What are the Major Mistakes In Selecting the Right Roofing Material, Selecting the right roofing material is an Art? The Roofing material plays a prominent role in the roof of the structure, and the Roof plays a very significant role in our lives. Before understanding our mistakes in selecting the right roofing material, let us know what a roof is, why it is important, and what role it plays in our daily lives and in our health.
The roof is the topmost or uppermost segment of a building. The major role roofs play is to protect our loved (living and non-living things) ones from rain, hail, wind, snow, extremes of temperature, and sunlight.
In selecting the right roofing material not only the structure (foundation) of the building is important but the climatic condition is also very important, and also we should be clear about what functions of the roof we are expecting or Looking for.
Following are some of the common roofing materials available in the market, and each of its functions (or benefits) differ.
- Metal roofing sheets
- PUF PANELS or PUF SHEETS
- Polycarbonate sheets
- Lightweight Onduline sheets.
- UPVC Roofing sheets
- Shingles
- Asbestos sheets ( cement sheets)
- FRP sheets
FIVE MAJOR MISTAKES IN SELECTING THE RIGHT ROOFING MATERIAL:
- WRONG SELECTION OF MATERIAL (UN clear about the material): The majority of the customers pick the contact numbers of roofing sheet dealers from just dial and India mart and call the roofing sheet dealers and ask them only rates. How much? E.g. A customer calls XYZ dealer and tells him I want to cover a 400 sqft area what will be the price? And the dealer whatever he sells that product only comes to his mind and he gives that rates. And the customer without seeing the product, quality, thickness, and make (Brand) just goes behind searching for the rates and he collects five to ten dealers’ prices and goes behind the lowest quoted price and feels proud that he has done the research and purchased the best product at the best price.
- DO NOT DESCRIBE THE PURPOSE: 90% of the customers don’t understand or explain why they require this material ( which they are purchasing) just go behind the budget (prices) without going behind the product they require, and later curse themselves and replace at the short interval.
Broadly a roof serves four major purposes:
- Just covers the roof area.
- Covers the area with a skylight.
- Covers the area with heat and sound insulation
- Covers the area with an aesthetic look.
Now if the buyer or customer does not explain what he is looking, for or what he wants, the seller or the dealer pushes or sells what he has and naturally, it is not the dealer’s mistake.
- ATMOSPHERIC CONDITION: Most of the time the customer does not mention the place of requirement and ends up in the wrong dimension or bad dimension. For example, the customer purchases a material in Bangalore for the Karnataka -Hyderabad region (as the customer is working in Bangalore) the dealer assuming it may be required in Bangalore suggest as per the Bangalore climatic condition the product or the thickness of the product e.g. The customer requires PUF PANELS, usually 30mm thickness is sufficient for Bangalore, whereas for Raichur, Gulbarga, Bidar region it usually requires 50mm. The thickness of PUF panels is because the temperature is totally different. In the same way in some regions, the roofing sheets get rust (corrosion) in a short span, due to climatic conditions and their corrosion-free material suits.
- UN-PROFESSIONAL (inexperienced labor): Roofing work is not a regular work (requirement) so the majority of the customer does not have sufficient knowledge about installation and structure material. What we pay we get that type of labor and work. We assume it is just doing welding or fabrication and later fixing the sheets with fasteners for this why should we pay more, anybody can do it. Nothing rocket science is there. The customer forgets that proper overlapping of the sheets, the right place for fasteners, and using proper accessories for joints for protection, and using the right size of fasteners with the correct top, using the right silicon are very important.
- INCORRECT ADJUSTMENTS (Calculations): This is one of the biggest mistakes we commit.
- Let us understand this with a practical example.
Width of the structure-27 feet
Length of the structure-30 feet.
Rate –Rs.40 per sqft.
Requirement -27/ 3.28= 8.23 or 9 sheets
Cost for 9 sheets- 9 x 3.5 x 30 x 40= 37800
Cost for 8 sheets- 8 x 3.5 x 30 x 40=33600
Difference- Rs.4200 between eight sheets and nine sheets. Now the customer thinks if I purchase 9 sheets after covering the area some of the material is left and it is waste that costs me Rs.4200, so to save Rs. 4200 the customer choose to go for 8 sheets and directs the fabricator or contractor to adjust with eight sheets and he adjusts without adequate overlapping (wherever half feet overlapping is required to adjust gives an overlapping of quarter feet) and where we have to have, roof extension outside the wall to prevent damaging the wall due to rains or flow of water, which becomes a disaster after some time. Then the customer once again has to spend two or three times the amount saved to get repaired.
So the customer has to decide wisely which option is the best and what he has to do.
CONCLUSION:
We have discussed the small mistakes which cause a lot of inconvenience and peace of mind.
AUTHOR:
FAYAZ UDDIN-Founder- Roofing Insights
Web Designer- Digital Marketer- Content Writer- and Guest Blogger @ IIM SKILLS.
Sales & Marketing Professional with 25+ experience in different fields.