Choosing the correct roofing system for your facility may not be easy. There are many factors that should be taken into consideration based on the geographic location and other conditions of your facility. Protection against natural hazard exposures including hurricanes and hailstorms should definitely be considered. In addition, proximity to other structures that pose exterior fire exposures should also be contemplated. After determining (IF you can) what the roof must be designed for, there are literally tens of thousands of roofing systems to choose from. If you’re looking to install an FM Approved roofing system, there are more than 6,000 FM Approved roofing products and 180,000 roofing assemblies to choose from.
In 2007, FM Approvals began providing free, unrestricted access to RoofNav, formerly a subscription-based Web tool, to roofing professionals, architects, designers, consultants and engineers.
The web-based roofing tool provides step-by-step guidance on how to identify, specify, configure and install various roofing assemblies and components that comply with FM Approvals roofing standards. It provides users with the most up-to-date details on FM Approved roofing products and assemblies.
If your facility is looking to have an FM Approved roof assembly installed, this tool will allow you to determine the appropriate ratings (using a ratings calculator) for wind uplift, fire resistance (internal and exterior) and hail resistance for your facility based on your geographic area and other conditions. The tool can help you choose a system or component specific to your needs and can also identify available substitute products that meet FM Approvals requirements for the given system/assembly.
If you would like to confirm that your existing roof assembly is FM Approved and/or was designed with the appropriate ratings, you can perform a search using RoofNav by product category, type, manufacturer, trade name, and product attributes. If you would like to confirm that a proposed roof assembly is FM Approved, you can ask the contractor or designer for the applicable FM Global RoofNav Assembly number and confirm it using the RoofNav tool. The RoofNav Assembly number takes the guesswork out of the consultant’s hands when trying to confirm that a roof is FM Approved.
RoofNav puts all the roofing-related information from the FM Global Approval Guide and related installation recommendations from relevant FM Global Property Loss Prevention Data Sheets at your fingertips. Links to sixteen (16) FM Global Property Loss Prevention Data Sheets most often used by the roofing industry are provided. These data sheets include hundreds of pages of engineering guidelines based on 170 years of FM Global property protection research. They are available for download, free of charge.
RoofNav Support is provided by the FM Approvals RoofNav Service Desk, which can be reached by telephone or email. This is another free service that supplements the available User’s Guide (in the Help section), glossary of terms and interactive online training and pre-recorded training sessions.
To gain free access and prerecorded online training sessions on how to get the most use out of RoofNav, register at www.roofnav.com.
All Risk Logic engineers were previously employed by Factory Mutual or FM Global and utilize the RoofNav tool for roof assembly evaluations and reviews for our clients.