Orem, Utah
TPO Roofing around Orem
Heat-welded white membrane for commercial low-slope.
TPO Roofing for Orem homes and buildings
TPO sheets mechanically fastened or adhered, seams hot-air welded and probed.
Spring runoff is the quiet test of a roof in Orem. A steep pitch sheds fast, which sounds like an advantage until the water hits a valley or a gutter that was sized for an average storm rather than the week the snowpack lets go.
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
Intake and exhaust have to match
Attic ventilation is a balance, and most of the failures we find are unbalanced. Ridge vent with the soffit stuffed full of insulation is exhaust with no intake, so the attic pulls its air from the house instead and drags moisture up with it.
How it shows up
Frost on the sheathing in January, a hot attic in July, curling shingles on the upper courses, and an ice dam at the eave that nobody can explain.
Baffles are cheap
Keeping the insulation off the soffit with a proper chute fixes more roofs than most people would believe.
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
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.
Freeze and thaw works on everything
A February day here can swing forty degrees between sunrise and mid afternoon. Water gets into a nail hole, a lap, a crack in the flashing sealant. It freezes overnight and expands. It thaws and goes deeper. Multiply that by a hundred cycles a winter and small openings become real ones. It is slow, and it is the reason a roof that was fine three winters ago is leaking now.
Sealant is a maintenance item
Anything relying on caulk has a clock on it. Flashings that rely on metal geometry instead of sealant last a great deal longer.
Wind, water and dust, in that order
Ask what actually kills roofs in this part of the state and the answer runs wind first, then water that could not get away, then the grit that the wind delivered. Each one makes the next worse. A wind-broken seal lets water in. Water carries grit into a lap. Grit holds moisture against the mat. None of it is dramatic and all of it compounds.
Why we start at the edges
Perimeters and penetrations are where all three arrive together, so that is where an honest look begins.
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
Part of our Utah County work, out of Salt Lake City & surrounding counties. A full replacement carries our 10-year workmanship warranty.
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 Orem
Working Orem regularly rather than occasionally is what makes an honest read possible. We have been on enough roofs across Utah County to know which subdivisions came from the same builder and inherited the same shortcut.
That proximity is most of what matters when weather moves through. Orem 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 Orem?
We do. Orem falls well inside the radius we run, and being there often is what lets us tell you how the housing around it was built.
How fast can you get to Orem after a storm?
Storm calls jump the queue. We get there, stop what is coming in, and schedule the real fix rather than rushing a permanent repair in bad weather.
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.
How long does a roof replacement take?
Most houses in this valley are a one to two day job once the crew is on site. Steeper pitches, multiple layers to strip and complicated roofs with a lot of valleys take longer, and we tell you which yours is before we start.
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.
Where Orem sits on our map
Orem work is scheduled like the rest of the valley.
Talk to Hancock
TPO Roofing in Orem
Call (801) 382-8898.