10/15/2020
SIKA SARNAFIL BECOMES FIRST PVC ROOFING MANUFACTURER TO ACHIEVE FM GLOBAL VERY SEVERE HAIL RATING
Sika Sarnafil, the worldwide market leader in PVC roofing and waterproofing membranes, is pleased to announce its recent roofing assembly approvals of FM Global’s Very Severe Hail Rating.
FM Approvals is an international leader in third-party certifications known for their rigorous and demanding approvals standards. FM Approvals and FM Global have worked together to help reduce property losses due to large hail. Sarnafil has become the first PVC roofing membrane to achieve approvals for Very Severe Hail over a gypsum board under FM Approval’s latest very severe hail rating tests.
“We’re thrilled with the new Sarnafil PVC approvals! The fact that these include the first approvals in the PVC industry over a gypsum board rather than plywood or OSB really stands out to us,” said Stan Graveline, SVP of Technical Services & Sustainability. “Sarnafil is the first PVC membrane to achieve what no others have been able to do, once again reinforcing our claim that Sika Sarnafil is the leader in thermoplastic PVC membranes for roofing and waterproofing applications.”
FM Global, along with FM Approvals, has been working diligently to test the effectiveness of roofing industry products against several types of extreme weather events. In 2018, FM Global updated their Loss Prevention data Sheet 1-34, implementing more severe requirements for achieving the Very Severe Hail (VSH) designation and expanding the area defined to be subjected to VSH in the USA.
The new hail zone map Very Severe Hail in the United States now includes Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Wyoming. Other areas affected are Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and some parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, and New Mexico.
“It’s clear that the weather in the United States has become more extreme over the last decade,” explains Bill Bellico, Director of Marketing and Inside Sales. “While we wish we didn’t have to build our roofing systems to handle these types of extreme conditions, we’re happy to be able to offer our customers a variety of ways to protect themselves and their investments for many years.”
FM Approvals is finalizing their reports and the Sika Sarnafil Approved systems with Very Severe Hail ratings will be available on RoofNav soon.