Building safer and stronger roof assemblies

By Emma Peterson. 

How SPRI and DORA help the roofing industry prepare for increasingly extreme weather events. 

As each year passes, we see the intensity and frequency of storms, fires and other weather events continue to increase. In fact, NASA data released in 2025 found that “Extreme events are becoming more frequent, longer-lasting and more severe, with [2024’s] figures reaching twice that of the 2003-2020 average.” What can we do in the face of the increasing storms? Build stronger.  

To learn more about the role of tested, code-compliant roofing products and assemblies in combatting rising weather concerns, Heidi J. Ellsworth hosted Chadwick Collins, the technical director of the Single Ply Roofing Industry (SPRI), for an episode of Roofing Road Trips®. 

Addressing weather concerns is not a new initiative at SPRI. Chadwick explained, “The first standards we worked on were around roof edge design to avoid wind uplift. That was in the 1990s. So, we've always been supportive of investigating the problems and providing the best solutions out there to help people address those issues and we continue to do that to this day.” 

One of the results of this dedication is DORA, also known as the Directory of Roof Assemblies. DORA provides contractors, designers and other construction professionals with a comprehensive, third-party list of roof assembly and product performance in the face of extreme winds and other weather concerns. Chadwick added some context, saying, “The original mission when DORA was created was to create a database to help anyone that wanted to identify a roof system to meet Chapter 15 of the International Building Code. We started with wind resistance requirements. We have since added impact data to those requirements in Chapter 15 and are working to incorporate fire classification information in the future.”  

Interested in using DORA for an upcoming project? It’s both free and easy to use! Chadwick gave a brief explanation:  

When you go to the SPRI website, there's a big button that says DORA on it. Once you click that, you’ll be on DORA’s page. The home page has instructions and then there’s a search button on the top left. By clicking that, you’ll see a bunch of different boxes with different categories of dropdown menus.  

From there, you can use those menus to search the database from a number of different perspectives. Maybe you prefer a certain manufacturer and want to find a high-performance product from them, or maybe you have a specific wind uplift number to reach – you can search based on both or either of those criteria in DORA.  

At the end of the day, as Chadwick put it, “The only limitation to finding a result in DORA is that if a manufacturer has put the information in the database and made it available.” 

Listen to the whole podcast or Watch the recording to learn more about SPRI and DORA.