5 Tips to Pass Your Next Commercial Roofing Inspection

Your roof is your business’s first and only line of defense against the elements. As such, it’s important to recognize a roof’s vulnerabilities and to be able to identify any potential or existing issues well before and long after a professional commercial roofing inspection reveals that a problem exists.

Becoming familiar with your roof’s various materials and components can ultimately help protect your business, employees, customers, inventory, and/or equipment. Even if your commercial roof is relatively new, it will eventually have its own set of unique maintenance needs over time.

If you want to pass your next commercial roofing inspection with flying colors and reduce the likelihood that your roof will require expensive repairs, follow these tips.

What We’ll Cover:

• Become familiar with your roof and its construction
• Schedule regular inspections, particularly in areas of concern
• Schedule simple maintenance after seasonal changes and larger storms
• Work with a company like Altitude Roofing that provides free commercial roofing estimates
• If a repair is needed, act quickly
• What Your Commercial Roofing Inspection Will Check
• Key takeaways

Tip 1: Become familiar with your roof and its construction

It’s difficult to know what to look for if you aren’t sure what you’re looking at. Roofing or other types of construction might not be your thing, but learning the basics of how your roof works, where its problem areas are, and what it needs over time can be tremendously helpful in both your search for a quality contractor and in keeping your business expenses in check.

There are a few ways to accomplish this. Except for metal roofs, the first way is to accompany your commercial roofer during an inspection (if it’s safe to do so) and ask questions. Not every contractor will be fond of this idea, but if you’re upfront and straightforward about your goals, creating a good working relationship with your roofer will be much easier. They can explain to you how your roof is constructed, point out areas to keep an eye on and instruct you on how best to address problem areas or how to extend the life of your roof. If you are unable to accompany your roofer, you can request photos and video of problem areas which will do wonders when attempting to understand your roof and its needs. However, most roofing inspection repair estimates and reports provide this documentation without you needing to ask.

Tip 2: Schedule regular inspections, particularly in areas of concern

Once you have a general sense of how your roof works, what it needs, and how to maintain it, you can move forward with performing regular checks, particularly on potential problem areas. You can do this yourself or, ideally, call a roofing contractor to do this for you. The goal is to spot any notable concerns and have them addressed well before any expensive damage is done to your roof.

It’s recommended that a roof inspection be performed seasonally, but the absolute minimum is twice per year, especially before and after winter or after large storms. You are looking for obvious things like clogged gutters or downspouts, pooling water, build-up of debris such as twigs, leaves, and rocks, missing or damaged flashing, broken, curled, or missing shingles (if applicable), cracks, discoloration, or leaks in your ceiling, and other staining on your roof deck.

Tip 3: Schedule simple maintenance after seasonal changes and larger storms

Whether you choose to perform this simple maintenance yourself or hire a roofing company, it’s important to have debris build-up removed from your roof and have your gutters and downspouts cleaned out regularly. This ensures water can move away from your roof quickly and reduces the chances of standing water or slow water intrusion which can each cause extensive damage to the building over time.

If you request a roof inspection, a qualified roofing company will notify you of any important maintenance that needs to be performed and you can schedule a time with them to perform this work. It’s a good idea to get on the schedule early. If you know you will need your gutters cleaned out every fall, schedule this work far in advance so that you can be sure this simple but imperative maintenance doesn’t fall through the cracks.