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Monthly Newsletter - Charlie Smith, President
New Production Manager
I have hired a new production manager, his name is Mark Montgomery. Mark has extensive manufacturing experience working at places like Goodyear and has spent the last few years working for a consulting group that sent him all over the country to help manufacturing companies improve their throughput. He will be working with Gary Todd through the end of December to get his feet on the ground. My goal is to continue improving our process to provide better lead times and quality products for you.
After the first of the year, Gary will go back into inside sales and Audreann will be working Warranties full time.
Equipment for Sale
For those looking to spend a little money at the end of the year, I have 2 things that may be of interest.
- I have an extra 48” wide X 16 ga capacity cut to Length line that can be used to cut flat sheets from coil. It comes with a 10,000 lbs capacity, manual expansion, insert-type hydraulic drive un-coiler. $12,000
- I also have a Roll former to run a Permaseam, 1 ¾” tall Snap together panel it is adjustable from 12 to 24” wide. $30,000.00
Warranted Jobs
As I stated in my last couple of emails, we are getting a lot more serious about warranted jobs. With all of the IBC Codes and additional responsibility being placed on us, we have no choice but to eliminate some of the leeway we have allowed in the past. ABC will have to do or approve shop drawings and review plans and specs on every job with a Weather Tightness Warranty going forward. Since there are several different options for WTW being requested, we need to know what the end user is expecting up front. Most jobs will require some kind of engineering, a wind load analysis and a clip spacing diagram.
ABC will supply the following items on warranted jobs. Clip fasteners, bearing plates (if needed), trim fasteners, structural fasteners, tape seal, tube sealants, 14 ga. slotted Rake angle for gable and sidewall conditions, 16 gauge back up plates if needed at ridge/hip, sidewall, gable, eave, valley and around curbs, valley trim that is longer than your brake and Zee closures for our 200 panel.
We just got our die in to make individual closures for 200 panels. We can make them for ridge or hip conditions and for left or right handed installation. They are pre punched for fasteners and have tabs you fold back on the sides. They are notched on one side to fit under a single lock and extend over the top of the adjoining seam on the other side to increase water tightness and make it easier to get the ridge cap on. You bend the tabs back, put some double bead tape seal down one side, across the bottom and up the other side and drop it in place. Should be easy to install, fit nice and tight and provide a more consistent, water tight ridge, hip or headwall installation.
You will start the double lock just below the closure.
This was the first sample and it is about 20” long so the fastener holes are not correct.
Valley Trim
We have seen the following valley problems recently:
- The size of the valley not adequate for the roof area
- Not enough consideration taken for roof slope
- The size and angle of the vee in the valley allows water to shoot up under the opposite side
- Valley made with integral cleats on long runs made it difficult to lap and keep it water tight
Part of these problems are 100% our fault for putting standard parts into shop drawings without taking all factors into account. Part is from poor installation and part is not reviewing installation details submitted by the contractor prior to installation.
This valley had a number of problems aside from not being installed as well as it should have. It was on our drawings as a standard part with integral cleats a couple of years ago. Just not a good idea when the consequences of a problem are roof replacement because it is a 2” double lock panel on an open frame. There was a plate under it, but that did not keep it from leaking into the building.
We ended up retrofitting a new roof into the valley using Retro-Zees and making a new 2” deep valley in our 32’ brake in 3 pieces instead of 8. . It worked great, but it was an expensive lesson. Ray did a great job of getting this taken care of.
Valleys are one of the more difficult areas to get correct and this is how we propose to deal with these issues going forward.
First, on jobs with warranties, we reserve the right to make the valley trim in our 32’ brake. We can all agree that a valley with out laps is more watertight and probably easier to install than one with laps at 10’. I would even bet that it is cheaper.
This is our design for roofs 2/12 and over. We borrowed this idea from R. B. Atkins in Birmingham.
The left valley is a 24” stretch out with integral cleats and a 1” tall 90 degree vee in the middle. It is the typical valley we see out there being fabricated by most roofers. This valley is very difficult to make water tight at a lap. The panel hooks 5” from the vee. It is ok for short runs where there are no laps. We can make this 32’ 6” long in one piece and is acceptable in to us in one piece on a warranted job as long as it is on a good slope and the roof area draining into the valley is not too big.
The valley on the right is the one we prefer on larger roof areas with slopes down to 2/12. It has a 1 ½” tall vee broken at 70 instead of 90 degrees out of a minimum 24” stretch out. It has an offset cleat that fits into the open hem that allows the panel to hook into the valley about 3” down and allows for a greater unobstructed flow on each side of the valley. The valley is attached to the roof with individual or continuous clips. We will be roll forming the cleat soon.
Below 2/12 we want to look at lowering the valley below the roof plane. This can be done on open frame jobs by using an offset clip to raise the panel and on metal deck with iso jobs by reducing the amount of insulation in the valley. On retrofits, it is pretty easy to do with the framing. This is the best insurance to keep water out of the building on low slope valleys. If it is not possible to lower the valley, then fastening the end of the panels in tape seal to the valley and floating the panels at the ridge is another option. A lot of this has to do with the area of the roof being drained.
The last situation I want to talk about with Valleys is the valley between two different slopes. These are the most troublesome to me.
Here is one on my house a 9/12 going to a 2 /12. I don’t get that warm fuzzy feeling looking at this. It hasn’t leaked, most likely because there is not much water flowing off of the steep roof. I have seen plenty of jobs where there is a lot of water coming off both roof planes.
If I did it again, I would make the valley like this: I believe this is a much better valley design for this type of application. It provides a vertical wall between the two valley planes; this should prevent water from jumping across. Also the flood plane on the lower slope side is larger than the steep slope. The lower slope is normally drains quite a bit larger roof areas than the higher slope.
Here is another situation. This was a total leaker in San Antonio. Not our panels, but Cramm Roofing got to re-roof this.
This is what we came up with on a job installed by A.D. Willis in Austin. The center diamond was raised with 3” of ISO and the valley trim had a Vee and was 3” taller on the low slope side. The valley was 22 ga. Stainless made on our 32’ brake.
Another shot of the end. All welded in place. Very nice work. This is where all the water shoots out of a spout into a big hole in the ground. I am sure this is dynamic to watch.
Hole in the ground.
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