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Participating from IBHS will be Dr. Tanya Brown, research scientist, Remington “Rem” Brown, senior engineering manager, Wanda Edwards, director of code development, and Chuck Miccolis, commercial lines engineer. The IBHS team is one of six research teams deploying to hail damaged areas in the Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas vicinity from June 13 to June 17, 2011.
“IBHS has an extremely talented team of researchers participating in the RICOWI Hail Investigation Program,” said IBHS President & CEO Julie Rochman. “We are very pleased to be part of this important project. Hailstorms cause hundreds of millions of dollars of property damage each year, and IBHS’ participation in this program will provide us with valuable information to help guide both RICOWI and IBHS efforts to identify effective ways to reduce hail-related property damage.”
RICOWI investigation teams are mobilized when an event is identified as a hailstorm with hail stones greater than 1.5" in diameter causing significant damage covering an area of five square miles or more on one of the targeted areas. During the investigation, the team will look at areas where the hail size ranges from .5 to 1.5" in diameter to help identify the threshold hailstorm size for various roofing products and identify any minor damages that could occur.
According to RICOWI, the multi-faceted purpose of the research program is:
to investigate the field performance of roofing assemblies after major hail storms;
to factually describe roof assembly performance and modes of damage; and, to formally report the results for substantiated hail events.
RICOWI Hail Task Force Chairman Richard Herzog notes that, “The data collected will provide unbiased, detailed information on the hail resistance of low slope and steep slope roofing systems from credible investigative teams. We can expect a greater industry understanding of what causes roofs to perform or fail in hail storms, leading to overall improvements in roof system durability, the reduction of waste generation from re-roofing activities, and a reduction in insurance losses that will lead to lower overall costs for the public.”
The published findings will document roofing systems that fail or survive major hail events and provide educational materials for roofing professionals to design hail-resistant roofing systems.
