“When you arrive at a fork in the road, take it.”

~Yogi Berra

We all maintain our stuff.  Some of us are very good at keeping our stuff up on maintenance and some are not.  Our stuff ranges from when we were kids cleaning up our room to adults taking care of our cars, our homes, our lawns and ourselves.  So the question is what about our roof?  At home or work, what do we need to keep up?

Well, we all let some issues slide in our lives and the roof stuff is quite slippery!  A bit of a pun, but the stuff in our life that is out of site is often out of mind.  Yet, in the case of a roof, it protects our lives, our home, our work place and all the stuff inside.  The roof is a very important out of mind part of our lives.

We have found that when a roof is leaking it is a sign of either a poor installation if the roof is new, or, if the roof is older, the cause could be deterioration or lack of proper maintenance. Regular specific maintenance with trained eyes will catch most issues.

Our Columbia Roof Advantage system stops most issues before they become problems.  We are very strategic in the process of viewing the roof and the other building components that are on the roof.  In the case of your home, the plumbing vent pipes, skylights, chimneys and flashings all can leak and be a “non-roof” problem, but they still leak.  The valleys in the roof cause other problems; ice damming is also a problem from time to time.  On flat roofs, many have heating and air conditioning units with duct work, roof drains that plug, flashings that get dislodged, the seals that fail or the roof membrane itself can blister, crack or split.

All these issues do not necessarily mean you need a new roof.  What you do need is a trained set of professional eyes to look at the condition of your roof.  In many cases a good maintenance system will prevent leaks and prevent further damage to your building and your stuff inside.  It never fails to amaze me that the leak is at 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday night at home or it leaks over the computer servers at the office.  This stuff is critical and good maintenance on the roof helps stop almost all of these problems.

The Columbia Roof Advantage is the system that we offer here at Columbia Roofing and Sheet Metal.  It has been designed by us to cover your roof, to service your roof, prevent most problems, and extend the life of your roof.  The cost of roof ownership has been proven to be less per square foot per year with fewer problems with the correct roof asset management program.  It is about cost of ownership.  That is where the stuff costs you less and your stuff problems are fewer.  Drop us a line at service [at] reroofnow [dot] com and let Vince Hanewinckel or Jim Ash help you in taking care of one of your stuff things.

Mark Carpenter, President.

Mark Carpenter grew up in the Portland, Oregon area.  A fifth generation Oregonian, Mark was educated in Tigard and completed his entire college study at Portland State University graduating with a degree in Marketing and Business.  Mark has been involved in the building trades since shortly after his 1975 graduation.  He worked in the steel industry in sales, project management and estimating for large structural steel building frames and then moved into roofing material sales.

Since 1980 he has worked in the area of commercial roofing.  While he started out selling products, he realized soon he enjoyed the installation side of the industry.  He sold and project managed a number of new construction and reroofing projects in Oregon, Washington and California.

Fourteen years ago, Mark started Columbia Construction Services, Inc. dba, Columbia Roofing and Sheet Metal.  The company started by doing small repairs that built into a successful business model of helping owners make financial sense out of roofing repairs and replacement.

Columbia Roofing & Sheet Metal now does work in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California with a year around staff of over 40 people.  Columbia provides 24/7 leak repair service, full commercial replacement and recovers, sheet metal work and roofs, plus residential roof repairs, recovers and replacements.  The company’s statement tells you how they do business, “Expert  Solutions, Guaranteed Results”, it’s just how we do business.

Mark lives in Tigard with his wife, Barbara.  He enjoys annual trips to the Idaho wilderness, skiing in the winter and vintage car racing his 1957 Alfa Romeo.  He does not play golf as he seems to be either skiing late into the spring or playing with cars.

“This is a company of integrity and quality. It is always good to see their sharp white trucks moving here and there in business.”
~Leslie Hoyle