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RCP S02 Ep01 MP3
David H: [00:00:00] Hello. Hello. Welcome to season two of the roof connections podcast, a show dedicated to different aspects and topics related to facility maintenance. I’m your host. David Huval. Joining me today are two gentlemen I work with at RoofConnect. We’ve got Mr. Wayne Gwaltney, who is our new vice president of sales and Ken Beck, who took over our director of business development roll.
So guys, do you want to introduce yourself? Say hello and tell me a little bit about yourself, so the audience can know a little bit about your background in the industry.
Wayne G: [00:00:33] All right. Hey, Hey David, thank you for the invitation. It’s Wanye Gwaltney, VP of sales at RoofConnect. I’ve been with RoofConnect almost three years now.
I’ve been in the commercial roofing industry since 2002, and so done a lot, done a lot of different roles in the years. I started in the roofing industry right after Ken. He recruited me into the commercial roofing industry after he joined himself, and so we’ve got a long history together and we’ve had I’ve had a great time at RoofConnect and the three years that I’ve been here and looking forward to 2021.
Ken B: [00:01:12] Thanks, Wayne. I’m Ken back and I’ve been with RoofConnect almost exactly a year now as of as of December 30th. So, like Wayne said, he and I have known each other for a long time, probably longer than some people that are on this call have been along, but we’ve enjoyed our careers together and we both enjoyed the roofing industry since 2002.
So, look forward to the rest of the podcast. Thanks, David. Thanks for having us.
David H: [00:01:40] Thanks, Ken. Thanks Wayne. Today I want to talk a little bit about how RoofConnect can help their clients with either, you know, wrapping up their yearend budget, or more than likely, now we’re moving into 2021.
Can you tell us for your clients, how important is budgeting and forecasting, future facility maintenance expenses when it comes to their roofing portfolios or even like a paving portfolio?
Wayne G: [00:02:06] So, you know, budgeting when it, as it relates to roofing and, and parking lots basically creates organization. It eliminates surprises in all directions, you know, repair, maintenance capital, and from the expense of the roof or parking lot performance, from the roof performance and from out-of-control invoices. You know, budgeting just makes so much sense and it’s so important to get that right. A lot of people are really good at it.
They’ve got it homed in and refined, and it’s like a well-oiled machine where you’ve got others that, you know, on the opposite end of the spectrum, they kind of guess at it. And you know, it doesn’t always work well. We end up having to change scopes of re-roofing projects to fit budgets and shuffle things around, so to speak.
You see people that take the roofing spend or a roofing budget and go take it and you buy HVC equipment with it. I mean, there’s all sorts of ways that happens. So, it’s very important, but we at RoofConnect do have options to help people in planning to manage their portfolios and budgets for roofing and paving.
Ken B: [00:03:17] So even though now I work mostly in the governmental, education, and nonprofit space, as far as helping people manage the roofing and paving assets, I’ve worked in the national account arena and David, it’s absolutely astounding to me, how many people don’t even have a proper inventory of their assets. So, a lot of times it starts out with that. And like Wayne said everything from helping somebody figure out exactly what they have in their inventory to helping them to refine a budget that’s actually in pretty good shape at this point. So, it is important because roofing and paving tend to be some of the most expensive items for managing your assets.
David H: [00:04:06] Moving on further into what you said, let’s say I just stepped into a new role, as a regional manager for a retail company that covers five or six states, and I’ve got 20 or 30 facilities that I’m taking care of. What walk me through the process of trying to create a budget for a customer like this?
Wayne G: [00:04:30] Right. So, you would need to inventory your assets. You know, whether you’re talking about roofs or parking lots, you want to inventory it, have them inspected and, and kind of you know, kind of take, we can match the strategy towards your budget. You know, if you’ve got a, well, it looks like I’m going to have a million dollars this year. How do I spend that? And so, we can help you spend it in the best way to get the most value and to make the most improvements out there. So you would want to prioritize your repairs.
Not all repairs are the same as far as the urgency focus on the average roofs. And the good roofs, the bad roofs, sometimes people to spend money trying to fix bad roofs. We’ll identify during the inventory, which roofs are really, you know, it’s, it doesn’t make sense to spend any more money on those roofs and those are the ones that need to be budgeted for replacement. So, let’s not waste money on bad roofs, let’s spend the money on the good roofs.
David H: [00:05:25] I see, the longer you postpone the good roofs, trying to take care of the bad roofs. They’re going to fall into worse shape. Right. Okay.
Wayne G: [00:05:31] Typically, you know, you have expense money and repair a maintenance money, and then you have capital. And so there’s two different, two different budgetary numbers in play there.
David H: [00:05:40] Ken is there anything you want to throw in on that?
Ken B: [00:05:43] No, I think Wayne hit a lot of a lot, if not all the points that that are really important. I think the thing that. It’s, it’s kind of like when you’re looking at human capital, are you better off spending your time with your top performers?
Are you better off spending your time with trying to bring up the bottom performers? You know, you need to realize where your investment is best spent, and it’s usually best spent on the average to good roofs to keep them in that condition. And then just cut your losses, the bad ones, and go ahead and budget for the capital expenditure, like Wayne said.
David H: [00:06:19] Okay. So in a year like 2020, when companies are dealing with the pandemic and the economy being down, what are some tips you have for building owners to reduce their costs associated with their roofing or paving portfolios?
Ken B: [00:06:38] So I would say be proactive on your repairs. If you evaluate your roofs and you actually decide what the minor repairs are today that will prevent the major repairs in the future, and you do that proactively. We’ve we really studied this. And what you’re looking at is a cost of four times as much to do reactive repairs as you are for proactive repairs maybe 4 cents a square foot versus 16 cents a square foot for proactive versus reactive. And we always encourage people to spend that proactive money to keep from having those negative surprises.
Wayne G: [00:07:22] Right. Yeah, it was actually a major manufacturer that did an independent study that came up with that, that pricing sample that that Ken just referenced. So it just makes so much more sense if you’ve planned your repairs and you’re not, you know, calling a roofer and rushing out in a rain storm and the windshield time and the, you know, it’s, it’s hard to do the repair, right when the roof’s wet all these times, just make some much more sense to plan it, do it when the weather’s conducive to that type of repair in the, you know, it’s just all planned and scheduled and it’s not an emergency. And so it just makes so much more sense to be proactive if you can.
David H: [00:08:04] Thanks Wayne. Well, speaking of the cost associated with the budgeting for the year, whether it’s repairs and maintenance, or a lot of companies now are looking into putting solar on the roof to offset certain costs or taxes, or if they’re re going to get up there and replace a roof anyways, they’re looking at solar to offset costs. Can you talk a little bit about the solar initiatives and programs that impact clients’ budgets?
Ken B: [00:08:26] Okay. Speaking from somebody that really does believe in using solar for the future and living up to the responsibilities that we have as a, as a country and as a world, I think that everybody should investigate the financial options when it comes to solar.
There are. If you’re a for-profit in industry or a for-profit company, then there’s the tax incentives that come along with it. That it’s a perfect time to look at it when you’re doing the roof. If you’re a private enterprise that pays real estate taxes, there’s even a way that you can delay the payment on the roofing and the solar and combine that into a creative financing that would help you by paying it strictly through your property taxes. So there’s all kinds of financial benefits that are out there. There’s also the power benefits, long-term, we can help people to figure out what that ROI is and when the payback is, so they know when they actually start making money on doing the right thing,
David H: [00:09:32] I would assume some either is the areas of the country are more lenient or there’s more incentives in certain parts of the country, depending on where you live. I know in the Northeast solar is big, in California, solar is big, it’s something to consider facility managers.
Ken B: [00:09:45] You’re right David and actually Texas is, believe it or not, started being a very progressive place for alternative energy.
Wayne G: [00:09:52] So solar is becoming a really big deal for us, and it makes it a lot of sense as more companies become more environmentally conscious.
Also, like Ken said, alternative ways to finance roofing, and then sometimes if you’ve got a brand new roof, or you don’t need to buy a new roof, it can have a dramatic impact on cost associated with power. We see it being a big time, no-brainer type situation, in places where power is expensive.
If you spend a lot per kilowatt hour, then it could make a lot of sense for you. And so yeah, it’s been, it’s been great.
David H: [00:10:27] Well, gentlemen, for someone listening to this podcast, how can they get ahold of you if they’re interested in getting help with their, with their budgets?
Wayne G: [00:10:35] If anyone needs help with budgeting, the national account managers or regional account managers as well as Ken and I, and entire staff at RoofConnect would love an opportunity to help
Ken B: [00:10:46] David, they can simply go to the RoofConnect website (www.roofconnect.com), all of our contact info is on there, and we’d be happy to make suggestions over the phone or in person, regarding how we could help them or how they can find help for establishing a roofing budget and a long-term plan for maintaining their assets.
David H: [00:11:10] Well, that’s all the time we have for today. I would like to thank Wayne and Ken for joining me on today’s podcast. If you would like more information about budgeting for your roofing or paving portfolio and how RoofConnect can assist you, please visit www.RoofConnect.com/budgeting.
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out our other episodes. You can find Roof Connections podcast on Spotify, iTunes, and SoundCloud. If you would prefer to watch the podcast, you can find all of our episodes on our YouTube channel. Just search roof connections podcast.
Well, that’s a wrap for us today. Once again. I’m your host, David Huval, thanks for tuning in. We’ll see you next time.
