We were recently installing new units for a customer and the condition of the roof made me think about this post. Facility manager’s obviously have a lot of competing demands on their capital budget but an important thing to consider is that resurfacing your roof at the same time that you install new air conditioning units will save you a lot of headaches and unnecessary water leak calls. I can’t tell you how many times we have installed new equipment on roofs like this then come the first rain we get calls saying “Your new installation is leaking water”. Maybe….but the roof condition is horrible. So around we go with multiple visits by our employees and the roofing contractor’s employees. It’s a we say, they say situation that most of the time ends up being an issue with the roof. In the meantime the facility manager has paid for a number of visits to the site to find the source of the leak.
Now if you reroof at the same time as installing new HVAC there are a number of synergies the most important of which is that all the curbs, platforms and roof penetrations by the HVAC units can be resealed at the time of installation. It takes some more coordination and it may mean having your HVAC down for a few extra days but the upside is you will much more easily pinpoint the source of future water leaks and which contractor is responsible.
