Roofing PVC membrane was chosen and the best roofing system for the job, as it allows for all roof flashing components to be hot-air welded together, which eliminates a possibility of roof leaks due to seam failures. Even if the roof would be damaged during the construction process (there was constant foot traffic on the roof, after we finished installing it – plumbers, electricians and Solar PV installers), it would be easy to repair – as easy as welding a patch over damaged area – a one minute repair.

IB Flat Roof Installation – Day 1

Due to scheduling and timing matters, all construction on Boston Solar Home was performed on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays of each week. We started installing our roof on a Sunday, after 2 days of rain, and as we pulled up to the construction site at Tufts in Medford, MA, it was still drizzling, and the team members were vacuuming and pushing water off the roof. This was a challenge by itself. After pulling the tarps off the roof, there were about 4 inches of rain water trapped between parapet walls of the roof and tightly sealed moisture resistant roof decking. Water was slowly dripping inside the house, but a major part of it was still on the roof. Two holes were drilled through the roof sheeting in the overhang section, where the roof drains would soon be installed. The water quickly drained over the grass, but a third section of the roof had to be manually cleared of water with a wet vac and push-brooms.

Installing Roof Insulation: As we unloaded our tools and materials, the guys from team Boston, were finishing the roof drying process, the drizzle stopped and we were ready to start installing roof insulation – a tapered insulation system that would span between 1.5 and 5 inches. We used different thickness ISO insulation board, starting with 1″ at the bottom, and going up / leveling it off with tapered and straight insulation. All insulation was attached with heavy duty, corrosion resistant screws and plates. At the highest point the R-value of the insulation would be 30-R (6-r value per 1 inch of insulation). Additionally, there are approximately 12 inches of sprayed foam insulation between the rafters, which makes the roof of this solar home, super insulated and eliminates the weakest point in the house, and when it comes to heat loss, as most heat escapes through the roof.

Installing IB Roofing Membrane: Due to weather conditions, we had to start work late, and it was apparent that we would not finish the whole roof in one day – even with the help of about 6 architecture students from BAC, and Tom Paisley – a green builder from Middleboro, MA, who introduced me to people from Team Boston.

We were able to finish one section of the roof completely, including all the parapet wall flashing and inside corner detail, installed a temporary roof drain, as well as welded all the seams. Since the plumbing for the IB U-flow drains was not in place yet, we installed IB membrane drain liner, and fitted it into a temporary PVC pipe. On the second section of the roof, we only had time to lay down the field sheets of membrane and a drain liner, and left the parapet wall flashing and corners for next day.

IB Flat Roof Installation – Day 2

As we arrived to the job site the next morning, the sun was beaming down on us, and the temperature was nearing 95 degrees – there was not even a sign of rain from previous days.  I was so happy that the roofs we install are white and barely gain any heat form the sun – otherwise it would be near impossible to work in these weather conditions. Nevertheless, I went through at least a gallon of water that day.

Architecture students and volunteers were laying down the insulation as I jumped onto the roof, and started planning out the membrane layout, to minimize waste. Since IB Roof comes in 6 feet wide rolls, and the width of the roof sections was about 9-10 feet, there would be 2-3 feet of material I had to cut off. We would cut it in half, and use it for parapet wall flashing.

Once all insulation was in place, we could finish installing the IB Roofing membrane and welding all the seams to make the roof completely watertight. In total we had to flash 12 inside corners (and later, as we were doing the overflow drains, we had to install 6 outside corner flashings), 3 through-roof IB U-flow drains and 4 through roof penetrations: 1 for the bathroom vent and 3 others for Solar PV and Solar Hot Water hook-ups.

All seams were welded with the Swiss made Liester hot-air welding equipment which is a de facto standard in the thermoplastic roofing world. For long seams we used the Liester Triac Drive – an ultra portable semi-automatic welder which can make a life of a roofer much easier. When we need to weld a small section of a seam, the hand welders are perfect. But when it comes to longer seams, doing it by hand become, if not problematic, then very painful - literally. Hand welding can put a lot of stress on your wrists and that is why we invested heavily into automatic welding equipment.

Solar Home Roof installation video: Welding IB roof seams

One major obstacle we still had to solve was the the fact that Solar Home is built to be transportable in 3 sections. The IB roof membrane would have to be cut along the inside parapet walls, to take the house apart, and when the house is put together, it would have to be watertight, and preferably without having a roofer and hot air welding equipment on site. Although the parapet walls would be copped with aluminum parapet caps, it would not be a sufficient way to keep the house watertight and leaks free – maybe just for a short period. But the team could not afford to have roof leaks in the middle of Solar Decathlon competition or after. We had to figure out a way for the roof to be watertight not once, but every time the house is transported and put in place, without additional welding. This we took care of later, once the Solar PV and Hot Water panels rack system was installed.

We finished day two of roof installation as it was getting dark, and most architecture students had already left the job-site. Now we had to wait until the solar panels were ready to be installed.

IB Roof with Solar PV and Solar Hot Water panels – Day 3

Once the IB roof was installed and Boston Solar Home was watertight, we took a little break and concentrated on our everyday roof installation. In this time, the Team Boston was hard at work on the interior of the house as well as getting ready for the final stage of the roof installation – Solar PV and Solar Hot Water installation, which would use a Steel / Aluminum Racking systems bolted to the parapet walls.

By the time we got to the job site on the 3rd day of roof installation, the mounting racks were already in place and some Solar PV panels were also installed. We had to work around them and in some cases actually move the racking system and Solar Panels, so we could get into tight spaces.

We had to install all three IB u-flow drains (which due to their size did not fit between the solar racking system), pipe penetration flashings for exhaust pipe and solar electrical and plumbing hook-ups. We also had to install the over-flow drain scuppers and as I discussed before, we had to figure out a way for the house to be watertight after it was transported to Washington, DC fro the Solar Decathlon and to its future owners, preferably without roofer involvement.

We decided to weld a wide strip of IB membrane over parapet walls – one side would be welded while the other would remain not welded, but flipped over to the other section. This way the cut between house sections would always be watertight and with the addition of parapet caps, the wind driven water would never penetrate the roof. W also had to figure out how the “T” join of 3 house sections would work, and the overlapping joint covers were installed, each welded to its own section of the house.

As we finished installing all roof flashings, the house was all watertight and almost ready for the transportation to the Solar Village in Washington DC, for 2009 Solar Decathlon. There was still a lot of work to be done, like all the heating, interior, and other construction work, but our part was over. I did plan to volunteer some of my time to help team Boston with building this beautiful home, but as the busiest time of the roofing season rolled on, I could harly find time for my full time job. I did not see the Boston Solar Home until I actually went to DC for the Solar Decathlon, during the Columbus Day weekend.

Quick highlights of the Boston Solar Home:

• Size – approximately 800 sq. ft. Competition regulations limit solar home size to 800 sq. ft. and most contenders, except one, built their homes to maximum allotted size.
• Solar PV system size: 6.4 KW DC, with individual mini inverters to maximize electric output, and minimize shading losses.
• Wall insulation: 2 inches (13-r)  of ISO board with aluminum foil (more insulating value than regular ISO board) and 8 inches of in-wall insulation.
• Trombe wall – a liquid-filled solar thermal mass windows, that collect and store solar heat during the day and heat the house at night.
• Solar Hot Water – 5 hot water panels that provide heating and hot water for the house.

Because of size limitations, each team had to use the most efficient solar panels available on the market (not development products). This posed additional obstacles for the designers and builders, and forced the use of rack-mounting system to house solar panels. If the house was not limited to certain size, the use of IB Solar Wise PV system – the building integrated solar PV modules built by Uni-Solar, would greatly reduce the final cost of solar system and simplify the installation. IB SolarWise eliminates the need to use a rack mounting system as it is a thin-film solar system adhered to IB patented membrane – Solar Shield – which distributed the heat gain of solar panels and prevents delamination,  which is often the case when UniSolar panels are installed over rubber roofs of TPO single ply roofing systems.

Getting IB Roof and IB Solar PV systems installed in MA, CT and RI:

If you are interested in having IB PVC roofing membrane or IB SolarWise PV system installed on your home or business, feel free to fill out our online roofing estimate form to get free price quote. You can also use our interactive roofing price calculator to estimate the cost of your roof replacement and compare IB roof prices to those of EPDM Rubber, Modified Bitumen and Tar+Gravel roofs. We recently updated our calculator to account for smaller sized roofs, and to also include options for chimney or skylight flashing, parapet wall flashing and other roof penetrations.

You can check out the roofs that we have installed all over New England by looking at job profiles, which we regularly post for each state:

Flat roofs in Massachusetts

Flat roofs in Connecticut

Job profiles for RI and NH will be posted soon.