Roof Monitor Round-Up: October

There are a lot of messages out there. The Roof Monitor Round-Up cuts through the clutter (so you don’t have to).

There are a lot of messages out there. The Roof Monitor Round-Up cuts through the clutter (so you don’t have to).

From roofing and safety, to weather and technology, we’ve collected some of the world’s most interesting stories this month:

At least 100 shoppers were evacuated from a Woolworths in Melbourne, Australia, as a roof caved; one man was injured and 11 total residents were displaced after a collapse at a Kenosha, Wisconsin apartment complex; and just the serious threat of a roof collapse has delayed much-needed construction at the new airport in Berlin, Germany.

A man trespassed on the roof of a charity in San Angelo, Texas, this month, while the body of a 91-year-old man was found on top of an apartment complex in New York. Both events emphasize the need for Edge Defense’s™ one-of-a-kind monitoring system, which both protects rooftop workers and immediately alerts designated personnel when security breaches occur.

Ricardo González, the founder and CEO of Bilingual America, penned an insightful article for Professional Roofing detailing our industry’s impending labor shift: second-generation Latinos who have grown up in the U.S.

We love learning about beautiful new roofs. This bamboo, thatch-covered roof over a community center in Vietnam is both majestic and humble.

Construction Dive discusses the growing popularity of green roofs in this new article, highlighting prominent installations such as Facebook’s new California office building and plans for a shopping center in Silicon Valley––and what kind of return building owners can expect on the investment.

The Garland Company, Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio has unveiled a thermoset polyurethane-modified membrane––the first and only one of its kind in the world. Read about the breakthrough in Roofing Contractor.

Also currently in Roofing Contractor: safety expert Chip McDonald offers an in-depth analysis of the real costs of not taking fall protection seriously.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has released its predictions for conditions across the U.S. during the upcoming winter. The forecast? A strong El Niño makes it likely that the north will see warmer, drier weather, while the south will experience a colder, wetter winter than usual. Read the full briefing on Weather.com.

A new hybrid roofing system designed by scientists at Brunel University London promises to cut energy bills in half. Dig into the details via Physics.org.

Also in energy news: a new suburb in Australia will feature solar power on every single roof.

 

 

Photo by Angelo Merluccio, via Snapwire with Creative Commons License

 

 

Posted on: October 27, 2015