Lock-In: SIG Roofing

Looking after your overheads has always been important for landlords, which is why it gave us great pleasure to be able to introduce SIG Roofing on The Expert Lock-In series. We brought on their highly knowledgeable Senior Account Manager duo of Steve Chaplin and Craig Sidda to tell us all about this exciting step into the future for both companies.

You can view the webinar in full above, or if you’ve only got five minutes, you can read the key points below.

New Partner On The Block

SIG Roofing, who are they? They’re the only dedicated roofing distributor within the UK, and as of this week, the latest in a long line of LNPG partners! With over 140 branches nationwide, they cover all of the roofing products and materials you need. We’ve called on them to help fill the roofing specialism that was otherwise lacking across the membership and plan to launch with individual accounts for every single member at the beginning of next month.

Shiver Me Rotten Timbers

As anyone who’s ever attempted a house of cards can tell you, roofing isn’t as simple as balancing some tiles on top of your property and hoping for the best. One of the key things that’s often overlooked is the necessity for proper ventilation. You would expect that you need to make your property as watertight as possible, but there is a subtle balance that needs to be made between watertight and airtight. Water ingress can and will rot your wooden joists, decimating your roof’s lifespan, but likewise, cutting off all air circulation can cause what is known as dry rot, and that’s no good for anyone either: you need to let your wood breathe.

It’s a hard one to balance, no wonder we had to call in the experts!

Paying The Price

Often it’s all too easy to see what looks like a great deal and reach straight for your pockets, but don’t be fooled by a glitzy price tag. Each potential project needs to be ‘value engineered’ to your situation as it was put in the webinar. It’s understandable that you can’t always spend big on every single one of your properties, but like everything in the property business, you need to look at it in terms of an investment. Short-changing your roofing now, and you’ll be paying the real price a few years down the line – In short, putting the wrong tiles on your roof and watching them gradually fall off again as you show the house to prospective tenants is not a good situation to be in.

Honesty is the Best Policy

If only it was as easy as a one-size-fits-all policy when choosing the type of tile for your roofing, but different geographic locations, weather conditions, and even the pitch of the roof can affect what materials you’re going to need to get your hands on. A low-pitched roof, for example, can lead to water ingress if appropriate actions aren’t followed – rainwater can literally travel uphill, particularly if given a strong tailwind – so it’s always of major importance to know what your specification is before nailing them to the tops of your properties.

Thankfully, SIG aren’t in the business of selling their customers the wrong product just to make a quick buck. As mentioned on the webinar, Steve and his team take their duty to provide you with the correct advice and guidance very seriously: we’ve brought them on board to tell you what you need to hear, but not always necessarily what you want to hear.

Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head

They’re your properties, but it’s always a good idea to bear the tenant in mind too with any new developments. One of the biggest headaches in this business comes when you’ve got builders, tenants, family members, or yourself sitting around waiting for a delivery that’s never going to arrive. With SIG, that’s not an issue, as their guaranteed delivery can ensure you keep the project on track and open the property to tenants as soon as possible. In an ideal situation, it’s recommended that any big project like this is done during a crossover tenancy period, but sometimes this is simply not possible so this added security of something as simple as a delivery slot can go a long way.

And that’s your lot! You can learn more about SIG Roofing here