When You Need This Checklist (and When You Don’t)
If you’re a facility manager or the person in charge of ordering materials for a roof restoration project, this checklist is for you. This is not a guide to installing a roof. This is a guide to specifying and buying the right system—specifically a Tremco system—so your contractor can install it correctly and your finance department doesn’t reject the invoice.
I’m an office administrator who manages purchasing for a mid-sized property management firm. We’ve done three major roof restorations in the last four years, and I’ve learned the hard way that a bad order creates problems that last for months. This checklist covers five steps: system selection, quantity verification, delivery logistics, documentation, and contingency planning.
Step 1: Confirm the System, Not Just the Product
This is the most common mistake I see. Your contractor says, “We need Tremco roof coatings.” That’s like saying you need a car. You need the whole system: primer, base coat, membrane, top coat, and any specialized accessories.
Here’s what to verify:
- Is it a single-ply restoration or a re-coat over existing BUR? These require completely different spec sheets.
- What’s the substrate? Concrete, metal, or existing modified bitumen? Each requires a different primer.
- Do you need the AVC membrane? The Tremco AVC membrane (Accessory Venting Component) is often overlooked. If the existing substrate has moisture issues, skipping the AVC membrane can cause blistering later.
I still kick myself for the time we ordered 40 gallons of coating without checking the primer spec. The contractor arrived on Monday, the primer was wrong, and we lost two days. The $400 rush shipping fee for the correct primer was a direct consequence of my oversight. The AVC membrane spec was buried in the contractor’s notes—I missed it. Don’t assume; confirm.
Step 2: Calculate Quantities (Don’t Trust the Estimates)
Your contractor will give you a quantity estimate. It’s usually wrong. Not maliciously—they’re thinking about coverage rates in perfect conditions. Real roofs have parapets, penetrations, and odd shapes that waste material.
My formula:
- Take the contractor’s estimate for coating.
- Add 10% for waste and over-application.
- Add another 5% if the roof has more than 10 penetrations (HVAC units, vents).
For the membrane (Tremco AVC or similar):
- Calculate the square footage of the roof area where the membrane will be applied.
- Add 15% for overlap and edge wrapping.
- Order full rolls. Cutting partial rolls is a headache.
Looking back, I should have paid for the detailed quantity takeoff service Tremco offers. At the time, it felt like an unnecessary expense. After we ran short by 12 gallons on a 3,000 sq ft roof and had to pay for another rush order, I changed my mind. The $150 fee for the takeoff would have saved us $600 in shipping and downtime.
Step 3: Lock Down Delivery Logistics (The Part Everyone Forgets)
This is where most of my frustrations have lived. You’ve ordered the right system in the right quantities. Then it arrives a day late, or on a pallet that doesn’t fit through the doorway, or without the safety data sheets the building inspector needs.
Checklist for delivery:
- Delivery date: Confirm it’s at least 48 hours before the contractor needs it. Buffer time.
- Delivery location: Is it going to a jobsite? A warehouse? A ground-level loading dock? My third project failed because we specified ground-level delivery but the jobsite had a second-floor roof access. The driver refused to lift the pallet. We lost half a day.
- Documentation: For every order, I now request the following in advance: delivery receipt, bill of lading, safety data sheets (SDS), and the Tremco technical data sheet for each product. Why? Because our safety officer and the building owner’s rep both demanded them on-site. Having them printed and ready saved me a frantic email search.
Oh, and I should mention: specify “inside delivery” if your contractor is a small crew without a forklift. A pallet of coating weighs 2,500 lbs. Your contractor will not thank you for leaving it at the curb.
Step 4: Verify Documentation and Compliance (The Part That Keeps Finance Happy)
This is the step I used to skip. I’d place the order, it arrived, contractor installed it, everyone was happy. Then the invoice came, and finance rejected it because the PO number was missing or the delivery location didn’t match our tax exemption certificate.
The most frustrating part of purchasing: the same issues recurring despite clear communication. You’d think a written PO would prevent these problems, but interpretation varies wildly between vendors’ billing systems.
Before you approve payment:
- Check the PO: Did the vendor quote the correct line items? I once had a vendor quote “Tremco Roof Coating (Generic)” instead of the specific product code. The shipment was correct, but if it hadn’t been, I’d have had no grounds for a dispute.
- Verify pricing: As of January 2025, Tremco’s published list prices are a starting point. Actual pricing depends on volume, distributor relationships, and whether you’re a national account. If your quote seems high, ask if there’s a volume discount. (Source: Tremco product catalog and distributor quotes, accessed January 2025; verify current pricing.)
- Get it in writing: Verbal promises on pricing or lead times are worthless. I learned this after a vendor promised a 2-week lead time over the phone, then delivered in 6. No documentation meant no recourse.
Step 5: Plan for the Unexpected (The “Hand and Stone” Problem)
Every job has a surprise. For us, the surprise was the condition of the existing substrate. On our second project, we discovered that the existing base sheet was so deteriorated that the primer wouldn’t adhere. The crew had to stop and source a specialized primer—not in our original order.
My “emergency kit” for roof orders:
- One extra gallon of each coating and primer. Small orders, but they’re cheap insurance.
- A roll of flashing tape. Not in the main spec, but invaluable for repairing small punctures discovered during the job.
- Contact info for a local Tremco distributor. National distributors are great, but a local one can get you a can of touch-up coating in two hours.
The question isn’t whether you’ll have a problem. It’s what you’ll do when it happens. Budget for certainty. In March 2024, we paid $400 extra for rush delivery of a specialty primer. The alternative was missing a $15,000 building re-occupancy deadline. The $400 was a bargain.
A caution on common tools: When the contractor said they needed a “hand and stone” and a “foil shaver,” I had to look those up. A hand and stone is a manual stone spreader for ballasted roofs—not relevant for a re-coat. A foil shaver is used to prepare the edges of metal roof panels. If your job involves metal, confirm you need one. If it’s a built-up or modified bitumen roof, you probably don’t. And “how to roll a joint”? That’s not a roofing question—that’s a cannabis question. Ignore it; stay focused on the spec.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Assuming all contractors know the spec. They have their preferred methods. They might try to substitute products. If the spec says “Tremco AVC membrane,” don’t let them swap it for a generic alternative without written approval.
- Ignoring the warranty paperwork. Tremco requires specific installation documentation to activate the warranty. If you don’t submit the paperwork within 30 days of installation, the warranty is void. This happened to us on project one. It was a $5,000 mistake.
- Ordering everything from one place without checking backup options. If your primary distributor is out of stock, who’s your backup? I now maintain a list of three vendors for critical products.
This isn’t a perfect system. I still make mistakes. But following this checklist has cut our order-related delays by half. The key is to treat the order not as a transaction, but as a project itself. Document everything, confirm everything, and always—always—plan for the worst.
