Commercial Roofs are a costly investment for building owners.
To ensure you are getting the maximum lifespan from your roof, regular maintenance is vital.
With regular inspections and maintenance, you can lower your overall building costs, reduce the likelihood of needing costly repairs and drastically prolong the lifespan of your roof.
With this blog, Instacoat Premium Products wants to offer commercial building owners a practical checklist to help them stay on top of their commercial roofing maintenance.
Commercial Roof Maintenance Checklist to consider to expand the lifespan of your roof.
This checklist will focus on the signs of damage that even the untrained eye can notice!
If you are a building owner or a property manager who wants to be better informed about this topic to avoid costly problems in the future, you are in the right place!
Let’s get started.
Keep A Log of All Roof Activity
To start our checklist, we want to offer you some preventive tips that require zero roofing expertise!
Simply put, any human activity on top of your roof can cause damage, wear, and tear.
To avoid undue damage to your commercial roof, minimizing foot traffic on your commercial roof is best!
Of course, sometimes getting up on your roof is required, but this is where a Roof Log is incredibly practical.
Here is what you should track in your log:
- The date of the activity
- Who went on your roof
- The locations of the roof they walked on
- The reason for being on the roof
- Repairs/Restorations
With this log, you can keep watch for troubled areas.
Equally, if you notice damage in the future, you can show this log to a roofing professional, who will know to give the areas that have experienced foot traffic a more thorough inspection.
Keep a Simple Inspection Toolkit
Here is another tip before considering getting up on your roof for a quick inspection: keep a roof inspection toolkit!
This will help you stay organized and ready to inspect your roof on short notice.
Your toolkit should include the following:
- Checklist (you can print out the rest of this blog)
- Small notebook and pen for taking notes.
- Camera for taking pics(or your phone)
- Flashlight for hard-to-see spots
- Tape measure
With these items handy in a toolkit, you can avoid wasting time running down to your building to retrieve a forgotten item!
Now that you are ready to inspect, it is time to check your roof for debris!
Roof Cleanliness/Debris
For those who don’t know, debris refers to branches, leaves, or dirt accumulated on your roof since your last inspection.
One of the most common causes of debris is severe weather, which can cause nearby trees to drop branches and leaves on your roof’s surface.
When left to sit on the roof, debris can inhibit proper drainage and cause leaks and other water damage.
If you have noticed debris or dirt building up on your roof, be sure to sweep it away to ensure your drainage systems can operate at 100% functionality.
Gutters/Downspouts
Besides your roof’s surface, examine your gutters and downspouts for damage and clogged debris.
As stated before, these are crucial elements to your roof’s function. If they are clogged, you can expect ponding water, which is a significant cause of costly damage.
So, as you inspect your roof, pay careful attention to these elements of the drainage system.
Look for dents or cracks in your drainage systems, which are early signs of more severe damage.
If you notice any debris, make sure to clear it away!
Ponding Water
If your drainage systems are damaged, ponding water is the main issue you might encounter.
For those unaware, ponding water refers to water that cannot drain and sits on your roof’s surface.
In your inspection, be sure to not only not look out for ponding water, but also for signs that ponding water has occurred in the recent past!
Look for color changes/stains surrounding your drainage systems or flat sections of your roof, as these are telltale signs that ponding water was present on your roof.
Pro tip: during your next professional roof inspection, ask your roofer for an Infrared Moisture Survey!
This is a non-invasive technology that allows roofers to identify invisible water damage!
To learn more about it, read our blog on it.
Interior Water Damage
Your roof inspection doesn’t just include the roof itself!
To ensure your roof isn’t leaking and causing costly water damage, ensure you keep on top of your interior damage!
Be vigilant for signs of water damage in the attic/top floor of your building.
Check for visible mold/mildew or stains along the ceiling.
Use your nose also!
With water damage, a telltale sign is a dank/musty odor.
Inspect Old Repairs
Guess what?
If your roof was previously repaired in a particular section, it is probably due to the fact that this area of the roof experiences stresses and/or weathering.
So, as you conduct your roof inspection, consult your Roof Activity Logbook to ensure you are inspecting previous repairs.
How Instacoat Premium Products Extends a Roof’s Lifespan
At Instacoat, we know that a leaking roof results in costly repairs and restoration for building owners and property managers.
To help save our customers money in repairs, we developed our suite of waterproofing products!
Our products are superior fluid rubbers that combine the elastic properties of a modified latex with the weatherproofing and waterproofing qualities of a highly refined liquid rubber combined with Highly reflective silicone systems.
What this means for you is an increased layer of protection against leaks.
This system works with various substrates and can be used in new construction as well as existing roofs.
With an IPP Roofing/Waterproofing system, you can relax knowing they have a product working to keep their building dry.
We hope you found our blog educational and practical!
At Instacoat Premium Products, we proudly write these blogs to offer free educational content for our customers.
If you have more questions about how to stop a leaking roof, please reach out to us!
(877) 552-6724
info@instacoat.com
Or, head to our “Contact Us” page of the IPP website and leave a message.