You need to make sure your building stays in perfect condition, especially when building tenants are inside every day. It includes the structural parts and the systems that require constant maintenance, like the HVAC system. During severe weather conditions, your building’s HVAC system is responsible for keeping the temperature level inside.
Another part of the building that you need to maintain is the roof because it also protects everyone inside the building from harsh weather elements. If you currently have a new commercial building, you have to learn when to do the roofing inspections. You will never know when roofing issues will pop out, so it’s best to prevent them from happening by detecting the early signs.
1. After a Severe Storm
If you construct your building in a hurricane-prone location, you might have a big problem in your hands. Most commercial buildings suffer extensive damage during severe storms and hurricanes, and they need to do building repairs as quickly as possible if they want building tenants to go back.
Usually, storms can damage all parts of a building, and the roof is no exception. Intense storms can blow debris everywhere, such as stones, metal pieces, and anything else that can damage a building. And when junk gets thrown into your roof, it will cause more problems like leaking water.
After the storm, you need to contact roofing contractors and have them inspect your roof. The damage will also depend on what roof type you have. If you have a flat concrete roof, you might only have minimal damage. But if you have a flat or sloped asphalt roof, you should expect some damage to appear.
2. Years After Construction
When you recently constructed a commercial building, you might forget to have your roof inspected, especially when you’re constantly busy running other essential things. Completely failing to inspect your roof is dangerous because you might not know it’s the reason behind the other building issues.
Most experts recommend having roofing contractors inspect your commercial building roof at the end of every season. Leaving it uninspected for years will cause other significant issues to make you spend more money once destroyed. If you don’t want to pay costly roofing and other damages, it’s best to hire a roofing contractor and have them check on your building’s
roof.
If you don’t want to conduct a seasonal roof inspection, you can instead do it yearly. Although yearly inspections nearly get the same results as the seasonal roofing inspections, what’s excellent about a seasonal check is you get to find roofing issues and resolve them faster than yearly inspections. You can make the roofing inspections quicker and more efficient by installing roof hatches by looking at some of the best-selling roof hatches on a website. They can recommend what’s best for your roof.
3. After Remodeling Jobs
At one point, you may get the idea to remodel your rooftop. For instance, you might want to add a lovely lounge that people can use when they want to relax on your building’s rooftop. If the remodeling consisted of bolting large screws on the roof, you might need to have it inspected by roofing contractors because there may be a potential underlying issue.
The remodeling contractors may have hit a vital part of the roof, which no one will notice unless you have the entire roof area inspected by an experienced roofing contractor. Once your roofing contractor finishes the inspections and gives you a detailed report, you can have them fix those issues right away. It might ruin some remodeling work, but it’s always better to fix the roof first because rainwater can go inside your building, and you don’t want that happening.
If you want to do some remodeling done on your roof, the best option is to have the remodeling and roofing contractor work together to ensure nothing happens to your roof. You can have the remodeling job finished while maintaining your roof’s structural integrity. You don’t have to call the remodelers back to redo the entire work because of the repairs made by the roofers.
4. Water Dripping Inside During Rainy Seasons
The most apparent roofing issue will always be water dripping from your building’s ceiling. Usually, water can pass through your roof because of the tiny holes, cracks, and gaps formed because of different factors. Some factors that can lead to roof damage include constant exposure to many other harsh weather elements, collected rainwater on a specific spot, or uncleaned debris.
If you notice water dripping from the ceiling when it’s raining, you have to contact a roofing contractor right away because the water might damage building components like electrical wires. Electricians may have placed some electrical cables behind the ceiling, and having water pass through them is dangerous. It can start a building fire, which you could have prevented by calling a roofing contractor to inspect your roof regularly.
5. Ice Dams Forming During Winter Seasons
Some commercial buildings use shingles on their flat roofs because it’s affordable. However, they may encounter ice dams forming on their roof during the winter season, which is an annoying problem to deal with all the time. It would be best if you had experts to remove the ice dams, especially when they’re too far for a person on the ground to remove.
Most of the time, people can remove the ice dams using hot water. But they need to climb up to the roof and pour the hot water, which can become dangerous because of the slippery ice. You need to have experts remove the ice dam if you don’t want the sharp icicles falling on the ground and hitting unaware people.
Fortunately, you can fix the issue by improving the insulation underneath the roof. You can also vent the space between the roof sheathing and insulation, which helps by venting heat that leaks through.
Make sure you remember the different instances when to check your building’s roof if you want the building tenants to do their daily activities without a fuss. You may think that spending money on roof inspections is not ideal. However, you have to think of it as an investment that will help you not think about spending money on roofing repairs and maintenance.
Moreover, you might want to install roof hatches from Best Roof Hatches for easier access to roofs in case of maintenance and repairs. With a roof hatch, you will also ensure the safety of maintenance personnel who conducts the regular roof inspection.