The Six Inches That Could Cost Your Building Thousands

Replacing a roof sounds straightforward — until it isn't. For co-op and condo boards, a routine repair can spiral into a cascade of unexpected consequences, all triggered by something as small as a change in thickness. In this episode, Craig Tooman, principal at CTA Architects, talks about how today's energy code is quietly rewriting the rules of roof replacement in ways most boards never see coming. There's a high-tech solution that sounds almost too good to be true, but Tooman explains why it might not be the right call for every building. The tradeoffs are real, and boards who hear them now will be far better prepared when the time comes. Habitat's Carol Ott conducts the interview.

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Transcript

Carol Ott: Welcome to Problem Solved, a conversation about challenges facing New York co-op and condo board directors. I'm Carol Ott with Habitat Magazine. Building repairs can be daunting, and when energy codes collide with the actual physical layout of your building, getting things fixed can be mind-bending.

My guest today is Craig Tooman, principal at CTA Architects. Welcome. 

Craig Tooman: Thank you, Carol. 

Carol Ott: So imagine you're on your board and you're replacing your building's roof. You've planned, you've raised the funds, you've got the contractor, and then there's a hitch. The penthouse shareholder has just learned that they are about to lose their Hudson River view all because of six inches.

Craig, what just happened, and what is this six inches about? 

Craig Tooman: So what just happened is that the energy code collided with our difficult penthouse tenant. And what just happened is that the layers that are used to assemble the new roof are six inches thicker than the layers that were part of the existing roof, which effectively means that the walking surface for our affectionately loved tenant becomes six inches higher, and there are repercussions.

The repercussions being that because the code requires a minimum height of a parapet or a railing around a terrace of three foot six inches, in many cases, raising the terrace level by six inches reduces the perimeter protection to below what's required by code, which means that we have to raise the parapets or the railings, and in this particular case, our difficult tenant has six inches less sight line of the beautiful Hudson River than he or she had before.

Carol Ott: Aside from that, which I know can be major in a building and is probably a lawsuit, but aside from that, if you did have to raise your parapet, okay, so you put some more bricks, or what else is involved for the building's expense and intrusion? 

Craig Tooman: So the majority of our properties are existing buildings in Manhattan, and the terraces and the doors that access those terraces are often low.

So you open up your doors, you walk out, and you have a relatively low step. If we're increasing the height of the terrace, then all of a sudden your step becomes lower on the outside, potentially becomes negative. Potentially your roof surface is above the saddle of your terrace door . More importantly and almost always, we don't get the necessary eight inches of the upturn of the bathtub that is required for a roof warranty.

So in this particular case, we would have to raise the saddle of the door, and what that means is we often have to raise the head of the door as well because we're required to have a minimum height for a door. And so then we're inside our difficult penthouse terrace owner's apartment to raise the door.

Carol Ott: But the parapet may extend beyond the penthouse's area of the roof, correct? 

Craig Tooman: Y- yes. Some of our penthouses go all the way around. Some of our penthouses are limited to a portion. But yes, it's the same problem around the whole perimeter.

But in the back where we have, a more amenable tenant, we may not have the problem that we have on the front where we have our difficult tenant who has a beautiful view. 

Carol Ott: And if my building didn't have a penthouse shareholder, but we had a roof deck, for instance, and we needed to replace the roof, how would that affect everything else, or how would those six inches affect everything?

Craig Tooman: So it's the same problem, and particularly these days when we're providing amenity spaces on the roofs of our co-ops and condos to make our properties more valuable and our apartments more saleable, we have rooftop amenities. If we're replacing the roof at the top of the building where we had a roof deck, as you said, we would have to raise that surface six inches, so the access doors, if you had an elevator going up there, your elevator would have to stop six inches higher.

All your bulkhead doors would have to be six inches higher which means an additional step on the inside, which is maybe a problem because everybody knows in our Upper West Side co-ops and condos, those landings are all very narrow, and so maybe we don't have the space to add a step. And then we have the perimeter parapet.

Most of our roofs are surrounded by a masonry parapet, and if that parapet is exactly three foot, six inches, then now all of a sudden it's three feet and we have to add six inches on the top, either by adding a couple of bricks or by adding a railing. 

Carol Ott: Is this energy code relatively new? 

Craig Tooman: Yeah. The energy code, the latest energy code is the 2025 energy code. But we have been battling this same problem for about five years now since the last iteration of the energy code. So it's been something that we've been dealing with for half a decade. 

Carol Ott: And are there alternatives or a way out of this six inches?

Craig Tooman: So this is the problem solved part of this conversation, Carol. So yes, there are alternatives, and there's one that's being used a lot these days. It has its downsides, but let's just talk about its upsides. 

Carol Ott: First. 

Craig Tooman: First. So our new roof assembly that has to comply with energy code requires approximately six inches of insulation.

The roofs that we're removing, typically in the '80s and '90s, we put in an inch and a half, two inches of insulation. If we're ripping up a pre-war building, sometimes those terraces are original and there's no insulation at all. So what we're trying to do is to get as close as possible to the current walking surface in these buildings that we're talking about as where the existing surface is.

In order to do that, we need to reduce the thickness of the insulation, and in order to do that, we need an insulation that has a higher R-value, because we're required to have an R-value of 33 to meet the current energy code. 

Carol Ott: And R-value means? 

Craig Tooman: R-value is the resistance or the insulating value of the insulation that you put in.

 So our normal insulation that we use in a concealed roofing assembly is a polyisocyanurate. It has an R-value of about six, and if we have to make our current roof meet the energy code, and therefore the R-value 33, that's where the six inches comes in. 33 divided by 6 is 5 1/2, but you can't get a 5 1/2 inch board, so you have a six-inch board.

So there is a new insulation on the market. It's been on the market for about 10 years, but it's being used more and more in these applications, and it's called a VIP panel, a vacuum insulating panel. And what it is it is an insulating material wrapped in a foil from which that air is extracted, because air is not a good insulator.

And so if you can remove the air from the insulation, you then have the full strength of the insulation, and we're able to get R-values of between 30 and 50 per inch with VIP panel, VIP panels So what that means is that in order to meet the 33 R-value, we can put in one inch of insulation, which means that our difficult tenant on the penthouse no longer has this problem of their door saddles, no longer loses their view when they're sitting on their cushy sofa.

And the roof deck potentially doesn't have to add additional protection around the perimeter, and therefore we don't have to put a sidewalk bridge. There's all these other secondary issues with raising the roof level by six inches. 

Carol Ott: That sounds like we've got a solution. What's the downside? 

Craig Tooman: So the downside is that it is more expensive, as everything. But, this is not a normal insulation. So when you go to Home Depot, you can see polyisocyanurate, you can see polystyrene on the shelf. This is not what this insulation is. It is a vacuum-sealed panel that is specifically designed for the roof which it is replacing.

So the manufacturers provide you with a shop drawing, and they design each individual panel to be put up on the roof in this exact sort of Tetris kind of way. 

Carol Ott: I see. 

Craig Tooman: And the problem is also that it can't be walked on. So what happens is they end up installing it in channels, and then we have problems around penetrations and roofs and typically the perimeter where we have to allow for some mistakes, let's say.

And it's more expensive, it's more difficult to put down, and it's not very forgiving. So our roofers, you and I know what our roofers are like, and they are not used to being so delicate with a material like this. And so , one of the biggest problems is if the roofers, being the roofers that they are, parade around on the top of these vacuum panels, they can pop the panel.

We would never know, we as your architects, and you lose its entire insulating or 90% of its insulating value. 

Carol Ott: Just give me a sense, the panel, are they long strips? Are they squares? 

Craig Tooman: I think they're up to four foot by four foot, so they're squares. But they're gonna come in little pieces because it's like a puzzle.

So when you get your shop drawings from the manufacturer, whether it's Kingspan or Panasonic it's literally like a puzzle. You'll have your roof plan, and you'll have all these little pieces of insulation numbered, and they're gonna come that way from the manufacturer on a truck.

And our delicate roofers are going to be able to place them very nicely, perfectly along the roof. We all know that doesn't happen. 

Carol Ott: And let's just say that the roofer, has had experience with this and okay, so they step on one panel and wreck one panel. 

Craig Tooman: If it's one panel, then they can get another panel.

But the problem is that you could step on this thing and pop it and nobody would know. So then all of a sudden your roof has a cold spot. Is that a problem? It might be, it might not be. But, if you have a full roof that has an insulating value of 33 or 36, and then in the middle you have zero, we might have a cold spot.

We might have a difficult tenant down below that might be right above the shower, and it's freezing cold in the shower all the time, and nobody can figure out why. There may be a condensation problem because there's no insulation there. 

Carol Ott: And what happens if we'll put aside the the penthouse shareholder for a moment. We have all shareholders who can't afford penthouse apartments. But we do have a roof deck. 

Craig Tooman: Yes. 

Carol Ott: And so we've decided we wanna go with these panels. 

Can we put our roof deck back down on top of them?

Craig Tooman: No, you can't. You're either gonna have a roof where the membrane is exposed and the insulation is under the membrane, or the membrane is under the insulation and the insulation is exposed. But in either case, because of this particular delicate nature of the insulation, we have to cover it.

So even in the roof assembly where it's concealed, there is a panel that goes on top, and if it's a Narma roof where the roof membrane is underneath, then we also have a protective layer that goes on top to prevent it from being punctured. 

Carol Ott: So I'm not sure you answered my question.

Can I put my roof deck back on top of this delicate panel? 

Craig Tooman: Yes, but we have to protect it with a protective layer. So yes. We have a modified assembly that will include a cement board of some kind that has a high compressive strength so that the roof deck feet don't puncture the insulation below.

And yeah, so absolutely we can assemble a roof that will allow you to put your deck back down. 

Carol Ott: So when should a board consider this solution? 

Craig Tooman: I think the board should consider this solution when ... All of our boards have money issues, right? I think the biggest issue is the secondary costs of a thicker roof insulation.

So if you have to raise your parapets because you're in a landmark district and you can't put a fence on, let's say, and there are any number of reasons. Or the board is adamant about they don't want fences at the roof, they wanna have the parapet raised. Then all of a sudden you have to put sidewalk sheds down on the street.

Sidewalk sheds cost $150 a linear foot. If you're a corner building, it's two facades and it's tens of thousands of dollars. It's raising doors. In some cases on the penthouse, you may not actually be able to raise the door. Maybe the doors are right up against the ceiling, so in order to raise it six inches and you have a six foot eight inch door, you have to chop t- six inches off the bottom of the door, so then you have a six foot two inch door.

I'm six foot two. I would sue. So in my opinion, it's always better to put in a standard insulation because it allows for modifications down the line. If you wanna put in vacuum panels, you can't, for instance, put in another drain. You can't put the supports for solar panels through it so you have to design for it up front.

So I would say that if cost is an issue, and it always is, but it is mitigated by other issues, then there's a calculation that has to be made. But I believe that these roofs that stay in place for 10, 15, usually almost 25 years, you have to have some flexibility in the future, and these VIP panels do not give you that.

Carol Ott: So for boards and for any building owner, the energy code really forces a realignment either of the parapet or railings or something if you're gonna replace your roof. Is that accurate? 

Craig Tooman: Yes, that's entirely accurate. And it's forcing, design choices on the entire envelope as well as systems in buildings these days.

But yeah, we're talking about roofs and absolutely, you have to make this decision. 

Carol Ott: And it and perhaps then it does come down to cost and future flexibility, what you're willing to trade off. 

Craig Tooman: Yeah. And look, if you have high parapets and you have high door saddles, it's a non-issue. Then you put in the six-inch insulation.

Who knows what happens with the energy code down the line. I'm sure we will increase the required R-ratings for our roof assembly. 

Carol Ott: So you have to weigh everything, 

Craig Tooman: Yeah. 

Carol Ott: Thank you very much. I think for those of us who are considering replacing roofs, this is certainly good to know.

I appreciate you joining me today. 

Craig Tooman: Thank you, Carol. It's been a pleasure talking to you. 

Carol Ott: That was Craig Tooman, principal at CTA Architects, and I'm Carol Ott, and this is Habitat's Problem Solved, a series that dives into dozens of real-world examples of everything co-op and condo boards face as they try to maintain and position their buildings for the future.

Experts provide cost-saving tips, board-focused strategy, and of course, lessons learned. If you're a board member with your own story to share, we'd love to hear from you. Get in touch online at habitatmag.com or use the contact details in the monthly print magazine. Thank you. 

Craig Tooman: Thank you.