Seeing Red (in a good way): How roof assessment saved a client $600K

Building ownership and commercial development is an entrepreneurial venture. Whether you are looking to manage the building over the long term or sell in the short term, you need to know you will see a return on your investment.

For building owners of industrial properties, there are added risks that come with revolving tenants who have very different needs of their leased space. With each new tenant, HVAC, plumbing and electrical work is often required. For your roof, that means one more hole in its system. Every alteration can potentially void both manufacturer and workmanship warranties.

That’s what happened to one of our clients who had purchased an industrial property with the intention to sell within a few years. The roof on the property was at only half its lifespan, but already there were leaks. One look at it explained it why: it had over 57 redundancies. As our estimator phrased it after a site visit, “It looks like swiss cheese.”

The owners believed the building would require a full re-roof, estimated at approximately $1M. However, after an onsite inspection and building scan via drone, we were able to see that the damage was not as severe as it appeared. The red in the scan showed that water penetration was limited.

We offered our client an alternative solution that cost 1/3 of what they initially believed and one that led them through their ownership plan to see a far better return on their asset investment.