Simplifying commercial roofing installation

By The Coffee Shops®. 

AWIP's One Deck system reduces installation complexity and labor. 

Labor shortages, lengthy installation timelines and jobsite coordination challenges continue to put pressure on commercial roofing contractors. According to Gary Sweeney, director of low-slope roofing at All Weather Insulated Panels (AWIP), those challenges helped drive the development of One Deck, a roofing system designed to streamline low-slope roof installation. 

Speaking with Megan Ellsworth on an episode of MetalCast™, Gary pointed to workforce concerns as one of the industry's biggest obstacles. "The commercial roofing industry is losing 10% of its workforce every year," Gary said. "There's an overall just lack of youth being infused into the industry." 

Gary, who spent a decade working in traditional commercial roofing before joining AWIP, said installation methods have changed far less than roofing products themselves. "What little innovation that has been introduced has mostly been on the product side," he said. "No one has really ever been able to crack the code on the installation side and that's exactly what AWIP has done with One Deck." 

Traditional low-slope assemblies can involve multiple components, including roof deck, vapor barrier, insulation, cover boards and membranes. Managing deliveries and coordinating installation sequences can create additional complexity on a project. 

According to Gary, One Deck consolidates several of those functions into a single panel system. "If there's two words that I want you to take away from this conversation, it's speed and simplicity," he said. The system is installed as a two-step process in which contractors fasten the panels and then apply the roofing membrane. Gary said the approach can significantly reduce installation time compared to traditional assemblies. "It's only a two-step process," he said. "I typically say that a one deck system can be installed in the third of a time that it takes to install a traditional system," he said.  

As contractors continue searching for ways to improve productivity while managing labor constraints, solutions focused on installation efficiency are attracting increasing attention. In the next part of the discussion.  

Listen to the full podcast or Watch the recording to learn more about One Deck and low-slope roofing installation.