Recently I spoke with roof consultant Greg Hayne, owner of Roof Management, headquartered in Fairfield, Iowa.

Recently I spoke with roof consultant Greg Hayne, owner of Roof Management (www.managingroofs.com), headquartered in Fairfield, Iowa. Hayne believes understanding building owners is an essential part of the consultant’s job - and so is educating them. He has developed a training program for building owners that includes photos of common problems, and he shares his insights on the owner’s mindset with the contractors he partners with handle repairs and maintenance. Hayne tipped his cap to some of the excellent contractors he works with, and he gave some real-world examples of contractors who never fail to impress:

Contractor No. 1:When Hayne places a call about a roof problem, one contractor is always available to go and check it out right away. Hayne once asked him how he could be so responsive. Hayne summed up the end of their conversation this way: “Once I asked him, ‘How come you can always do that - how come you’re never working on a bid that’s due at noon?’ And he said, ‘If I am working on a bid the day it is due, I’m in trouble.’”

Contractor No. 2:After getting a call from a property manager who was upset about a recurring leak, Hayne suspected it was not a roof leak at all but rather an HVAC leak - but he wasn’t sure. He called the roofing contractor, who asked, “Would you like to see the complete service log for that roof? I’ll have it in your in box in 10 minutes.”

“And he did it,” Hayne recalled. “The question I ask roofers is, ‘Can you do that?’”