Commercial RoofingBased in Fort Worth, TX

The Difference

Worth knowing before the inspection.

PVC looks much like TPO from the parking lot and is welded the same way, but it stands up better to grease and chemicals. That makes it the usual pick over a restaurant kitchen, where exhaust fans leave fats on the roof that soften other membranes over time. EPDM is the black rubber roof, laid in wide sheets with taped or glued seams. It has been used on flat roofs for decades and copes well with hail and big temperature swings, because rubber stays flexible in both heat and cold. Its black surface soaks up heat, and as it ages the seams and perimeter flashing are where it starts to let go. An EPDM roof can reach thirty years with most of its field still sound, while the trouble collects at the edges and around every pipe and vent that passes through it.

Built-up roofing is the oldest of the flat systems and still one of the toughest. It is made of alternating layers of asphalt and reinforcing felt, often finished with gravel or a mineral cap sheet, and those layers give it a thickness no single-ply sheet can match. Foot traffic from rooftop mechanical service visits does less harm to a built-up roof than to a thin membrane, and so does hail. The trade-off is weight, since a gravel-surfaced roof is heavy enough that the structure has to be designed for it, and the work is slower because it involves hot asphalt or torch-applied layers. Modified bitumen is its modern cousin, delivered in rolls. On older commercial buildings around Fort Worth, a built-up roof is often what is already there, and the first question is whether it can be kept going with repairs or has reached the point of replacement.

Silicone coatings give a third answer between repair and replacement. The coating is sprayed or rolled over an existing roof that is still sound underneath, and it cures into a continuous rubbery skin with no seams at all. Silicone tolerates standing water better than acrylic coatings, which matters on flat roofs where a low spot can hold a puddle for days after a storm, and its bright white finish reflects summer heat. A coating can add years to a tired membrane or an old metal roof for a fraction of the cost of a tear-off, and with far less upheaval for the people working below. The catch is what lies beneath it. If the insulation under the membrane is wet, a coating seals that water in, so core samples or a moisture scan have to show the roof is dry before a coating is the right call.

Most flat roof leaks start at a detail. Parapet walls, rooftop mechanical curbs, pipe boots, skylights and drains are all places where the membrane has to turn a corner or wrap around something, and the sun and the building's movement work on each of those joints every day. Blocked drains and scuppers make it worse, because water that cannot leave a flat roof sits there adding weight until it finds the weakest point. Waterproofing is the work that deals with these transitions, along with walls and other surfaces where water tends to get in. A leak that shows up over a store aisle can start forty feet away, since water often travels along the deck or the top of the insulation before it finds a way down, so tracing it back to the detail that let it in is most of the job.

A roof over a working business comes with a scheduling problem as well as a roofing one. Tenants still need to open, customers still need somewhere to park, and a restaurant cannot shut its kitchen for a week. On a commercial reroof the practical questions are where material gets staged, what happens to parking, when the loudest stages run and how the building is kept dry overnight while part of the roof is open. We work to keep the disruption to your business as small as the roof allows. The estimate is the place to tell us about delivery times, opening hours, sensitive equipment under the roof or anything else the job has to work around, so the plan accounts for them before the first day on site.

A commercial roof that looks worn out can sometimes be repaired or coated for a good while longer, and a roof that looks fine from the parking lot can be wet all the way through. Age alone does not settle it. What settles it is how much of the insulation is still dry and how the seams and flashings are holding up. On industrial buildings metal roofing is common, alongside built-up systems, EPDM, PVC and TPO membranes and silicone coatings, and the same questions apply to a large-scale plant or warehouse roof as to a strip center. Call (817) 988-9509 or send the form to set up a free inspection of your building. You will get a clear estimate for the system that fits it, whether that turns out to be a repair, a coating or a new roof.