Chances are your commercial or industrial building has a flat roof. These surfaces can have a lifespan of many decades. However, you’ll have to replace or restore your flat roof once that time is up. What if you could extend your roof’s lifespan while keeping it in excellent condition? Roof preventative maintenance can do precisely that for your flat roof.
Benefits of Flat Roofs for Commercial Spaces
Businesses have used flat roofs for commercial and industrial spaces for hundreds of years. Schools, factories, and corporate buildings often install flat roofing. Flat roofs allow for long interior hallways and rooms for a reasonable price. Roofing materials for flat surfaces have other advantages. Materials and coatings like TPO, EPDM, bitumen, and liquid membrane are quickly applied and seal your entire roof. They are generally easy to maintain and are low-profile compared to other roofing systems.
Why Invest in Flat Roof Preventative Maintenance?
Like any other expensive but essential investment, a roofing system should be taken care of and maintained. You regularly hire a professional to maintain your car with tire rotations, oil changes, and other automotive work. It would help if you thought of your roof similarly.
Here are some of the many positives of preventative maintenance for your flat roof.
Increased Roof Lifespan
Roof preventative maintenance extends the life of your roof if performed regularly by a professional contractor. Like everything else, roofs get old over time. Deterioration eventually causes structural damage, leaking, and other issues. Proper preventative roof maintenance finds potential problems and damaged areas, addressing them before they can worsen. Being proactive is always better than being reactive. Catching problems early saves expenses, time, and headaches. You can add many years to your existing flat roof if adequately maintained.
External and Internal Protection
Flat roofs can last for decades without total replacement. However, external and internal forces constantly cause wear and tear to your flat roof. Some of these external factors are thunderstorms, excessive rain, and strong winds. Preventative maintenance ensures your roof is sealed and protected from these threats.
Drainage Protection
Flat roof preventative maintenance ensures your flat roof’s drainage system functions correctly—gutters, drains, and scuppers.
A scupper is a drainage outlet that sends excess water off flat roofs through a wall or raised roof edge to an outlet pipe. They allow water to enter through the roof deck, where it’s channeled with a system of pipes below.
Water will back up and pool if there’s a clogged roof drain or scupper. It’s essential to keep all scuppers and drains clear and unclogged to ensure they function correctly. If drainage systems aren’t properly maintenanced, they rust, leak, and cause other structural damage.
Lowers Repair Costs
Performing routine maintenance costs less money than a flat roof replacement or renovation. Even if you schedule two roof maintenance appointments a year, you can save more money in the long run. Think of it like a doctor’s appointment for your roof. A professional can catch symptoms early, preventing long-term damage and costly bills.
How Does Roof Preventative Maintenance Work?
Knowing the benefits of roof preventative maintenance for your flat roofing system would help if you also understood how the process works.
Inspection
Roof preventative maintenance begins with a thorough inspection. A roofing contractor walks the flat surface of your building, searching for any current or potential problems. They’re looking for structural or water damage, drainage system debris, stripped flashing, or other external issues. The contractor inspects the roof’s interior from inside the building, checking for roof leaks and deterioration.
Maintenance, Repairs, and Prevention
After the inspection, the contractor will address any issues they may have found. They’ll fill in and repair holes, cracks, and breakage to seal your roof once more. The contractor can unclog and fix faulty drainage systems if water is flowing off the roof incorrectly.
Trimming and pruning trees, foliage, and other plant life around the perimeter of your roof is another thing you may want to consider.
Schedule Regular Maintenance
Roof preventative maintenance only extends your roof’s lifespan if performed on a scheduled basis, typically twice a year. Your contractor and roofing company will set up another service date with you after their current visit, so you’ll know the date and time of the following maintenance.
A Review of Roof Preventative Maintenance
Commercial flat roofs heavily benefit from preventative maintenance. Roof preventative maintenance:
- Increases your flat or commercial roof’s lifespan
- Provides external and internal protection
- Protects and maintains your drainage systems
- Lowers repair and restoration expenses
Choose ROOFCORP To Maintain Your Commercial Flat Roof
Since 1985, ROOFCORP has been a leading commercial roof restoration and repair company in Washington, Oregon, and California. We’ve gained endless experience and industry knowledge servicing west coast businesses for almost 40 years. ROOFCORP is the correct choice if you require a tested, trusted roofing contractor.
We can maintain your roof’s health and structural integrity, extending its lifespan through roof preventative maintenance. We also repair, replace, and restore commercial roofs if there is too much damage or deterioration from the wear and tear of time. ROOFCORP’s team of expert contractors and technicians are certified professionals that want the best for your roof and the business it protects.
Don’t wait to service your commercial roof. Contact ROOFCORP today.
