TPO Roofing around Provo
Heat-welded white membrane for commercial low-slope.
TPO Roofing for Provo homes and buildings
TPO sheets mechanically fastened or adhered, seams hot-air welded and probed.
Provo has a wide mix, from century-old homes near the center to dense newer construction, and a lot of rentals where a small leak goes unreported until it is a big one.
A welded seam is a continuous sheet. A taped seam is a future leak.
What matters on TPO roofing
Drainage before material
The first question on any low-slope roof is where the water goes. Ponding is what kills membranes, and a roof that holds water for days after a storm will fail early regardless of which sheet is on it. We look at the slope, the drains and the terminations before we talk about material.
Seams and terminations
Field failures on commercial roofs are rare. Failures at seams, curbs, drains and the parapet edge are common. A hot-air welded seam that has been probed is a continuous sheet. Anything taped or glued and unverified is a scheduled leak.
How the system goes together
Flat roofs and the membrane choice
Low-slope roofs do not shed, they hold. TPO is a heat-welded white sheet that reflects a lot of the summer load. EPDM is a black rubber sheet that handles cold and movement well. PVC costs more and handles grease and chemicals, which is why it ends up over restaurant kitchens. Modified bitumen comes in rolls torched or adhered in layers, and built-up is the old tar-and-gravel assembly still sitting on plenty of buildings here.
Drainage beats material
Whichever sheet goes down, if the water does not get to a drain within a couple of days, the roof is going to fail early.
A welded seam versus a glued one
On a single-ply roof, the seams are the whole roof. Heat welding fuses the two sheets into one piece of plastic, and a properly welded seam is stronger than the sheet either side of it. An adhesive seam relies on a bond that ages at a different rate than the membrane does.
How a seam gets proven
A probe run along the edge of every weld while the crew is still on the roof. If the probe catches, the seam gets rewelded then and there, not written down for later.
Cold days need slower welds
The machine settings change with the air temperature or the weld runs cold and looks fine.
What we check
- Field condition and granule loss
- Valleys, ridges and every transition
- Penetrations and their flashing
- Gutter and fascia condition
What the job looks like
Get on the roof
We walk it rather than look from the drive, check the decking underfoot, the flashings and the ventilation, and photograph what we find before any number is discussed.
Show you what we saw
The photographs come back to you with a plain read of what the roof needs and, just as often, what it does not need yet.
Crew on site
The crews we hire work under Hancock’s direction, staged so landscaping and the drive are protected, working the detail in the order it is supposed to go on rather than the order that is quickest.
Leave it clean
Site cleared at the end of every day, a magnet run over the whole yard for nails at the finish, and the roof walked with you before we go.
Moss and shade on the north side
Under mature trees on a shaded slope, the north face stays damp long after the rest of the roof has dried. Moss takes hold in that damp, and moss holds water against the mat and lifts shingle edges as it grows under them.
It is a cleaning problem first
Pressure washing an asphalt roof strips the granules and takes years off it. Gentle treatment, then clearing the overhanging limbs that keep the slope wet, is the order it should happen in.
Watch the gutter below
Moss coming off in the gutter is a sign the mat is losing surface too.
Wet leaves against a wall line
Where a lower roof runs into a two-story wall, leaves and needles collect in that inside corner and stay. The pile holds water directly against the bottom of the siding and the top of the step flashing, which is the one place on a roof where a little standing moisture does the most damage.
Clear the corner, check the kickout
A kickout flashing at the bottom of that run throws the water into the gutter instead of behind the siding. Plenty of houses up here were built without one.
Where roofs go wrong
The shortcut we see most
A membrane laid over wet insulation because tearing off would have cost a day. The roof looks finished, the moisture stays underneath, and the sheet fails early from below.
What good looks like instead
Moisture surveyed, wet sections cut out and replaced, drainage corrected, then the membrane installed and its seams probed.
Signs worth a look
- Ponding water still standing two days after rain
- Seams that have lifted or opened at an edge
- Blisters or ridging across the field
- Interior staining near drains, curbs or the parapet
What to expect
Scheduling around your operation
Most commercial work can be staged so the disruptive part happens when the building is quiet. Tear-off noise, crane or hoist time and material deliveries all get planned against your hours rather than ours.
What the roof survey covers
Before specifying anything we survey the existing assembly: slope and drainage, moisture in the insulation, the condition of seams and terminations, and how the roof is being used. A roof somebody walks on weekly needs a different answer from one nobody touches.
Documentation
Commercial and public work runs on records. We photograph the existing condition, the work in progress and the finished assembly, so there is a file rather than a recollection.
Getting to Provo
Because we are on Utah County roofs most weeks, we know how the housing around Provo was put together, which is a different thing from knowing how roofs work in general.
That proximity is most of what matters when weather moves through. Provo sits in Utah County, and we are on roofs across it regularly enough to know how the housing there was built.
Questions we get asked
Not the question you had? Call the shop and ask a person. We would rather talk it through than have you guess from a website.
(801) 382-8898Do you actually work in Provo?
Yes, and often. Provo is part of our regular service area, so it is ground we know well.
How fast can you get to Provo after a storm?
We make the roof safe first, then come back and do the repair properly when conditions allow.
Do you work through the winter?
Yes, with judgment. Shingles need to seal, and in genuine cold that takes longer or needs hand sealing. Emergency work happens whenever it has to. Full replacements get scheduled around the weather rather than forced into it.
What makes a Utah roof different?
Snow load, ice at the eaves, canyon wind and high-altitude sun, all on the same roof. A crew that learned roofing somewhere mild has to learn it again up here.
How do I know when a roof is getting close?
Granules collecting in the gutters, tabs lifting or curling at the edges, shingles that look bare in patches, and daylight or staining in the attic. Any of those is worth a look.
Where Provo sits on our map
We cover Provo on the regular route rather than treating it as a trip.