Commercial · Salt Lake City & surrounding counties
TPO Roofing
Heat-welded white membrane for commercial low-slope.
What TPO roofing involves
TPO sheets mechanically fastened or adhered, seams hot-air welded and probed.
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.
We work Salt Lake City & surrounding counties, 9 counties in all, with 27 years in the trade and the last 8 as Hancock Signature.
How the system goes together
Open valley or closed
A closed valley weaves or cuts the shingles across the intersection. An open valley runs metal down the center with the shingles cut back off it. Around here, with the volume of water and ice a valley concentrates, open metal over ice-and-water shield is the detail we reach for on most homes. It moves debris out instead of catching it, and it gives ice a smooth surface instead of a shingle edge to grab.
The W profile
A center rib keeps water from one plane washing up under the shingles on the other.
Pipe boots and roof penetrations
The rubber collar around a plumbing vent is the shortest-lived thing on most roofs. Ultraviolet at this elevation cracks that rubber long before the shingles are tired, and the crack sits directly over an open hole in the deck. Lead boots or a metal collar with a replaceable seal last considerably longer.
Everything that comes through gets a plan
Furnace flues, swamp cooler curbs, satellite mounts, solar standoffs. Each one is a hole somebody has to detail correctly.
What we check
- Field condition and granule loss
- Valleys, ridges and every transition
- Penetrations and their flashing
- Gutter and fascia condition
How we approach it
Look first
We get on the roof and read what is actually happening before quoting anything.
Say what we find
Photographs and a plain explanation, including when the answer is that you do not need us yet.
Built in sequence
Crews we hire and run, working the right detail in the right order.
Leave it clean
Magnet over the yard, container gone, walked with you.
Rain driven sideways into a lap
Shingles are built to shed water running downhill. A thirty mile an hour gust with rain in it does not run downhill, it runs across and up. That is the one condition where a lap that has worked for fifteen years lets water through, and it is the reason a leak can appear in a specific storm and then never again.
Chasing a wind-only leak
You cannot find it on a dry day by looking. You find it by knowing which wall faces the weather and checking every horizontal joint on that face.
Dust storms before the rain
Ahead of a summer cell the wind arrives dry and full of grit off the open ground west of here. That grit gets driven into every horizontal surface on a roof, then the rain lands on top of it and packs it into a paste in the valleys and the gutter seams.
Grit is an abrasive
It grinds at the mat under foot traffic and it holds moisture against metal long after the surface has dried.
So we clear twice a year
Once before summer, once after the leaves are down.
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.
Related work
Commercial covers more than one job, and they are not interchangeable. These are the others in the same family, each on its own page.
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) 382-8898Which membrane is right for my building?
It depends on the traffic, the exposure and what comes out of the exhaust. TPO and PVC are welded and light, EPDM is proven and has fewer seams in wide sheets, mod-bit and built-up are heavier assemblies. We specify for the building rather than for what is on the truck.
Can you work around our business hours?
Usually. Most commercial work can be staged so the noisy part happens when the building is quiet, and we talk about that before the schedule is set.
How long does a commercial membrane last?
It depends far more on drainage and detailing than on the sheet itself. A membrane with standing water on it and a membrane that drains properly will not last the same length of time.
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.
Will you tell me if I do not need a new roof?
Yes. Plenty of what we look at turns out to be a repair, and we say so. A roof with years left in it gets left alone, and you get the photographs either way.
Do you handle the insurance side?
On hail-damaged roofs, we work with your insurance to get the roof covered. We document the damage thoroughly with photographs, so the claim reflects what is actually on the roof.
Talk to Hancock
Ask about TPO roofing
Call (801) 382-8898 or send a note. We will look at the roof and tell you straight what it needs.