How roofing standards become reality

By Emma Peterson.

Bob Zabcik explains how industry standards are developed, how they relate to building codes and what product testing actually looks like.

Recently, Robert (Bob) Zabcik stopped by for a short interview all about codes and standards for metal roof edges. Bob has been the technical director for the Metal Construction Association (MCA) since 2020, making him an excellent source for insights. In this role, he works closely with the association and its membership to “develop new codes and standards for the industry as well as help members navigate the complex compliance paths that already exist in the industry.” During our conversation, he dove into the why, what and how behind the testing that goes into creating codes and standards.

The why

We started with discussing why these standards, which require products to go through testing, matter. And the answers go back to safety a lot of the time. As Bob put it, “A lot of standards and requirements are developed in the aftermath of storms and storm investigations.” The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA)’s investigation post-Hurricane Ian in Florida is a great example of this. Bob recalled:

When FEMA did their investigation for Hurricane Ian in Florida, they went and looked at a lot of different buildings, mostly residential. And what they found is that the weak point on a lot of damaged roofs was where two roof planes meet, which can be a ridge or a hip. And after they made the report of this weak spot, they worked with the MCA to develop or implement tests that push the industry to build stronger products to protect those weak spots.

The what

What did those tests that they developed or implemented look like? Bob clarified that there are two ways to apply the scopes of tests in relation to codes and standards, “There's the scope of the standards themselves but the building codes might modify that to meet a specific need or provide needed clarity.” He elaborated, “The standards tend to have broader scope, where the building code changes tend to focus on certain aspects.”

Bob described how this played out after what happened post-Hurricane Ian:

The American National Standard designation for the edge metal test is FTS-1 and it was developed prior to Hurricane Ian. FTS-1 natively applies to any situation where a roof has two different planes or non-coplanar surfaces that meet. But the scope for the change in the Florida Building Code was limited, just relating to hip and ridge, because that’s where they saw the need.

The how

The last thing that Bob dove into was how these tests are actually performed. And the answer was far simpler than one might have imagined. Bob explained, “It’s not very exciting to watch. A good example is one of the tests we used for demonstration purposes.” He went on, “In that test they use a hand-actuated pully system to test the strength of the join between the two planes. And that’s really it.”