Commercial Roofing in Burlington County, New Jersey

Drainage is the whole problem

A low-slope roof is designed to move water to a defined point — an internal drain, a scupper, an edge — and to do it slowly. When drainage works, the membrane spends most of its life dry. When drainage does not work, the membrane spends its life underwater, and every seam and termination is under constant hydrostatic pressure rather than occasional wetting.

Ponding is the symptom to take most seriously. Water still standing well after the rain has stopped means either the drainage points are blocked, the roof has deflected between structural members, or the original slope was never adequate. All three are addressable, but they are different problems with different answers.

• Internal drains, strainers and the lines beneath them
• Scuppers and through-wall outlets at parapets
• Tapered insulation and crickets that direct water toward drains
• Deflection between joists that creates a low point away from any drain

Seams, terminations and penetrations

The field membrane is rarely where a commercial roof fails. Failures cluster where the membrane stops or is interrupted: the seam between two sheets, the point where it turns up a parapet and is terminated, the base flashing around a curb, and the boot around every pipe and conduit.

Commercial roofs accumulate penetrations over time. Every rooftop unit, every new refrigeration line, every added conduit and every satellite mount is another opening, and much of that work is done by trades who are not roofers and who do not own the roof afterwards. A survey of penetrations is often the most productive half hour anyone spends on a commercial roof.

• Field seams and lap welds, including probe-testing where appropriate
• Base flashing at parapets, walls and curbs
• Pipe boots, conduit penetrations and abandoned openings
• Rooftop equipment curbs and the condensate lines around them
• Edge metal, coping and the terminations underneath

Repair, restoration or replacement

A commercial roof at mid-life with localised damage is a repair. A roof with a sound substrate, dry insulation and general surface ageing may be a candidate for restoration — a coating or overlay system that extends service life without a tear-off. A roof with saturated insulation beneath the membrane is neither: the wet insulation has to come out, because coating over it simply seals the water in.

That distinction matters commercially as well as technically, because restoration is significantly cheaper than replacement and is sometimes offered where it is not appropriate. Establishing whether the insulation is wet — by core sample or survey — is what separates an honest recommendation from an optimistic one.

Planning replacement around a working building

Commercial replacement is as much a logistics exercise as a roofing one. The building usually has to keep operating, which governs staging, access, noise, odour, when equipment can be lifted, and how much roof can be opened in a day without risking the interior if weather arrives.

The practical answer is usually to break the roof into sections that can be opened and made watertight within a single working day, and to plan the sequence around the parts of the building that can least tolerate disruption.