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Key Takeaways

  • Commercial storm repairs can take months, not weeks. After one major Amarillo hailstorm, most commercial roof repairs had not begun until late October following a storm the previous May. The insurance claim process runs longer on commercial property, and the repairs themselves are more complex.
  • Severely damaged roofs get addressed first. Kelly Lea, KPost’s VP of Estimating, notes that commercial roof systems often run hundreds of thousands of square feet and can exceed a million. The worst damage moves to the front of the queue while everything else waits, sometimes for years.
  • Insurance estimates come from formulas, not from your roof. Most carriers use Xactimate or a similar tool, and an estimator applies its formulas to determine reimbursement. The gap opens when a project falls outside what the formula anticipates, which happens more often on commercial work than residential.
  • One project was estimated at $96,000 and cost closer to $415,000. The formula had not accounted for building height and the safety requirements that come with it, the slope of the roof deck, or code upgrades enacted since the original roof went on. The owner has to make that case to the insurer to close the gap.
  • Maintenance records are what win that argument. Documentation showing the roof was inspected and maintained gives you concrete grounds for arguing the estimate is inadequate. It works the same way condition records work on a totaled car, and an annual maintenance plan is what generates them.

It’s Texas and the one thing we definitely understand is weather changes. You know what we say – if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. It will change. Unfortunately those changes can swing toward radical weather events. Just last week we saw a major hail storm sweep across North Texas, wreaking havoc and leaving behind a swath of broken windshields, major automobile damage and a large number residential and commercial roofing in need of repair. While some of the repairs are already underway, there will be others that take much longer, even months.

Case in point – last May the city of Amarillo had a major hail storm – not an unusual event in the Panhandle. Unfortunately, according to the Amarillo Globe News, most of the commercial roof repairs had not started until late October.

Why does it take five months for a commercial property to have the roof repaired? One reason is that the insurance claim process simply takes longer. Plus, commercial roof repairs are more complicated.

“Commercial roofing systems are typically hundreds of thousands of square feet and can exceed a million in size. If an inexpensive roof system is installed, then you have a roof that can be severely impacted by large storms,” said Kelly Lea, KPost Company Vice President of Estimating. “The roofs that are severely damaged are addressed quickly. The others must wait their turn, which can take months, or even years.”

The KPost Company team is experienced in replacing all types of roof systems after severe weather events. In cases where the roof systems were not higher quality, the insurance company had to total the roof immediately. Other companies, however, had to wait for the insurance company to provide estimates. The amount of time a company must wait is often aligned with the level of damage – the more severely damaged roofs are addressed first, with the insurance company providing estimates that are sometimes significantly less than what it takes to realistically reroof the building.

How Does the Insurance Company Decide?

Most insurance companies use Xactimate, or a similar tool, to provide formulas in which to base their estimates. The insurance company estimator will analyze the building based on the formulas and determine the amount to reimburse the building owner. The challenge comes when the reroofing project scopes outside the parameters of the formula.

For example, if you must reroof a mall, then it is safer and preferred to perform the work after hours. This complicates the logistics and falls outside the basic parameters of most estimating software formulas. If the reroofing project is more expensive that originally estimated, it is up to the business owner or property management team to engage with the insurance company to get additional funds for the project.

“We had a reroofing project that was estimated at $96,000 to replace the roof. However, the Xactimate formula did not take into account the height of the building (for safety of the roofers), slope of the roof deck or code upgrades since the roof was installed. The actual estimate was closer to $415,000,” said Lea. “It’s important to understand the overall scope of the roof project.”

“It’s also important to have excellent documentation in order to provide the insurance company with solid reasons as to why the amount estimated will not be enough. That is where an annual roof maintenance plan can be a real game changer.”

Annual Roof Maintenance Plans Change the Game

When you think about how insurance reimbursements work, it’s easier to personalize it a bit, so let’s review how the same system works with your car. If you wreck a car or it’s stolen, the insurance company calculates the reimbursement based upon their tables and formulas. However, if you are able to show that the car was in excellent or at least above-average condition, regularly maintained and well cared for, then the amount of money you are reimbursed will go up.

The same holds true for commercial roofing, except the dollar figures are significantly higher.

“The idea is to have your roof looked at once a year to catch minor problems before they become major problems. In particular, you want to make the repairs prior to any interior damage could occur,” said Tracey Donels, Roof Service Manager.

By investing in an annual roof maintenance plan, you will have documented evidence that the roof was well-maintained, repairs were made on a timely basis, and that the commercial roofing system was certainly intact ensuring no interior damage would occur.

“Routine maintenance can extend the life of a roof giving the company a significant monetary savings when you annualize the cost of the roof,” said Donels.

There are multiple benefits to having an annual roof maintenance plan, including:

  • Extend the life of the CapEx investment
  • Limit interior damage
  • Save money by bundling the repairs

“We know our customers cannot control the weather or the timing of the insurance company, but they can give themselves a leg up by investing in an annual roof maintenance plan,” said Scott Bredehoeft, KPost Company Director of Business Development. “The ability to provide excellent documentation that roof maintenance was regularly performed will provide the type of support needed to get an insurance reimbursement more in line with the cost of a reroofing project. It’s peace of mind.”

One thing is for sure – those property managers and owners that invested in an annual roof maintenance plan are certainly glad they did after last week’s hail storm. They know before a major weather event what needs to be repaired and can take steps to do so, leaving them with a much better chance of minimizing damage. If there is damage, now there is the right documentation to ensure appropriate repairs. If it’s time for your commercial roofing inspection, please give us a call to schedule one today, before the next weather event takes the area by storm.

FAQs

It is the coverage that pays to bring a damaged building up to current code during a covered repair, rather than only restoring what was there. On roofing this is significant, because energy codes have raised insulation requirements substantially since most existing roofs were built, and a replacement must meet today’s code even though the policy would otherwise pay to replace what existed. Without this coverage the owner funds the upgrade. Confirm whether the policy includes it and at what limit before a loss, not after.

Yes, and most policies effectively require it. Property policies impose a duty to mitigate, meaning the owner is expected to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, and failing to do so can reduce what is ultimately paid. Temporary repairs and tarping to stop active water entry are exactly what that contemplates. Photograph conditions before the work, keep the invoices separate from the permanent repair, and notify the carrier that emergency work is being performed.

It depends on what was done and on the weather, and the realistic answer is weeks to a few months rather than a full season. Tarps degrade under UV and work loose in wind. Temporary patches on a membrane are formulated to buy time rather than to bond permanently. Since commercial claims frequently run longer than that, temporary work often needs to be inspected and refreshed while the claim proceeds, and that should be planned rather than discovered during the next storm. Our commercial roof repair team revisits temporary work on a schedule while a claim is open.

Dated photographs of the roof and of any interior damage, the date and time of the event with local weather data, the roof areas affected marked on a roof plan, any tenant reports with their timestamps, and the emergency measures taken with their invoices. Pull your existing maintenance records into the same file. Documentation showing the roof’s condition before the storm is what separates storm damage from pre-existing wear when the adjuster raises that question.

It can, though it usually requires that the interruption stem from covered physical damage rather than from a maintenance failure. A roof breached by a covered storm that forces a tenant space to close may trigger it. A roof that has been leaking for two years generally will not. Coverage terms, waiting periods, and the period of restoration vary considerably between policies, so the question is worth raising with your broker while a renewal is in front of you.
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