Historically, commercial skylights have gotten a bad rap. "The old joke was: 'if it's not leaking now, it will be soon,'" says Brian Grohe, a 13-year vet of the skylight industry and a commercial sales manager at industry leader VELUX. Fortunately, technology has changed that old tune for the better, turning commercial skylights into a golden opportunity for roofing contractors.

Every roof is different, and that's especially true when comparing commercial vs residential roofing, also known as low-slope vs steep-slope roofing. Many roofing contractors start out installing residential roofs because they have a low cost of entry. The process requires minimal specialized equipment—most roofers are able to start out with a truck, a ladder, a nail gun, a compressor, and safety gear.

Up to 25% of the United States experiences large hail episodes—and when they do, hail can cause severe damage to roofs and the HVAC equipment stored there. Hailstorms account for 70% of the average annual property losses from severe convective storms in the US. Building owners can protect their buildings and equipment by designing their buildings and roofs to withstand the damage caused by large hailstones.

With any roofing project, there are a number of factors to consider when choosing the right design: sustainability profile, potential risks, overall performance, and more. Our Building and Roofing Science (BRS) team specializes in working with industry professionals to help them enhance their roof designs across all of these areas. Leveraging their building enclosure expertise, our BRS team serves as thought leaders and collaborators, helping design professionals deliver better solutions for their customers.

Much of the damage that happens to roofs during high-wind events starts at the perimeters and corners. This means that the edge metal system at the roof-to-wall interface is critical to a roof's success during wind events. The roofing industry is well aware of this phenomena; investigating roof damage after high winds has been taking place for decades. This issue is so important to the roofing industry that an organization was formed to investigate, learn, and provide insights and recommendations to the industry so we can improve the edge metal installed at roof-to-wall interfaces. This organization, RICOWI–the Roofing Industry Committee on Weather Issues–was formed in 1990 specifically to "identify and address important technical issues related to the cause of wind damage." Much has been learned from these investigations and full credit goes to RICOWI for spearheading this effort! This photo from RICOWI's investigation of Hurricane Micheal shows the importance of the roof-to-wall interface.

Getting multiple professionals involved in a commercial roofing project offers a way to capture different perspectives—and to shine a light on some of the industry's hidden complexities—especially when it comes to challenging details like parapet walls.