Every additional year of useful life you can eke out of your commercial roof is money in your company’s pocket. Consider these useful tips for boosting your commercial roof’s life expectancy.
Prevention
Industrial roof maintenance does not need to be complicated. You can prevent plenty of costly problems with prompt repair and routine preventive maintenance. Most commercial roofers offer some kind of annual maintenance program or a more comprehensive roof assets management service.
Your in-house facilities crew may be beneficial for some minor aspects of roof oversight, like cleaning off debris after a storm. Yet, they are unlikely to have the extensive training needed to inspect and repair your roof. They probably have little experience in recording your roof’s condition and history.
A local, professional, commercial roofer can provide all the support your roof needs:
- Maintenance recommendations — These may include construction details, photographic documentation, architectural drawings, visual observation notes, and core sample documentation.
- A roof replacement schedule — You can receive a comparative analysis of different roof systems available, so you can plan and budget for the eventual replacement.
- Work history reports — Your roofer can document every repair, renovation, and replacement.
- Annual budget summaries — These summaries will help you increase facility up-time through proactive, preventive maintenance.
- Warranty tracking — Your roofer can maintain all your records, so your building never suffers from neglected maintenance or misplaced warranties.
- Timely updates — Any repair work done can be tracked by the job, so you know the work is done correctly.
- Job inspection reports — Seeing is believing; expect online photographic documentation of all roof jobs performed by your local, reliable contractor.
- Database and client portal access — See and understand your roofing projects, from photos and inspections to billing.
Protection
Annual inspections are excellent ways to monitor the life of your roof. The inspection will be thorough and include a peek inside your roof deck if possible. Any signs of distress, weakness, water infiltration, or corrosion can be noted.
Making prompt, minor repairs after these annual or semiannual inspections is vital. Your roof must have complete protection against damage because it protects the entirety of your business. Think about it: your employees, customers, equipment, inventory, and supplies are sheltered underneath the roof. The roof has to be protected.
Two methods of protecting your roof and building:
- Regular roof maintenance — After any inspection comes the clearing, cleaning, and fixing; debris must be cleared off, your roof cleaned thoroughly, and all minor repair problems fixed immediately.
- Waterproofing — Extend the life of your roof by strategic applications of waterproof coatings; these add years of useful life to any roof material and are far less expensive than tear-off and reroof.
Consult with your commercial roofer to determine the best balance of roof assets management, regular roof maintenance, and waterproof coatings. Older roofs need more care; newer roofs need regular inspection to keep them operating efficiently.
Prediction
You may have inherited a commercial property and know little about its roof. Are you or your facilities crew able to predict the lifespan of your roof? Probably not. You may not even be aware of its maintenance history, its composition, or its installation methods.
Engage your local, helpful commercial roofer to perform a baseline assessment and inspection of the roof. Your roofer can provide core samples to help determine the composition of the roof:
- Single-ply membrane — EPDM, PVC, TPO
- Modified Bitumen (Mod-Bit)
- Built-up Roofing (BUR)
You’re likely to know immediately if you have metal roofing, a “green roof,” or fiberglass-asphalt shingles; these are less common in extensive commercial properties.
Your roofing contractor can also learn a lot about your roof’s maintenance history simply by examining repaired areas and finding weak spots.
All of this information can help your roofer provide an accurate prediction of your roof’s life expectancy. From this prediction, you and your roofer can find ways to extend the life of your inherited roof.
Perfection
A new roof is a capital investment. It requires months, if not years, of planning, budgeting, and scheduling. Your building can perform to perfection when you know two things:
- Exactly how many years of useful life your existing roof has, and
- What your plan, budget, and timeline is for tear-off and reroof
Your commercial roofer can show you where the tipping point is for your particular roof. A time will come when pouring more money into less effective repairs does not pay off. Then you have to look at complete roof replacement. Yet the time could be many years in the future if you work with your roofer to maintain and repair your current roof correctly.
Want to make your investment in your commercial roof pay off for a few more years? Contact us today at PSI Roofing to find out more about our roof assets management, roof maintenance, and roof waterproofing programs.
