FM Approved roof assemblies are one of the most trusted and specified roofing systems in the world. Yet, selecting the right FM Approved assembly from over one million options can be a daunting task. Geographic location, type of facility, protection against natural hazards, fire exposure, and other considerations can complicate the decision process.
Fortunately, there's RoofNav from FM Approvals, the free online roofing selection and project management tool designed to provide step-by-step guidance in how to identify, specify, configure, and install various roofing assemblies and components that comprise an FM Approved assembly.
Introduced in 2005, RoofNav.com is used by thousands of contractors, architects, consultants, designers, specifiers, and manufacturers in countries around the world. RoofNav allows roofing professionals to select the right assemblies to address property threats and protect facilities by putting at their fingertips all engineering and technical information on more than 9,200 FM Approved roofing products and almost 1.2 million FM Approved roofing assemblies. Additionally, RoofNav offer access to the 16 FM Global Property Loss Prevention Data Sheets most used by the roofing industry.
In a recent survey of RoofNav users (fig 1), FM Approvals discovered that while the RoofNav application saves users many hours in roof assembly selection, there is room for improvement.
“RoofNav users have been telling us for a while that they’d like to see a more intelligent search engine,” notes Phil Smith, FM Approvals vice president and building materials manager. “Right now, it is possible for users to enter all of their roofing criteria and hit the search button and get zero results. That’s frustrating and a waste of time.” The new RoofNav will eliminate that possibility.
The second major advancement is the ability to exclude a roof layer from search criteria. For example: to find assemblies that do not contain a required thermal barrier.
FM Approvals and the FM Global IT organization is working to move the RoofNav application to a new platform that offers more powerful capabilities, including a guided search that continually directs the user to available options as criteria are added. The revamped system will continually evaluate the user’s search criteria and eliminate options based on design needs (fig 2).
“Our key goal in moving the RoofNav application to a more powerful, modern platform is to introduce a more user-friendly look and feel, a more intuitive search engine that helps save the user time and deliver meaningful results with every search,” notes Julius Tancinco, FM Approvals product owner for the agile development project.
According to Tancinco, the RoofNav application will be moved from its current in-house IT platform to a cloud-based environment that will provide a faster response, especially for users outside of North America. This is particularly important because more than 30% of RoofNav users are located outside the U.S.
“We’re not eliminating any of the features that users love in RoofNav,” says Phil Smith. “The system will still allow users to collect and organize project information in a centralized, online system so all the members of project team view the same information. Our focus is on improving the search experience and make it easier for experienced and novice users alike to find what they need faster with less frustration.”
Beyond its search capabilities, RoofNav enables the user to print a Contractor Package that summarizes information for an FM Approved roof assembly with specific project selections and securement details. The Contractor Package provides an at-a-glance view of the roofing project that can be shared by designers, contractors, building owners, and authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) to help reduce miscommunication and errors.
While a rollout date has not yet been set for the improved version of RoofNav, the development group has begun testing the system with a select group of users. Visit RoofNav.com and become a registered user for the latest updates on the new system.