Illinois Residential Roofing Contractor

In arbitration a third-party arbitrator acts as a judge and renders an award that legally binds all parties, while in mediation the mediator only facilitates discussion and the parties set the terms.

Collaborative law uses no neutral mediator or arbitrator — the parties negotiate through their own advocates (usually lawyers) and are expected to settle without further ADR or litigation.

Addenda are changes to contract documents made before the contract is awarded, while modifications are changes after the contract is signed and executed and change orders are written owner-contractor agreements changing an already executed contract.

In a lump-sum contract the contractor takes essentially all the risk for a predetermined price (bearing extra costs such as weather, keeping any savings), while in cost-plus the contractor is reimbursed actual labor and material costs plus a percentage or fixed-fee markup, with payments based on actual costs and reconciled once actual costs are known.

A unit-price contract pays a calculated price per unit for the actual quantities used (appropriate when the extent of work or quantities cannot be determined in advance), unlike a lump-sum contract's single predetermined price.

In design/build the owner contracts with one company that assembles the design and construction team to carry the project from design through completed construction; turnkey adds expanded responsibilities and liability, with the contractor also obtaining financing and land.

CPM graphically shows the interdependent relationships of tasks, while calendar and bar chart methods do not show interdependencies (their weakness) — calendar scheduling's advantage is linking tasks to specific dates such as deliveries, payments, and vacations.

Free float is the time an activity can be delayed without impacting the early start of the next activity; total float is leeway without delaying the overall project completion date (zero float = critical activity).

The positive method divides an irregular roof into rectangles and adds their areas; the negative method extends roof lines into one large rectangle and subtracts the areas that are not roof — both yield identical results.

Fiberglass shingles use a fiberglass base mat saturated and covered with flexible asphalt and surfaced with mineral granules, while organic shingles use a cellulose-fiber base mat.

Channel/pan flashing extends under the roof covering along the length of the wall and is generally used with S-tile, pan-and-cover, and most interlocking tile systems, while step flashing is interwoven between courses and is used with plain (flat) tile profiles.

In wood plank or board decks nails should penetrate at least ¾ in. into the deck, whereas in plywood decks thinner than ¾ in. nails must extend a minimum of ⅛ in. through the underside.