A quality assurance offi cer’s responsibilities include substantial completion inspections and fi nal inspections to ensure metal buildings are installed as per the design and engineering documents, manufacturer’s requirements, building code requirements, owner’s insurance requirements, as well as in accordance with sound and accepted roofi ng practices. (Photo courtesy of The Garland Co. Inc.)
A contractor’s quality process
Metal Construction News asked a roofi ng con- tractor to describe in his own words how he ensures quality. Attention to detail is critical. If you don’t
pay attention, you are going to be going back to make repairs and try to make it up to an unhappy client. A lot of people feel that they have time to go back and fi x their work, but they don’t have time to do right the fi rst time. Quality is pretty important start to fi nish. Metal is not always forgiving. If you don’t have every move planned ahead like a chess game, you’re going to mess it up. You’ve got to have plans. Without quality, problems can include leak-
ing and metal panels blowing off the roof. If panels are put together too tightly, they’ll buckle or oil can and then eventually just fail. If they are moving around too much, the cleats will actually loosen up and then loosen nails in the
substrate. It could even loosen screws. Metal has a lot of movement to it. You go in a building one day with an exposed fastener roof, sit back and read a book, and you are going to hear things like pops and twangs and sounds you’ve never heard in your life, especially once the sun hits it. It doesn’t matter how much insulation is in there. With exposed fasteners, there’s nowhere for that metal to move. One error is exposed caulk. If you have a
lap joint where the metal just laps over and the joint is caulked, you’ve created a spot where in six weeks the caulk will just separate from one panel to another. The water is just going to wick up there as if you were hosing it. Never have your caulk exposed. Personally, I crawl onto every penetration and
wall. I watch what others are doing and see if it goes with my plans or not. If not, or if it is being
done wrong, or if they don’t have a clue, I will at- tempt to teach that in a class. If you are paying attention to installation, you
don’t need much instrumentation. I carry with me a 1-inch extension mirror, so I can look at standing seams. With a single-lock panel, when the seam is folded over, it looks like a “T.” I use a mirror along those seams and if the metal isn’t refl ective enough, I look at the bottom side. Stop the water from getting in there in the fi rst place. Water will run 2 to 3 feet uphill when two metal panels are tied together. You can stop that by putting beads of caulk down, across the panel, inside the lap. By doing so, you can stop the capillary action of the water and make the roof last longer. Overlapping panels that stay wet will rust out eventually.
Frank Albert, owner and operator, Albert’s Specialty Roofi ng, Richmond, Va.