Preventing Roof Collapse Due to Snow

Michigan Winters! You never know what kind of weather we will have – heavy snow storms and accumulations and images of a winter wonderland or a unseasonably, mild, global warming conditions. However, we need to be prepared and know how to protect our buildings from possible collapsing and other damages that can occur!  Read the article below for tips & tricks to beating snow damages to your property!

Jennifer Moffitt, CIC, CWCA

 

Snow, ice and rain can add tremendous weight to roofs—causing them to collapse. The impact of roof failure can be long-lasting and traumatic. Extended shutdowns can lead to loss of customers and additional expenses. Roof collapses also can cause serious injuries and loss of life.

What’s the problem?
Flat roofs are particularly vulnerable to collapse and water damage, while metal roofing systems, steel decks and boards on joists have little ability to withstand and recover
from large loads of snow or rainfall due to their lighter construction. The main causes of rain or wet snow overloading are water “ponding” in low areas of the roof where adequate slopes to drains are not present … and drains blocked by ice, snow and other objects.
Snow drifting often becomes a problem with roofs with different sections at different heights, on the downwind side of sloped roofs, against parapets more than two feet high, and against penthouses or other roof structures. Ice weighs 57 pounds per cubic foot. Snow weights for different densities and depths are shown in the table above.

Conditions Leading to Roof Collapse

• Common conditions that may make snow-loading more likely to cause collapse include:
• Damage to roof structural members, indicated by sagging, cracks, corrosion, spalling (surface flaking on concrete) or efflorescence (white powdery appearance on concrete)
• Roofs retrofitted with insulation, where snow may not melt as it had before
• Parts of a building that are not heated for more than a day
• New items added to the roof, such as AC units and solar panels (Because these items add weight, less snow is needed for the roof’s weight capacity to be exceeded.)
• Canopies or lower roof units that have been added to the structure, because they often have a lower load capacity than the main building
• Drains, gutters and downspouts that aren’t cleaned at least quarterly

Download the entire PDF here

Snow and Ice Logs

Maintaining snow and ice logs can prove to be a valuable defense if your business becomes involved in a lawsuit resulting from a slip and fall accident.

Wendy Light

 

Some of the benefits to keeping proper snow and ice logs include:

• Serves as written proof of how diligent you are at removing snow and ice from your property;
• Promotes proper maintenance of your property that may help prevent slip and fall accidents from happening and/or reduce occurrences;
• Functions as a valuable record-keeping tool, which allows you to match up snow removal bills of sub contractors who maintain your property during the winter months.

DOWNLOAD FORM HERE

The Affordable Care Act: Immediate Benefits for Michigan

Attached is information on The Affordable Care Act and how it impacts you.

S. Donnell Masak, CIC

• Small business tax credits.  132,000 small businesses in Michigan could be helped by a new small business tax credit that makes it easier for businesses to provide coverage to their workers and makes premiums more affordable.¹  Small businesses pay, on average, 18 percent more than large businesses for the same coverage, and health insurance premiums have gone up three times faster than wages in the past 10 years.  This tax credit is just the first step towards bringing those costs down and making coverage affordable for small businesses.
• Closing the Medicare Part D donut hole. Last year, roughly 134,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Michigan hit the donut hole, or gap in Medicare Part D drug coverage, and received no extra help to defray the cost of their prescription drugs.² Medicare beneficiaries in Michigan who hit the gap this year will automatically be mailed a one-time $250 rebate check. These checks will begin to be mailed to beneficiaries in mid-June and will be mailed monthly throughout the year as new beneficiaries hit the donut hole. The new law continues to provide additional discounts for seniors on Medicare in the years ahead and completely closes the donut hole by 2020.

DOT Publishes Final Rule on Cell Phone Restrictions

A new law went into effect January 3, 2012 that restricts hand held phone usage in any vehicle that is required to have DOT numbers.  Read below for details:

Sharon Childers

DOT Publishes Final Rule on Cell Phone Restrictions
12/2/11, FMCSA & PHMSA published a joint Final Rule restricting the use of cellular phones by CMV drivers. The rule restricts the use of handheld mobile telephones and sets penalties for violators. The rule is effective January 3rd, 2012.

Download entire Final Rule here

Home Insurers Kick Around Cyberbully Coverage

Cyberbullying may not be covered under your personal liability coverage.  This article explains the insurance industry perspective.

Teresa Taylor

In recent years, a number of tragic cases have captured the public’s attention in which teenagers committed suicide after being taunted, harassed or shamed, due to invasions of privacy on sites like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

If you have a teen or a college student who is fond of social networking, the rise of cyberbullying is enough to give you gray hair. But now there’s another reason to fret over the rise of online intimidation: It could subject your family to expensive lawsuits. And incidents of cyberbullying may not be covered by your liability insurance.

Effective this fall, “cyberbullying” is an excluded offense under newly revised personal umbrella policy forms being filed nationwide by the American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS).

AAIS is an advisory group that supplies standardized policy forms to more than 700 insurance companies nationwide. In most states, the forms will be effective Oct. 1, 2011. AAIS is introducing the exclusion in response to reports of suicides by teens who were victimized by cyberbullying.

AAM Betterments & Improvements

Are you a landlord for a commercial property? Do you have tenants in which you are providing the build out in their leased space? Or are you a tenant leasing space and you just finished building out your lavish office? Who is responsible to repair/or replace after a loss?

Read on to learn how to protect your investment or better off, to make clear to your tenants that you are not responsible.

Jennifer Moffitt, CIC, CWCA

Improvements And Betterments:
Who Owns And Insures Them?

If you rent your business premises, any improvements you make—such as interior remodeling—automatically become the landlord’s property. When these improvements and betterments are damaged by fire or other insured catastrophe, who is responsible for replacing them? Since the improvements belong to the landlord, technically the tenant hasn’t lost any property. What the tenant has lost is the use of the improvements for the remainder of the lease.

Check lease wording to determine whether it permits you, as a tenant, to make improvements, whether it requires insurance for these improvements, and who must insure improvements. Since your improvements might be essential to your business operations, it’s important to determine who has responsibility for replacing them if they become damaged.

NEW Video to Help You Understand Cyber Risk

Cyber breaches are on the rise and taking longer to resolve. For businesses that experience a cyber breach, it takes an average of 14 days to resolve the attack and costs an average of $17,696 per day.  In spite of this, you may be finding that you don’t realize just how important cyber liability protection can be. You may even be noticing that there’s a general lack of awareness about the exposure; how cyber policies work; or perhaps even assumptions that existing policies will provide coverage for this type of risk.

The video will help you develop a basic understanding of cyber risk, the types of companies that are commonly exposed, what happens when a your company faces a breach and the importance of having cyber liability coverage to protect your business.

Workers Risk Severe Financial Hardship Without Basic Life And Disability Insurance

Many people do not have adequate life insurance or disability insurance.  This article explains the consequences when coverage is absent or insufficient.

S. Donnell Masak, CIC

COLUMBIA, S.C. (Dec. 5, 2011) — Many workers feel more strongly about insuring their homes and cars than insuring their ability to provide for their families after a death or disabling injury.(1) The result is a workforce underinsured for both life and disability protection — and vulnerable to severe financial hardship. The good news is employers can play a key role in providing access to this important protection and helping their employees understand their need for coverage.

That’s one of the findings in a new white paper released today by Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company. “Back to the Basics: Building a Financial Safety Net Begins with Life and Disability Insurance” uses proprietary and industry research to show the risks American workers face without basic protection and how employers can help them become better educated and obtain coverage without affecting the bottom line.

Winter Weather – Property Protection

Here are some tips to take to help prevent winter damage.

Myra K. Piper, CIC, CWCA

Cold weather freeze-ups can cause vital fire protection systems to malfunction. Cold temperatures can cause sprinkler piping to burst resulting in major water damage to buildings, contents, and equipment. Pipes bursting can also impair automatic sprinkler systems and leave a major portion of your facility without fire protection.

In the interest of preventing water damage claims for your property, designated key personnel should be aware of freeze protection and emergency preparedness procedures. Utilize PHLY’s Winter Weather Precautions Checklist and Risk Management Guidebook to assist you in building a sound risk control program.

Best Practices include: Building temperature should be monitored, documented and maintained @ 40 F or higher:
• Perform freeze protection inspections and be cognizant of shutdown procedures
• Have a contingency plan with contractors and suppliers
• Pre-emergency planning for fire, water damage and snow removal should be established
• Boilers, furnaces, heaters and flues should be serviced regularly
• 24 hour building surveillance
• Enforce a no smoking policy
• Safeguard flammable or combustible liquids

Black Ice – An Invisible Threat

 

With winter quickly approaching, black ice is on its way. This article has some safety tips which you can use to help you stay safe.

Sharon Childers

“Black Ice” results when the air temperature is warmer than that of the pavement. This causes moisture to rapidly freeze and create a thin, transparent layer of ice on the roadway, sidewalk or other surface. “Black Ice” is clear and appears to be black as the dark asphalt surface underneath shows through.

It will often form on heavily congested highways, but it may also form on roads or walkways that are situated in shaded areas, near lakes and rivers, in tunnels and on overpasses. As a result, vehicle collisions can occur along with slip and fall conditions for pedestrians. Injury and even death can result. “Black Ice” can result from snow, freezing rain, sleet, freezing fog, residual rainwater and/or groundwater, hail, man-made icy roads from breaks in outdoor sprinkler systems and water mains, and frost.

“Black Ice” can be treated with both salting and sanding, however, salt will lose its effectiveness at about 15 degrees and colder. For temperatures below 15 degrees, sand and de-icing liquids can be utilized to neutralize this condition.

From a statistical standpoint, freezing rain and resulting “Black Ice” kills more people than tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning and floods.