Up on the roof, idea takes root, but it may not work in Vegas

By Brendan Buhler

Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Parts of the International Roofing Expo can make your eyes water. That’s what happens when you’re around the open buckets of cold-application roofing adhesive, a thick black goo that glistens like Satan’s nail polish and has a volatile chemical smell to match.

For relief, join the audience watching a sales representative armed with a pressurized wand splatter a board until it looks like an Exxon-dipped seabird.

Who knew roofers had so much fun?

But enough about art. The show at the Las Vegas Convention Center last week revealed that the big trend in roofing these days is environmental sensitivity — and we don’t mean the crowd of 3,000 large men here who sport a fair number of arm slings, crutches and canes, and guys who take the stairs gingerly while leaning on the railing.

Environmental sensitivity refers to the potentially lucrative national market in putting solar cells or live plants on roofs. Plants can reduce air-conditioning costs as much as 50 percent.

On the other hand, a “living roof” costs $11 to $15 a square foot, according to Live Roof salesman John Scholten. You have to water it if it rains less than an inch a month, more in the heat. So doing a little back-of-the-envelope math, at today’s utility prices, covering a 2,000 square-foot roof in Las Vegas means that it would take a living roof about 85 years to pay for itself.

“The economics don’t look too interesting in Las Vegas,” says Lee Jaslow, president of Resource Conservation Technologies.

Looks pretty, though.

So maybe solar is the answer. We’ve got sun. The good news is that prices are coming down on solar panels and installing them is getting easier.

On the other hand, the amount of energy you recoup varies according to the direction your house faces — so making general statements about the value of solar to any individual homeowner is difficult.

The other big trend

As the housing market slows, construction slows. Fewer new buildings means fewer jobs for roofers. Woe. Despair.

But a crowd of anxious roofers is a good thing for Bill and Steve Loiacono, two owners of Globe Roof Inspection Program. They are recruiting roofers and building inspectors to work for insurance companies estimating and photographing roof damage.

“Right now the business is slow on both ends, the building and the inspecting,” Steve says, “so this is a good place for us to look for people.”

And sure enough, every minute or so, another roofer stops to talk to them.

“Every little bit helps when you’re trying to maintain your business,” Bill says.

Overheard

“Hey, we’re gonna fill this thing up with mud, I tell you what, get about 5 or 10 chicks in it, get ’em to wrestle.”

— Salesman for Dumpzit, a truck bed-sized “material handling device.”