July
2, 2000
Real Estate Desk
TORCH DOWN IS NOW ILLEGAL ON WOODEN ROOFS
YOUR HOME; If the Roof Is Wood, Cease Fire
By JAY ROMANO
ON June 22, 1999, Louis F. Garcia, New York City's chief fire marshal, issued a
directive that called for the arrest of anyone who uses a propane torch on a
wood - deck roof in the city. But while Chief Garcia's directive went out
more than a year ago, its full impact is only now being felt by property owners
whose roof repair and installation costs are expected to increase by as much as
30 percent.
"I have no idea how the real estate world missed this", said Robert
Grant, the director of management at Diversified Property Management in
Brooklyn. "I only found out about it after talking to a roofer who
had read it in a memo from the National Roof Contractors Association in
Chicago".
In fact, lawyers, engineers and roofing contractors said, very few people
involved in New York City real estate were aware of Chief Garcia's directive
until Mr. Grant wrote an article about it for the May 17 issue of Real Estate
Weekly, a trade publication in New York.
"I can tell you that engineers were still writing specs calling for
torched-down roofs between July of 1999 and May of 2000," Mr. Grant said
"And I can tell your from personal experience that those specs didn't take
into account the fire department's directive."
Wood-deck roofs, he said, are typically found on low-rise apartment buildings
and on some older high-rise buildings, particularly in the outer boroughs.
Most high-rises in Manhattan, he said, have concrete decks or metal roofs.
Christopher Tempro, supervising fire marshal for the New York Fire Department,
said that according to department statistics, there was an average of 35 roof
fires a year from 1994 to 1998. That, along with three-alarm fire that
destroyed 30 apartments at 327 West 30th Street on May 10, 1999 - a fire caused
by a roofing contractor's using a propane torch to repair a wood-deck roof -
resulted in Chief Garcia's directive. Propane torches can still be used on
buildings with concrete decks, provided that the contractor holds a certificate
of fitness issued by the Fire Department.
"Using a torch on a combustible roof in New York City is illegal," Mr.
Tempro said, "Title 3 in Chapter 25 of the rules of New York City makes it
a Class B misdemeanor to use an open flame on the roof of any structure that is
combustible. Maximum penalties are a year in jail and a fine of $1,000.00.
Muhammad Zulfikar, the president of Mascon Restoration, a roofing contractor in
White-stone, Queens, said that banning propane torches would likely increase
roof repair and installation costs by 25 to 30 percent.
The most common method for repairing and replacing flat roofs used to be what's
called
torched-down bitumen, Mr. Zulfikar said. The material, known as modified
bitumen, is asphalt-saturated, fabric with rubber or plastic added for
flexibility. It comes in 33-foot-long rolls about 39 inches wide, making
it relatively easy to transport to the roof in an elevator.
Once there, workers unroll the roofing, taking care to overlap the seams by at
least three inches, and then heat it with a torch to make it stick to the
existing roof. The heat produces a permanent watertight bond between the
old roof and the new.
"Applying modified bitumen is actually an easy process," Mr. Zulfikar
said.
"Just about everyone was doing it."
Not anymore.
Alternative methods and materials must be used now. "And those methods are
more expensive, more labor intensive, required more material, more skill and new
machines," Mr. Zulfikar said.
Jim Hoff, the vice president for marketing at Firestone Building Products in
Indianapolis, a manufacturer of roofing materials, said that the most common
replacement is cold-applied modified bitumen.
That method, Mr. Hoff said, involves basically the same modified bitumen roofing
material but using glue rather than heat to make it adhere.
"The downside is that using glue takes a higher level of skill and
consistency on the part of the contractor," Mr. Hoff said. Extra care
must be taken when gluing together the overlapping seams. While is was
fairly simple to get a tight, solid seam using a propane torch, it is not so
easy - and more expensive - to do the same thing using glue. In fact, Mr.
Hoff said, the additional skill and material required to install a cold-applied
modified bitumen roof may make it cost-effective to choose a different material
altogether.
"Throughout the country, over half of all roofing installations make use of
single-ply rubber or plastic products," he said.
The reason they are not commonly used in New York City is because the rolls - 10
to 50 feet wide, in 10 - foot increments - are hard to transport in an elevator.
The rolls are heavy, too: the smallest, 10 feet wide and 100 feet long, weighs
300 pounds. But because the rolls are side, that means fewer seams to
worry about; so it can be cheaper to use rubber or plastic even if the rolls
have to be hoisted to the rooftop.
"There may be savings found in using wider sheets of material to minimize
the side laps," Mr. Hoff said. Because the rolls require less glue
and less labor, there are additional savings there, he said.
Stephen Varone, the director of operations for Rand Engineering in Manhattan,
said that property owners, including co-op and condominium boards, should make
sure that any bid specifications sent to roofing contractors make it clear what
material should be used and how it should be installed. Alternative
methods of application must be specified in any bids for work on buildings with
wood decks.
That is important, Mr. Varone said, because while the law banning propane
torches on wood-deck roofs would seem to apply primarily to contractors, there
is a possibility that co-op and condominium boards, property managers, engineers
and architects could also be held liable.
Arthur I. Weinstein, the vice president of the Council of New York Cooperatives
and Condominiums, agreed.
"The standard form contract used by most contractors is silent about who is
responsible for complying with all applicable laws and regulations," he
said. "But the standard rider an attorney will attach to the contract
contains a provision making the contractor responsible for complying with the
law.
"This is just one more reason why co-op's and condominium boards should
have all contracts reviewed by their attorney."