How Roof Asset Management Can Save You Hundreds of Thousands

Have you ever been blindsided by the sudden need for a costly and unexpected repair? Suddenly found your budget was slashed and didn't have the funds you expected for upkeep? If you're a building owner or property manager, you know all too well the challenges of managing your asset, whether it's a single building or a portfolio of them. 

With over 20 years of industry expertise and a specific focus on roof asset management, GIDEON understands how both to predict future roofing expenses and reduce them, so you can budget effectively and save hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars. 

In this article, we'll explain what roof asset management is, how it's done, and how it can help you predict expenses long before they occur while reducing them significantly. We'll also discuss how GIDEON's approach to roof asset management sets us apart. By the end, you'll understand how roof asset management can transform roofing maintenance from a headache into one of the most efficient parts of your business.

What Is Roof Asset Management?

Not enough roofing companies offer a proactive maintenance plan. Most simply react to roofing damage when it arises. The unfortunate consequence is that roof damage or malfunctions are missed and grow into unforeseen problems involving large, unexpected capital expenditures that owners or managers must scramble to deal with. Another consequence of this more reactive approach is that cost-saving roofing options are missed, leading to far larger expenses than are necessary. 

This is where Roof Asset Management from a professional roofing company can help.

Roof Asset Management (RAM) is a proactive and systematic approach to overseeing and maintaining the roofs of the buildings you own or manage, whether you have a single building or a large portfolio of properties.

A comprehensive roof asset management plan starts with a clear understanding of the current state of each of your roofs. It involves thorough inspections to assess the condition of the roofs, determining where you stand from a maintenance and repair standpoint, and identifying the immediate work that may need to be done. After this, a regular schedule of inspections is established, and a 5, 10, or 20-year plan (depending on the current roof age) for maintenance and restoration (or replacement) is set up. Detailed documentation is kept on all inspections, repairs, and maintenance, and this data can be used not only for historical purposes but also to forecast future expenditures and implement cost-saving measures across your portfolio.

Benefits of a Roof Asset Management Plan

Better Financial Planning

A roof asset management plan gives you a clear, long-range picture of your roofing needs. You will know when each roof will likely need repairs or replacement and can budget accordingly. This allows you to allocate resources effectively and dramatically reduce the risk of unforeseen expenses.

Cost Savings

One of the greatest advantages of RAM is cost savings. On average, every dollar spent on regular inspections and maintenance will return about $5 over the roof's life. This saving comes from reduced repair costs, extended roof lifespan, and reduced heating and cooling costs.

To illustrate how beneficial a RAM can be, let's take a hypothetical example. Let's say you have a five-story office building with a roof area of 20,000 square feet. You have two options for managing this roof: a proactive approach involving a roof asset management plan, or a reactive approach, addressing problems as they come up.

Comparison: RAM vs. Reactive Maintenance

Proactive Approach with Roof Asset Management

Let's take the example of an older roof, with about 5 years left on it's current warranty. With RAM, a roofing company would first inspect the roof, which costs, on average, about 5 cents per square foot, totaling $1,000. Let's say they identify minor repairs during the initial inspection, costing around $2,000. Then, the bi-annual inspection costs another $2,000 per year ($1000 per inspection). Over five years, inspections would total $10,000.

Next, let's say the roof needs a restoration (using roof coatings) after five years, and this costs around $8.50 per square foot, which is $170,000. This restoration would significantly extend the roof's lifespan, avoiding a complete replacement and giving the roof a brand-new 15-year warranty.

So, over a five-year period, you would spend approximately $182,000.

Reactive Approach without Roof Asset Management

In the reactive approach, problems are not addressed until they have become noticeable. Let's say some minor damage, which could have been addressed in an earlier initial inspection for $2,000, was not discovered and gradually deteriorated the roof, growing into a major leak. Now, the repair costs have escalated to $30,000.

Over the next 5 years, no inspections are done, and multiple areas of the roof begin to deteriorate until the roof cannot be saved and a complete replacement is needed. A complete replacement could cost around $12-$18 per square foot. If we go with the conservative number, your total cost for the roof is $240,000.

In this scenario, you would spend $270,000 over five years.

With RAM, you've saved (conservatively) $88,000 in 5 years. Now multiply that over 5, 10, 20, or more buildings and over 5, 10, and 20-year periods, and you begin to see how the savings multiply.

How GIDEON Does Roof Asset Management

At GIDEON, we have a unique approach to RAM, focusing not only on long-term planning and maintenance but specifically on roof restoration over replacement. Restoration entails coating a well-maintained roof with a fluid-applied elastomeric or foam coating, which locks the underlying structure in time by eliminating its exposure to the elements. With this solution, your roof can last much longer than traditionally thought. Instead of assuming that the roof will degrade and be completely replaced every 15-20 years, we can keep your underlying roof in top shape almost indefinitely by performing regular inspections and maintenance and re-applying a maintenance elastomeric coating every 10-15 years.

Our RAM Process

Step 1: Understanding the Current Condition of Your Roof

The first step entails a thorough inspection of each building's roof. We'll identify any immediate repair needs and document the overall health of the roof, considering factors like the age of the roof, the quality of past repairs, any signs of water damage or leaks, and the integrity of the membrane. Based on the inspection, we'll then create a detailed plan outlining any immediate repairs needed, if any.

Step 2: Long-Term Planning and Budgeting

We'll then put together a comprehensive roof asset management plan that projects need over a 5, 10, or 20-year period. This includes a regular inspection & maintenance schedule, as well as when each roof will need restoration or replacement. With this detailed plan, you'll be able to effectively budget for roofing, knowing when you need to allocate funds for roofs and preventing any unexpected expenses from catching you off-guard.

Step 3: Customized Guidance & Support

Over time, if you're faced with specific challenges such as budget cuts, GIDEON will provide customized guidance to help you get the most effective solution within specific budgetary constraints.

The Upshot

At the end of the day, we all want to run our businesses more efficiently and eliminate unexpected headaches and losses. This is especially true if you're a building owner or property manager juggling different responsibilities while trying to minimize costs. Now that you've learned about how roof asset management can help you do this, it's time to take the proactive approach. Don't wait for a roofing crisis to unfold before taking action. Schedule a free 30-minute call with one of our roofing advisors to get customized guidance on your roofing needs.