An ounce of prevention is, as they say, worth a pound of cure — and that’s doubly true when your commercial building is at stake. Most commercial roofs have the potential to last anywhere from 10 to 40+ years, and besides the material you choose and your local climate, the quality of your commercial roof maintenance is the most important deciding factor.
That, in short, means it’s absolutely essential to get commercial roof repair needs taken care of as soon as they arise. The problem? You might not always know when something’s amiss. Let’s fix that together with a quick look at the most common problem areas — and a guide on how to make sure your budding roofing issues never have the chance to spin out of control.
Call Your Commercial Roofing Contractor If You Notice Any of These Issues On Your Roof!
Curious what kinds of problems a commercial roofing company runs into on a daily basis? Commercial roofs are usually massive and complex, with lots of penetrations you wouldn’t come across on residential roofs. A lot can go wrong — especially without a solid commercial roof maintenance plan — but these are some of the top issues.
Ponding Water
Ponding water is a surprisingly common issue with commercial flat roofs — and yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like. Any flat roof can develop ponding, but some materials are more vulnerable. They include BUR, TPO, and EPDM.
A badly installed roof with an insufficient slope, severe weather, and settling that occurs over time are all among the possible culprits, but a clogged drainage system has to be the Number One offender. That’s a shame, because maintaining your drainage is such a simple job! Get it taken care of, because the worst-case scenario you’re looking at is roof collapse!
Roof Leaks
Fixing leaks may be one of the most common roof repair services for roofers to spend their time on, but “roof leak” is more of an umbrella term (excuse the pun!) than anything else. Almost anything can cause a leak, from rusty fasteners on a metal roof to worn-out flashing and storm damage. Before we can carry out commercial roof repair, we have to work out precisely what the problem is — and while it’s sometimes painfully obvious, it can also take a little sleuthing in some cases.
Single-Ply Membrane Punctures
Single-ply membrane roofs like TPO and EPDM are cost-effective, pretty durable, and energy efficient — but these commercial roofing systems do have a weakness. They’re vulnerable to punctures. Ironically, attempts at DIY commercial roof maintenance are one of the causes. When people who don’t know what they’re doing walk on your roof, punctures often follow them. Tree branches and other debris can have the same effect.
Patching punctures is a very common commercial roof repair job, and while we can do it, it’s quite time-intensive. That makes doing whatever you can to prevent punctures (including keeping unqualified people off your roof!) so important.
Loose or Missing Flashing
Flashing is that material you see around your roof’s most vulnerable spots — like vents, HVAC units, and skylights. Those “penetrations” are a place where water can get into your commercial building more easily, and flashing essentially acts as a bodyguard.
Stormy weather and time can both cause it to become damaged or go AWOL, however, and that’s when you enter the leak zone. On the plus side, a skilled commercial roofing contractor can get that commercial roof repair job sorted for you in no time!
Blistering Roofing Membranes
This is an interesting commercial roof repair job, because blistering can happen for a few different reasons. UV rays (yes, the hot summer sun you’re probably enjoying!) are one of the usual suspects, but poor installation and neglecting to get regular commercial roof inspections and roof repair can also lead to blistering.
How Can Your Commercial Roofing Contractor Help You Prevent These Common Issues?
The most common commercial roof repair jobs — and others that we didn’t look at here — might help roofing teams like Titan run a profitable business, but they’re not so great for your bottom line. The saddest part? Many of these roof repair needs are either entirely preventable or fixable at a much earlier point than we usually catch them at.
There’s a reason committing to a professional commercial roof inspection every year, twice a year, is the best investment you could possibly make in your business roof. When we catch things that are about to become a problem before they spiral out of control, your roof repair costs are much lower, and the fix is simpler and faster.
Remember when your roofers gave you an estimate for how long your roof could last? Roof inspections will help you get to the upper range of that number, and sometimes even beyond it. Not too shabby, right?
(Think You Might) Need Commercial Roof Repair? Titan Will Sort It!
You might be here because you’ve spotted one of the commercial roofing problems we covered — or simply because you want to do everything in your power to keep your business roof going strong. Titan Roofing and Construction in both cases!
If you can’t remember the last time a commercial roofing company inspected your roof, ask our roofing team when we can come to give it a full “diagnostic scan.” If you have any of the issues we looked at here, or any others, we can get straight to work on fixing them. We’ll let you know what we can do to make sure your roof makes it into old age from there!
