A Customer's Experience
APPLICAD – FINDING A GOOD THING
Every contractor worth their “salt” sticks with a good thing when they find it. Contracting is a business that on
its very best day can be cruel to the unprepared or disorganized. Your business depends on speed and accuracy
which are diametrically opposed to one another.
Doing an accurate quote is critical and begins with a precise material takeoff. The takeoff requires patience,
understanding of what is to be furnished and a lot of uninterrupted time to calculate how many of each thing
is required for the project.
Such is the everyday routine at Roof Hugger, Inc.; a company that produces sub-purlins and other framing
materials for the re-roofing of existing steel roofs. Unfortunately for Roof Hugger is the fact that every retrofit
framing estimate is controlled by the new steel roof being provided. Depending on the panel being used the
framing for each zone in the roof can be different. This was slowing the estimating to a crawl for some projects
plus creating several possibilities for errors. No software existed to assist with the estimating, so long hours
and team estimating were often necessary.
That is until Roof Hugger’s owner Dale Nelson met AppliCad’s owner Ray Smith and his lead programmer
Leigh Menzel at the Metalcon Trade Show. Ray and Leigh demonstrated the impressive Applicad software.
Showing its accuracy in drawing in 3-D, doing metal roof panel layout and cut lengths, scrap utilization,
fastener and clip takeoffs, calculating gutters, trim and much more with total accuracy.
Unfortunately for us however the software was not designed specifically for our needs to do retrofit framing
and so the story could have ended there except for the attitude and skill of Ray and Leigh. “No problem” they
said “we can easily add the features you need”. “Sure!” I thought. But it wasn’t long after that they showed me
a prototype incorporating the framing features we needed.
The modifications defined the roof zones and allows us to insert the needed materials in each zone the way we
need them placed. It calculates the quantities of each item, the fasteners needed and in addition to all that, it
creates a wonderful 3-D drawing showing each component, while providing a most impressive presentation drawing.
We at Roof Hugger have found a good thing and plan to stick with it from now on. We also made a couple of
great friends in Ray and Leigh who are always standing behind us when the inevitable complication arises.
Looking for a way to automate your takeoffs, proposals and create cutting detail drawings as well as presentation
drawings? Check out AppliCad, we found a really good thing and think you will agree!
About RoofHugger:
Since 1991, ROOF HUGGER has grown to become the leader in metal-over-metal retrofit technologies with
headquarters in the Tampa Florida area, fabrication facilities in four states and sales offices in Dallas Texas.
Today, ROOF HUGGER products have been and continue to be tested in accordance with the most rigid
industry standards. This simple re-roofing method offers new code compliance, simple upgrades to
standing seam roofs, energy savings and an easy way to use the new metal roof as a cash generating
platform by adding solar thermal hot water and photovoltaic electric systems, allowing the building owner
to turn a re-roofing “Expense” into an “Investment”.
ROOF HUGGER, INC. has now “Hugged” nearly 60 million square feet of new metal roofs installed throughout
the United States, five foreign countries and elsewhere offshore. Our client list includes the Army, Navy,
Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, State and Private Schools, Departments of Transportation, Utility Companies,
Car Dealers, Mini Storage facilities, Airports and more.
Dale Nelson, President
Roof Hugger, Inc.
1 800 771 1711
sales@roofhugger.com
A business doesn't make money costing, quoting, designing, documenting, drawing, scheduling, organising
and managing. These things are important, however, you only make money installing the roof. AppliCad will
significantly reduce the time spent on non-income-earning administration, and significantly speed up the
actual income earning task of supplying and installing roofing.