The roof on your commercial property is a long-term investment. A flat roof system is designed to protect the entire building from UV rays, damp weather, and inefficient temperatures. A good commercial flat roof lasts between 20-25 years when properly installed and maintained throughout the roof’s lifespan. Maintaining your commercial roof on a schedule and in response to storm damage can ensure that your roof’s minor issues of storm damage or age are repaired promptly instead of becoming a source of significant water damage in the future.
Here at Hound Roofing, we work with business owners and property managers to take care of maintaining flat commercial roofs across The Triangle, North Carolina area. We will help you create a maintenance schedule, put together a weather feed, and the number of your commercial roofing contact. First, let’s take a deeper look at the five key factors in maintaining your commercial flat roof.
Check for Any Signs of Damage
To begin, always check for damage. You can do this in person if your building has walkable roof access, you can send up a camera drone, or you can ask your roofers to take a look. A quick consultation can help you to spot and make plans to prevent any damage quickly.
Start with the obvious if you are not a pro at walking your commercial flat roof and don’t know what damage might look like. Anything that looks out of place, like it does not match the rest of the roof, can be a cause for concern. Likewise, if you can clearly see an area that appears damaged, it most likely is.
You can also find signs of damage inside the building from an older leak that may have already begun to seep down the structural features to saturate walls and ceilings.
Inspect All Roof Drains
In a commercial flat roof system, roof drains are crucial, as they allow water from rainfall to escape down safe, non-damaging routes when the roof’s slope does not inherently shrug off precipitation. However, when your roof drains get clogged, your roof surface can become covered in dangerous pooling water or become an unwanted and structurally damaging icy mess.
Gutter-ripping ice dams are also more likely with clogged roof drains, so take a close look. Consider pouring a gallon of water over each roof drain to ensure it functions correctly.
Protect Your Warranty
Most warranties on flat roof systems require specific maintenance steps, which allows the insurance companies only to cover roof damage that occurs outside of proper maintenance and care, like storm damage or age. It may be time to re-read your roof’s warranty as a clever guide for your baseline roof maintenance schedule.
Have Your Commercial Roof Inspected
To spot and prevent extensive damage before it happens, every roof should be inspected at least once a year. If you have a wicked storm season (like hurricane season), inspection before and after the storm season is always a good idea. Maintaining a commercial flat roof system hinges on routine and timely inspections to ensure that any minor damage to your roof does not become significant damage to the building down the line.
Commit to a Seasonal Maintenance Schedule
As we mentioned earlier, your warranty and the local weather will determine how often your roof should be maintained – but having a schedule and sticking to it is very different. This schedule is important for roofs, which are easily forgotten since they are effectively out of sight. However, committing to a seasonal maintenance schedule can ensure that you have inspections and routine repairs before major damage occurs, creating a predictable schedule with your roofing contractors. Hound Roofing can confirm that your appointment day and time are reserved far enough in advance.
Bonus: Perform Recommended Repairs
As a bonus tip, don’t hesitate to perform routine repairs to maintain your commercial flat roof system. If your roofer recommends that a few edges be resealed, or a new surface panel applied, the recommendations come from an expert who knows a roof problem when they see it. If you trust your roofing contractor’s roof inspection report, trust when they recommend a little preventative maintenance through small repairs.
Contact Wilmington, NC’s Most Trusted Commercial Roofing Company
Hound Roofing has been in business for over 30 years, and excellent commercial roofing is our specialty. Whether you have a question about maintaining a commercial flat roof system, want to schedule a maintenance visit, or are planning to build a new commercial roof system, Hound Roofing is on your side.
As the most trusted roofing company in the Coastal Mid-Atlantic, we are proud to have earned this title with extreme care for our clients. Contact us today for a consultation about your commercial flattop roof!