Metal Roofing Consultant - Robert Stanford & Associates, Inc.

Figure 3: Open gap at standing seam rib at metal roofing panel and metal closure. Wind driven water and debris easily penetrate the hundreds of open closures on this project.

comply with code or wind uplift standards and requirements, they may have a basis for rejection of any and all claims related to damages or replacement of the roof, leaving the school district in a potentially serious financial position. An infinitely worse possibility is that during the "blow-off" there is an injury or even death to one or more of the school children. A roof, installed in a non-compliant manner as outlined above, then becomes a source of potential civil lawsuits for wrongful death against the school district.
    General contractors, architects, sub-contractors, suppliers, and school districts themselves may be forced into financial collapse and bankruptcy by "blow-offs"; or other metal roofing failures.
     Many of the installation details in use today were drawn by persons who have never installed any metal roofing. These ambiguous, incomplete, "failure" details (those which will not provide long-term water proofing) are routinely reviewed and approved by architects and general contractors who are often unfamiliar with metal roofing and therefore pass the contaminated details on through the approval process without realizing the intrinsic nature of their failure.
    The following photographs depict graphic examples of "failure" details on installations of metal roofing systems currently in place. As of the writing of this article, some of the projects depicted are not even completed, yet all work and installation methods, procedures, and details were approved by the architect, general contractor, and manufacturer of the metal roofing systems shown.

Third Party Metal Roofing Consultants Provide Review of Weathertightness Warranties:

The proliferation and issuance of so-called Weathertightness Warranties provided by manufacturers' is now in vogue in the metal roofing industry. Names such as "standard, silver, gold, platinum, single source, level I, II, or III" are all used in describing warranties offered by manufacturers'. While providing a profit center and revenue source to the manufacturers', many of the warranties provide little or no benefit to the owner. There are threads of commonality in almost all of the manufacturers' Weathertightness Warranties:

They require the participation of the installer/contractor for the first two years after completion, and extend the installer/contractors responsibility and liability for additional two year incremental periods if any roof leaks occur within any of the two year periods. (In essence, the 20-Year Weathertightness Warranty is the responsibility of the installer, not the manufacturer.)
They are limited to leak repair only and do not contain provisions for consequential damages caused by roof leaks or failures.
The warranties are prepared and drawn by the legal departments of the manufacturers', not the building owner or representative.
They limit warranty coverage to repairs for roof leaks or failures that relate to improper installation, and they make the installer/contractor liable and responsible to fix his own mistakes. (A logical extension is: Is the school paying warranty fees to the manufacturer so that the manufacturer can tell the installer/contractor to repair what they improperly installed during the original construction process?)
Many of the warranties are filled with caveats and restrictions imposed upon the school district or building owner. Such warranty language may include a substantial list of reasons or causations for the invalidation of the warranty, making compliance by the school virtually impossible.
The classic "Catch 22" is the automatic invalidation of warranties if the roof or components are improperly installed. The school district finds that they have a warranty that is invalid because the installer did not properly install the roof.


	LEFT: (Figure 4) A portion of the metal roofing panel has been cleaned to illustrate the severe intrusion of waterborne debris above the ridge cap and closure.