TruBuilt Exteriors Roofing · Siding · Windows
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Commercial roofing systems

Low-slope roofing for buildings that can’t stop operating.

Warehouse and distribution envelopes, manufacturing plants, medical buildings, and private school campuses. Replacement and repair, phased around live operations, documented daily, warranted by the manufacturer.

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TPO
EPDM
Modified bitumen
Silicone coating
Markets
Warehouse, industrial, medical, private schools
Certified
Elevate & Mule-Hide single-ply systems
Work windows
Nights, weekends, and phased shutdowns
Documentation
Daily photo log & closeout package

Markets

Four kinds of building, four different problems on the roof

The membrane is rarely the hard part. What changes from one building to the next is what the roof has to survive and what the work is allowed to interrupt.

Warehouse & distribution

Big fields, thin margins, no downtime

Hundreds of thousands of square feet with few penetrations. Cost per square foot governs, so the assembly has to be efficient — but the uplift zones at the perimeter and corners are where a large open roof actually fails, and that is not the place to economize. Work is staged around receiving hours and live racking below.

Industrial & manufacturing

The exhaust decides the membrane

Process discharge, solvents, and grease degrade TPO; PVC is formulated to resist it, and discharge travels — so the resistant membrane belongs across the roof, not only under the fans. Add heavy equipment, constant service traffic, and a production schedule that cannot pause for a roof.

Medical & healthcare

The schedule is harder than the roof

Clinical space cannot lose a room. Adhered assemblies run quieter than mechanically attached ones directly over patient areas, phasing is designed so nothing opens that can’t be dried the same day, and infection-control and dust protocols are agreed before we mobilize.

Private schools & campuses

Summer is the whole window

A campus roof gets replaced between June and August or it waits a year. We plan backwards from the first day of term, sequence buildings so the critical ones finish first, and work to the safeguarding and site rules a school requires. Multi-building campuses get a replacement plan by year rather than a scramble.

Capabilities

Systems we install

Which one belongs on your building depends on deck type, rooftop equipment, chemical exposure, foot traffic, and how long you intend to hold the asset. We’ll tell you when the cheaper system is the right one.

Single-ply  ·  45–80 mil

TPO

The default for most commercial re-roofs and the bulk of what we install. Heat-welded seams, high solar reflectance, and strong warranty availability. Mechanically attached, induction-welded, or fully adhered depending on uplift requirements and deck.

Single-ply  ·  50–80 mil

PVC

Where grease, chemical exhaust, or restaurant and lab kitchen discharge would degrade TPO. Also our recommendation on roofs with heavy rooftop equipment and frequent service traffic.

Single-ply  ·  45–90 mil

EPDM

Proven long-term performance on large, uninterrupted fields with few penetrations. Ballasted, mechanically attached, or adhered. Often the most economical assembly on a large warehouse envelope.

Multi-ply  ·  2–3 ply

Modified bitumen

Redundancy where a single-ply membrane isn’t enough — roof decks that double as service platforms, plaza areas, and buildings where a single puncture cannot be allowed to become a leak.

Restoration  ·  20–30 mil DFT

Silicone & acrylic coatings

For a roof with life left in it: repair, reinforce, and coat instead of replacing. Extends service life at a fraction of tear-off cost, and on qualifying roofs carries its own renewable manufacturer warranty. Only recommended when core cuts show a dry, sound assembly.

Insulation  ·  Engineered

Tapered insulation design

Standing water is the most common reason a commercial roof fails early. We lay out tapered polyiso to move water to the drains and bring the assembly up to current energy code at the same time.

Warehouse & industrial

A big roof fails differently than a small one.

On a 200,000 SF envelope, a decision that costs two cents a square foot costs four thousand dollars — and the failure modes are not the ones that kill a small roof. Five things carry most of the risk.

  • Perimeter and corner upliftCorners can see several times the field uplift load. Uniform fastener spacing across the whole roof is the most common reason a warehouse membrane peels back in a windstorm, and it is invisible in a bid unless someone reads the fastening schedule.
  • Energy code on a re-coverBringing insulation up to current code adds real cost on this much area — and real savings on a conditioned building. We price it as its own line so you can see the payback rather than discovering it inside a lump sum.
  • Deck condition on an older buildingSteel deck corrodes from below wherever wet insulation has been sitting on it, and it is invisible until the old roof comes off. Fastener pull-out testing tells us what the deck will still hold before anyone commits to a fastening pattern — and before a change order finds you mid-project.
  • Working over live operationsReceiving docks, 24-hour shifts, and racking full of product below. We sequence to your schedule, contain debris over inventory, and open only what we can dry in the same day.
  • Skylights, smoke vents & drainageThe units are older than the roof more often than not, and they leak before the membrane does. Replacing them during the re-roof costs a fraction of doing it after, and internal drainage gets reviewed at the same time.

Cold and freezer storage is its own conversation — the vapor drive runs the other way, and the retarder placement has to come out of a dew-point analysis, not a habit.

Which system

Three questions, and we’ll tell you what we’d probably propose.

Not a quote and not a specification — but it will tell you whether the bid already in your hand is aimed at the right problem.

01   What’s the building?

02   What’s happening up there?

03   How long will you hold the building?

Before the bid

The roof condition survey

You get a written assessment of the roof you own now — whether or not you buy a roof from us.

  • Core cutsConfirms the existing assembly: how many roofs are up there, what insulation is under the membrane, whether it’s wet, and what the deck is actually made of.
  • Moisture surveyInfrared or capacitance scanning to map saturated insulation, so you replace the wet sections instead of paying to re-roof over them.
  • Drainage & ponding reviewDrain locations, slope, and where water sits 48 hours after rainfall — the single best predictor of where the roof will fail first.
  • Penetration & equipment inventoryEvery curb, vent, pipe, and RTU counted and photographed, because that is where the cost and the leaks both live.
  • Remaining service lifeA defensible estimate in years, with the repair-versus-replace math laid out so you can defend the number to whoever approves the spend.

Warranty

Know which warranty you’re actually being sold.

“30-year roof” means very little on its own. Three different documents get called a warranty, and they are not close to equivalent.

  • Material-only warrantyCovers the membrane if it fails as manufactured. Does not cover labor, does not cover workmanship, and almost never pays for the leak that brought you to it. This is what most low bids include.
  • System warrantyThe manufacturer warrants the assembly — membrane, insulation, fasteners, and accessories — when installed by a certified applicator to an approved detail set. Labor is included, with limits.
  • NDL (No Dollar Limit)The manufacturer repairs covered failures with no cap on cost over the warranty term. Requires certified installation, approved details throughout, a pre-job conference, and a manufacturer field inspection at completion. This is the one worth structuring a project around.
  • Who can actually issue oneOnly a certified applicator. We are certified with Elevate (formerly Firestone Building Products) and with Mule-Hide — which is why we can put a manufacturer-backed term in the proposal rather than our own promise.

We’ll tell you which term the building justifies. On a property you plan to sell in five years, a 30-year NDL may be money spent for the next owner.

Ongoing

Roof asset management

Most commercial roofs are replaced years earlier than necessary, because nobody was maintaining the warranty conditions or budgeting for the replacement.

For owners with more than one building, we survey the portfolio, score each roof, and build a replacement sequence with budget figures by year. Then we handle semi-annual inspections and documented repairs that keep the warranties in force. When a roof reaches the end of its plan year, the number in your capital budget is one we put there deliberately — not an emergency.

  • Portfolio condition scoringEvery roof rated with photos, area, system type, install year, and remaining service life.
  • Multi-year capital forecastReplacement year and budget figure per roof, so the spend can be sequenced instead of absorbed all at once.
  • Scheduled inspectionsSemi-annual and post-storm, with a written report and photo log after each visit.
  • Warranty-compliant repairsRepairs made with approved materials and methods, documented so coverage survives the claim.

Common questions

Commercial roofing, answered plainly

How long does a commercial flat roof last?

A single-ply commercial roof typically reaches 20 to 30 years when it is installed to the manufacturer’s approved details and maintained. Most fall short of that, and the reasons are consistent: standing water that was never designed out, a missing cover board, wet insulation that was roofed over, or fastening that ignored the perimeter and corner uplift zones. Age alone tells you very little — core cuts tell you a lot.

Should I repair, re-cover, or replace my roof?

That is decided by what is under the membrane, not by how the surface looks. If core cuts show a dry, sound assembly, a repair or a coating restoration can add years for a fraction of replacement cost. If the insulation is saturated, it has to come out — roofing over wet insulation traps the moisture, keeps corroding the deck, and voids the warranty you just paid for.

Can you replace the roof while my building stays open?

Yes, and most of our commercial work is done that way. Warehouses keep receiving, plants keep running, clinical space keeps seeing patients. The work is phased section by section, nothing is torn off that cannot be dried in the same day, and adhered assemblies are used where noise carries into occupied space below.

What is an NDL roof warranty, and do I need one?

NDL stands for No Dollar Limit: the manufacturer repairs covered failures with no cap on cost over the warranty term. It requires certified installation, approved details throughout, a pre-job conference and a manufacturer field inspection at completion. It is worth structuring a project around when you intend to hold the building. On a property you plan to sell in five years, a 30-year NDL may be money spent for the next owner.

How do I know if my roof insulation is wet?

You cannot tell from the surface, and you cannot tell from the leak. An infrared or capacitance moisture survey maps the saturated areas, and core cuts confirm them. This matters commercially because it is often far less of the roof than the leaks suggest — which can turn a full replacement back into a partial one.

What drives the cost of a commercial roof replacement?

Roof area is only the starting point. The real variables are whether the existing roof comes off or is recovered, how many roofs are already up there, insulation thickness needed to meet energy code, the number of penetrations and rooftop units, deck condition, drainage corrections, roof access and staging, phasing around your operations, and the warranty term you want. Two buildings of identical square footage can differ substantially once those are priced.

Commercial inquiries

Send us the address. We’ll get on the roof.

Condition surveys, budget numbers for capital planning, emergency leak response, and competitive bids on specified work. Plans and specs welcome.

Request a quote

Replacements, re-covers, specified bids, and residential projects. Every inquiry is read by an estimator, not a call center — you’ll hear back within one business day.

We respond within one business day. Your information is used to prepare your proposal and nothing else.