About NRCIA
Four generations, one instruction.
A Connecticut builder taught his son to follow the water. Sixty years later that sentence is a national standard, and the family is still answerable for it.
Water is like a lazy man. It finds the easiest way in.
Les Watrous heard that from his father on a roof in 1964. Everything the Association does is an attempt to write it down precisely enough that somebody else can follow it.
1600s to 1700s
From Waterhouse to Watrous
Family records trace the Watrous line in Connecticut through the earlier name Waterhouse, which passed through forms including Waterous before settling into Watrous. Generations later, water would take on a second meaning in a family trade built around keeping it out.
1864 to 1978
Two generations of builders
Stephen C. Watrous worked as a Connecticut contractor and builder, and his sons and grandsons followed him into the trades. His son Paul Layton Watrous carried the craft forward, along with a practical understanding of how a building actually behaves.
1964
A father teaches his son to follow the water
Working beside his father on a roof, Les Watrous received an instruction short enough to remember on a ladder. Water is like a lazy man. It finds the easiest way in.
Follow the path the water takes. Look past the obvious. Understand how the whole system will behave.
The problem
One roof, three answers
Les spent years watching owners and agents collect conflicting assessments on the same roof, each one shaped by the job a contractor hoped to sell. He held that an inspection should begin with evidence and end with a document that stands on its own.
1993
A process becomes a system
The LeakFREE® Process and the Five-Zone Inspection Methodology take shape. Five zones, worked in order, on every roof: interior, attic, perimeter, exterior environment, rooftop. The purpose was to replace assumptions with evidence.
1995
A standard becomes a mission
The National Roof Certification Association is founded to carry the method beyond one company. In 2009 the name changes to the National Roof Certification and Inspection Association, because inspection had become the centre of the work.
Today
Four generations in, rebuilding the foundation
The Watrous family still leads the Association, four generations on from the first builder in the line. They are running the most thorough rebuild since the founding: governance, standards, accreditation, education, technology, and the InspectionPLUS® platform. The instruction on the ladder has not changed. Everything built around it is being rebuilt.
- From Waterhouse to Watrous.
- From builder to inspector.
- From keeping water out of buildings to thinking like a raindrop.
- From a process to a profession.
- From a profession, came a standard.
Know what you actually have up there
An accredited NRCIA member inspects to the published standard, documents what the roof is doing, and hands you a report you can take to a buyer, a lender, or a carrier.
You bring the expertise. We back it with a standard.
Accreditation, training, and the systems behind the credential. Built by roofers, for roofers, and held to the same Code every member signs.