Saying that your commercial roof preserves your St. Louis business is easy, and perhaps obvious. Finding the funds to replace your low-slope or flat roof may be so difficult, however, you avoid the issue. You choose a patchwork of industrial roof repair, hoping your roof will remain watertight year after year. At some point, your business needs to make a choice: industrial roof repair, or flat roof replacement?
Reasons to Choose Industrial Roof Repair
In the St. Louis area, we at Jewett Roofing see many low-slope roofs that have plenty of life left in them over much of their surface, but have some problem areas:
- Mechanical attachment points
- Seams
- Locations where recent HVAC work affects the roof seal or flashing
- Low spots—sites of frequent ponding after rain
In cases where the thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) or ethyl propylene diene monomer (EPDM) membrane is largely intact, industrial roof repair to patch the single-ply membrane is generally cost-effective.
Age—the actual age of your commercial roof and its conditional age based on weather, wind direction and other factors—must play a large part in your discussion with a commercial roofer. Only a thorough examination by a commercial roofer can give you a good idea of the service life left in your company’s roof.
Reasons to Choose Commercial Roof Replacement
Many jobs we tackle begin as industrial roof repair and end up as roof replacement. Nobody wants to make capital investments unnecessarily, but sometimes a St. Louis industrial roof cannot be repaired for several reasons:
- Excessive crazing or cracking across multiple areas of the single-ply membrane
- Water leaks in multiple areas, not restricted to scuppers, cracks around chimneys and projections, or mechanical fastenings
- Flaws in the original installation that cannot be remedied
- Wet insulation beneath the roof membrane
Determining Your Path Forward
While you may feel roof replacement will be more expensive than industrial roof repair, the reverse may hold true:
- You plan to remain in the commercial property long enough to recover the costs of the complete roof replacement
- Frequent low-slope repair work adds up, and may not add appreciable life to the roof material
- Reduced maintenance costs from the new roof save staff time and materials, and free up your maintenance staff for other pressing tasks
Your business’s best way forward? Contact us today at Jewett Roofing to set up an appointment to discuss your best option: expert roof repair, or complete roof replacement.
