METRO-SHAKE-II MEETS COMPLEX DEMANDS

Date: April 19th, 2005

Vojko Lapanja and John Lucy share little in common, other than each heading up his respective homeowners association. Lapanja’s represents homes nestled amid the pine-filled mountains of Incline Village, Nev., on the banks of Lake Tahoe. Lucy’s is for homes sitting in the low-lying west Florida coastal town of Punta Gorda Isles.

Both are charming villages of townhomes or condominiums, albeit of contrasting styles. And both share a common trait: They needed reroofing in the past year.

The processes that Lapanja and Lucy took to completing their jobs present an interesting picture of how HOAs can work effectively, even amid wildly differing circumstances. They also illustrate how one roofing manufacturer, Metro Roof Products, can satisfy an incredibly diverse set of demands.

Mountain Shadows is a complex of 248 two-story townhomes that featured wood-shake roofs. By 2002, they showed the effects of 17 hard years of wear in the mountain air. The region is difficult on roofs because of a constant freeze-thaw cycle throughout the winter and spring. At 6,700 feet, Mountain Shadows can receive thick snow one day and warm sun the next. Temperatures can range in one day from an icy 17 degrees to 65 and shirtsleeves.

The Mountain Shadows HOA board hoped to find a roof system that would hold up better to the elements than the wood-shake. Its members didn’t want to have to reroof again within 15-17 years. Since figuring out the right system might not be an easy, or quick, task, they allotted up to two years to get the job done.

Their first task was the most important: Form a roofing committee populated with many types of expertise. Among their homeowners, they included an expert in materials science, a retired professional engineer with experience in the roofing industry, a man with experience in contracts and warranties, and a project manager to keep things moving forward.

“No one person had the answer, so we had to do a lot of discovery,” said Sarah Horton, who became the committee’s spokeswoman.

The result was 18 months of research. The committee met monthly. It convened between formal meetings by phone, fax and email when residents were away. And during the process, the committee sent letters to 13 roofing manufacturers, requesting their best information. The committee compiled a list of about 15 local roofing contractors based on recommendations.

During their research, committee members uncovered a dizzying array of requirements for their roofing. The board wanted the new roofs to:

• Withstand extreme weather changes: The freeze-thaw cycle is brutally tough on roof materials.
• Be fire safe: Tall pines loom throughout the complex of 44 buildings, while the surrounding region is heavily forested.
• Be water-tight: The units have numerous skylights and protrusions. Flashing must guard against the strain of a heavy
  snow pack—up to 6 feet at times.
• Hold heavy snow packs but be lightweight: The structures can’t withstand a heavyweight roofing system in addition to all of the snow weight.
• Prevent ice sliding: If snow and ice loosens too quickly, it plunges dangerously onto outdoor decks that extend beyond the roof lines.
• Maintain aesthetic appeal: Homeowners like the natural, woodsy look of the townhomes to complement their surroundings.
• Reduce long-term maintenance: No more re-roofing every 10 to 20 years, nor replacing and repairing worn out shingles or tiles annually.
• Fit with custom-built eaves: Extended beams need to be cut back to reduce wear from moisture.
• Cost $5,000 or less per unit: For two years, the association billed homeowners a roof assessment to collect the necessary funds.

Could one type of roof system meet all of these demands? “There’s got to be something,” said a committee member during one meeting. “We go to the moon, for heaven’s sake.”

After exhaustively exploring the pluses and minuses of various roof materials and systems, the committee was drawn toward steel. It seemed to be the best option. But which type of steel—the painted standing seam style or stone-coated architectural style?

“We ruled out the standing-seam steel because even though it does well up here in weather and sheds snow, it sheds snow so fast that all of our patio decks underneath would be stacked with snow,” Horton said. “We needed it to hold snow and melt at a different rate.”

That led the committee to stone-coated steel and the shake design. The committee invited eight manufacturers and eight contractors to compete through two days of walk-throughs in the complex. Committee members discussed their impressions and met again to assess the prospects. It was time to take a vote among board members who went into the process all with different preferences.

“Because of their presentation, our discovery and price, there was one decision: Metro Roof Products (manufacturer) and Florentino Services (contractor),” Horton said. The committee chose the MetroShake-II roof system.

From there, committee members met with Metro rep Jon Wilson and contractor Florentino Covarrubias numerous times, checking references and qualifications. They did a background check on legal issues to determine whether the roofing companies had clean track records. Both did. Construction began in May 2004 and was completed in October 2004.

Two keys to the success of the committee, besides its diligent research, were communication and cooperation, according to Lapanja, the association manager.

“They got along,” Lapanja said, noting the challenges in bringing a number of keen minds together.

Further, the roofing committee kept the HOA board apprised throughout the process. Committee members provided facts and figures at regular HOA board meetings, plus shared updates with Lapanja. “I was totally up to speed,” he said.

When the committee made its final recommendation, the board easily voted to accept it, even though the concept of metal roofing was foreign to many of them.

“I was very hesitant, until I actually saw the product, then all of my fears were eliminated,” Lapanja said.

Metro Roof Products help make the decision easier, too, by working closely with the contractor.

“Metro will come out as many times as necessary, just to talk with the customer,” Covarrubias said. “That’s something that other suppliers do not do.”

Unlike Lapanja and Mountain Shadows, Lucy had little time to prepare. Four hurricanes in the summer and early fall of 2004 ripped apart numerous concrete tile roofs in the 70-unit Spinnaker Point condominum complex in Punta Gorda Isles, Fla. As the HOA president, Lucy was forced into reroofing as soon as possible.

“We lost 59 windows, all from our own tiles blowing around,” Lucy said. “We lost 19 automobiles, all from our own tiles. We have steel doors with huge gashes. We have concrete tiles stuck in drywall 10 feet inside of rooms. We knew we didn’t want this again.”

Yet a local ordinance required tile roofs for aesthetic reasons. Lucy and other homeowners in the area argued against it and, with the help of local contractors Frank Hogan and Brent Woody of West Coast Metal Roofing, the ordinance was relaxed to allow more wind-resistant roof systems.

With that hurdle out of the way, Lucy and another board member began to research their options. They attended local building seminars and searched the Internet. The more they heard and read about stone-coated steel, the more they liked it. “I had met with them after a home show,” Hogan said, “and they told us no roofing with a granular surface was allowed. But after Hurricane Charley blew, the city manager there took off some of those restrictions.”

Not all of the seven board members were available to meet regularly on site, as the hurricanes displaced some residents, and others live elsewhere in the summer and fall. Nonetheless, Lucy convened meetings with up to four members, patching the others in by phone and/or email to share their findings.

They needed to move quickly because homes were exposed. Board members invited contractors, including Hogan and Woody, to make a presentation to the HOA board. Board members were impressed with Hogan and Woody and the Metro Roof Products available.

“They didn’t try to sell us a roof,” Lucy said. “They told us what their standards were for a roof to survive here. They were not going to mess with those standards even if we were willing to.”

Metro’s roofs are tested and warranted to withstand winds of up to 120 mph. During the 2004 hurricanes, some Metro roofs stayed intact amid winds of 140-170 mph. They are made of lightweight roll-formed steel panels that, even if they break loose, would not pose the danger of flying shards of tile.

Convinced that the stone-coated steel was the safest roof, Spinnaker Point board members had to be sold that it would look good, too. Their image of metal roofs were uncoated corrugated tin on rusty shacks in backwater Mississippi. That was until they saw a steel roof first-hand on a nearby home.

“Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful,” Lucy said.

The board chose a Pearl White MetroTile-II roof. Residents needed to approve the selection, so the board sent ballots via email to all 70 homeowners. Lucy wasn’t sure they would go for a metal roof, but 86 percent did..Hogan estimated it would take 7-10 days per building to complete the job. Instead, his crews finished in 4-5 days, with Hogan keeping a close eye on every detail. “Each building has 22,000 screws,” Lucy said, “and I guarantee you that Frank watched every one go in.

“I think it looks better than what we had before and I have yet to find someone who doesn’t agree with me. Everyone came down and saw it for the first time and said, ‘I never thought it would look that good.’ Not one has said we shouldn’t have done a metal roof.

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