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Page 24 — Property Management Quarterly — April 2017
Vendor Relations
W hether you’re a prop-
erty manager or property
owner, one universal truth
is clear: Your most valu-
able asset is the building
for which you are charged to care,
protect and generate returns. It goes
without saying then that as protec-
tor, it is your duty to identify and
mitigate the most vulnerable parts
of this asset.
Weatherproofing is a building’s most
structurally vulnerable component. It
must be watched over and monitored
because it protects the building, its
tenants and other assets fromMother
Nature. This includes wind, water and,
most damaging, the sun’s ultraviolet
rays.
Weatherproofing components are
the products that keep the exterior
forces out of the interior of the prop-
erty. These include the roof, which
often includes the thermal barrier,
windows, siding and caulking joints.
These components constantly are
exposed to damaging weather effects
and all share common causes of fail-
ure.
As challenging as this sounds, there
is a way to help protect the building
from the torture of Mother Nature.
Routine inspections and preventative
repairs can increase the life expec-
tancy of the waterproofing materials
by as much as 10 years. Most building
owners and managers have a service
agreement with mechanical con-
tractors, plumbing contractors, pest
control companies and many others;
however, many fail to have a similar
agreement for the waterproofing com-
ponents of the property. Extending the
life of these systems
by five to 10 years
can result in hun-
dreds of thousands
of dollars in savings
to the building own-
ers.
The best defense
against Mother
Nature is to protect
the weatherproof-
ing from exposure,
which can be
achieved by sacri-
ficial layers, proper
annual mainte-
nance and service to the existing
components.
Of all of the forces you contend with,
UV degradation is the most unforgiv-
ing and damaging. The sun’s relent-
less rays deteriorate all aspects of the
building’s exterior, beginning the day
the materials are installed.
Colorado’s Front Range has some of
the most severe of all the adversaries.
Sitting at 5,280 feet above sea level, the
UV rays are more severe than most
other parts of the country – not to
mention Colorado’s 300 days of sun-
light. Therefore, UV degradation occurs
at a much more rapid rate on a build-
ing’s weatherproofing.
Freeze-thaw damage due to mois-
ture infiltration into the weatherproof-
ing is another relentless stress on the
weatherproofing materials. During the
freeze-and-thaw process, the moisture
causes the materials to expand and
contract, creating stress and eventu-
ally failure.
Moisture infiltration often is referred
to as a “leak.”When the damage
becomes obvious on the interior of
the building, typically it is the result of
damage to the structure and its con-
tents.
Another tool in Mother Nature’s
arsenal is thermal shock. This is
caused when the materials contract
too quickly for the weatherproofing
materials to keep up. This creates gaps
in the structure that allow moisture to
seep into the waterproofing compo-
nents.
With the rapidly melting snow
during the day and the refreezing
at night, we see more freeze-thaw
than most parts of the U.S. Our most
unique force is the rapid temperature
changes that occur, most notable dur-
ing spring rains when the temperature
can drop 30 to 40 degrees in a matter
of minutes as the clouds come over
the mountains and bring freezing rain
with them. These rapid temperature
changes can have severe consequenc-
es, even causing parapet walls to be
pulled down and onto roofs.
While the challenges that are pre-
sented to you to keep your building
and tenants dry and happy seem
many, there are options and preven-
tion measures that can keep time
on your side and Mother Nature out.
Pursuing service agreements with a
skilled and knowledgeable weath-
erproofing professional is one more
relationship that will help keep your
building generating revenue for years
to come. s
Phil Owens
President,
Weathersure
Systems,
Englewood
Weathersure Systems
Weatherproofing components are the products that keep the exterior forces out of the
interior of the property and are a building’s most structurally vulnerable components.