The Importance of Maintaining Your Commercial Flat Roofing
Expensive, high dollar expense, pricey are all words that can be used to describe commercial flat roofing for good reason. Investing in a new commercial roof isn’t cheap. Your roof is a most essential part of your building envelope. Any roof is the first line of defense against mother nature’s elemental assault. The good news is that a high quality commercial roof system installed by a professional commercial roofing contractor can last a long time. Proper care and maintenance can keep your commercial flat roofing system in good shape, which will provide years of protection.
The fact that these systems work so well can lull the occasional business owner into a sense of security. This sense of security isn’t completely unfounded, but we should always be preparing for the future and taking care of our investments. And when it comes to commercial flat roofing, this takes the form of preventative maintenance.
It can be easy to take an “out of sight out of mind” mentality with our roofs. Many business owners rarely, if ever, make the climb to visit their roof’s surface. However, these systems are incredibly important to the structure beneath. And failure to maintain proper conditions can have increasingly negative results.
Here’s why maintaining your commercial flat roofing system is so important.
Stop Problems Before They Get Worse
Small problems with your roofing system might not seem like a big deal. Maybe a tree limb fell and put a hole into your roof. The hole might be small, so why worry about quickly fixing it? These small problems can compound and become a much larger problem.
Water is deceptively destructive. Even a small trickle can grow to a large problem over time. Water that gets into your ceiling can spread. This compromises the integrity of the roof, insulation, overhead lights, ceiling tile, underlying systems such as electric panels, and expensive electronic equipment or supplies to name a few.
Small holes, tears, or other openings in your roofing system can let in a lot more than just water. Animals and insects can use these openings to take up residence in your building. This can become quite destructive as the problem gets worse over time.
Maintain Safety
There are a lot of people working in your building. They travel throughout all areas of the structure and don’t think twice about the integrity and stability of the walls, ceilings, and floors on which they walk. However, a compromised commercial roofing system can make these areas much less trustworthy.
Water damage can weaken some of the strongest supports and structures within a building. Wood, drywall, and even concrete can be damaged from continuous exposure to moisture over time.
Routine maintenance will address any issues that could result in water leaks, tripping hazards, or anything else that poses a danger to your employees. Failure to find these items means you will notice them after an accident occurs, and by that time it’s too late.
The Appearance
You’ve spent money on painting the exterior of your building. You’ve put together a great logo that is on a sign hanging near the front door. You’ve even taken the time and money to pay a landscaper to keep the area surrounding your building to continue looking good. So why would you let something as important and noticeable as the roof on top of your building fall into disrepair?
Many commercial roofs are visible. Their vantage point from surrounding buildings or sometimes even the street out front lets them know about the condition of your commercial flat roofing system.
The appearance of your roof might be a good deal less important than the safety of your employees, but it’s still a reason to maintain quality conditions.
Save Money
As we said earlier, commercial flat roofing isn’t cheap. It can be tempting to save a few bucks by ignoring the routine maintenance aspects of keeping it in prime condition. But these initial savings will eventually be wiped out by costly repairs as unaddressed problems continue to get worse.
Fixing a small hole is far less expensive than repairing a large hole along with replacing a ceiling that has been rotted due to water leaks. This is only one such example of costly repairs and issues that could be the result of skipping routine maintenance. Do yourself the favor of avoiding these costly repairs by staying on top of your roof’s needs.
Schedule Commercial Flat Roofing Maintenance
Preventative maintenance prolongs the life of your commercial flat roofing system, saves you on repairs, and maintains the structural integrity needed to keep your employees safe. JBK Roofing has been providing preventative maintenance services in Kentucky and Tennessee for over 20 years.