Hit the Roof!

Have you checked your roof lately? You should. What’s going on up there is directly tied to the health and well-being of your property.

Roofs contain important assets like HVAC units, exhaust fans, energy recovery units, and ventilators – all components that move air inside your building. Additionally, roofs also contain roof drains, and condensate drain lines and natural gas piping, both of which sit atop units for heating. Because these assets are located outside your building, all are exposed to wind, dust, and other outdoor elements that will create corrosion or damage over time.

Examples of these include:

Being out of sight creates the danger of being out of mind. Don’t let your roof turn into a wasteland of neglected assets – after all, these are tools that are lifelines to the health and safety, and comfort, of your building! That’s why it’s critical to have professional eyes on your roof to assess their condition and offer solutions.

Paying attention to your roof inventory is important because it:

Protects air quality. Most assets on your roof are connected to air circulation. Outdated or poorly functioning equipment may harm the air you, your employees, your residents and their customers breathe, which not only puts them at risk, but it may create liabilities down the road.

Avoids risk. You don’t want your air conditioning to fail in the summer and you don’t want the heat to shut down in the winter. Both can happen if you don’t have full visibility into the health and condition of your assets, which can put you ahead of that crisis moment by repairing or replacement before disaster strikes.  

Saves long-term costs. Replacing an asset is costly. By having a clear understanding of the age and condition of your assets you can budget for repairs opposed to reactively paying premium prices for emergency repairs.

Helps negotiate leases. Information about the state of your assets can be used the next time you negotiate your lease with your landlord. For example, if you have data that tells you your rooftop HVAC needs replacement within six months, you can negotiate money to cover that added expense.  

What You Can Do

Inventory all the assets on your roof by collecting important information such as age, manufacturer, model, serial number, condition, and more. These are all key data points that we will use to build an inventory program. Just this one simple action will give you immediate clarity into what’s running your building from up above, and the state of their condition.  

Create an annual replacement list showing all the assets that require immediate replacement over the next 12 months. You have time to gain approvals because this is typically performed prior to the following year’s budget planning season.  and order new units for arrival by the new year. The important thing to remember is that knowing what you have on the roof puts you on the path to mitigating risk.

Contact Lessen

Schedule a site visit with Lessen to establish an important baseline so you know what’s on your roof, the condition of those roof assets, and next steps to take. Contact us at weknowfm@lessen.com or lessen.com.