Services
Commercial roofing
Flat and low-slope systems for businesses, inspected on a schedule so a small failure stays a small failure.
The approach
Low-slope roofs fail slowly, then all at once
A flat roof does not shed water; it holds it and drains it. That makes drainage, not material, the thing most worth watching — ponding, blocked scuppers, dust packed into a low spot after a monsoon. Small drainage problems are cheap while they are still small.
Which is the case for looking at it on a schedule rather than after a tenant calls. A documented condition record, photographed each time, also makes the difference between arguing about when something started and knowing.
Drainage
Nearly every flat-roof problem is a drainage problem
The failure that closes a business is rarely a dramatic one. It is water that stood somewhere it should have drained, for a season, until it found a seam.
Blowing dust is the local complication. A monsoon packs grit into low spots, into scuppers and into internal drains, and a roof that drained perfectly well last summer does not this one — with nothing having changed about the roof itself. That is a maintenance problem masquerading as a roofing problem, and it is cheap to solve while it is still the former.
Standing water also punishes whatever is under it harder than sun alone does. It holds heat, holds grit against the surface, and stays long after the weather has moved on.
The other trades
Most of the holes were made by somebody else
On a commercial roof the penetrations multiply over time and mostly not because of roofing work. An HVAC unit gets replaced, a contractor runs new conduit, a sign or an antenna gets mounted, a line is fed through for a tenant fit-out.
Each one is a hole in the roof sealed by whoever made it, to whatever standard they work to, and nobody tells the roof. This is why a roof with no roofing history at all can still have four new leak paths in it since the last time anyone looked, and it is one of the strongest arguments for looking on a schedule rather than on an incident.
For property managers
What the documentation is actually for
If you manage buildings rather than own one, the roof is a line item you have to defend, and the useful output of an inspection is not the opinion — it is the record.
A photographed condition record, taken on a schedule, is what turns an argument into a fact. When something starts, you can show when it started. When a budget request goes up the chain, it goes with evidence attached rather than an adjective. And when a tenant reports a stain, the question of whether this is new or whether it is the thing photographed eighteen months ago has an answer.
We work the same way on a portfolio as on one building: the whole roof, photographed, findings explained before anyone talks about work or cost.
The inspection
What gets looked at
The whole roof, photographed, with the findings explained before anyone talks about work or cost — the same way every job here starts.
- Ponding and drainage, including scuppers and internal drains
- Seams, laps and terminations
- Flashing at parapets, curbs and anywhere the roof meets something vertical
- Penetrations — units, conduit, vents, and anything added after the roof went on
- Traffic paths and any damage from servicing equipment on the roof
- Signs of water that has already got into the deck or the building
Questions
The ones we get asked about this work
How often should a commercial roof be inspected?
Does an inspection disrupt the tenants?
We have several buildings. Can they be looked at together?
The roof is not leaking. What would an inspection even find?
Everything else we do
Request an inspection
Find out what your roof actually needs
Tell us where the roof is and what you are seeing. A licensed contractor walks it, photographs it, and shows you the findings. Free, and no obligation.