We are a full service licensed, certified, and insured flat roofing contractor in Washington, DC. We are in the business of waterproofing, roof repair and upkeep, and installation of new flat roofs. Our work includes commercial buildings such as the high rise buildings throughout the downtown, CBD of Washington DC and the thousands of residential rowhomes throughout our city.
The buildings of our city are largely historic and have had roofs changed and replaced over the years, in many cases because these are flat roofs buildings that were not intended for modern mechanical systems, often we have to work with and coordinate with other systems outside of the actual roofing itself. These systems include mechanical systems, PV or photovoltaic energy systems (solar panels) and many other types of building assemblies. Our company is trained and experienced and can work well to deal with the challenges on these types of historic buildings.
In addition to installation of new modern flat roof systems, our company often also works with repairs to existing roofs.
Four of the most common types of repairs required on flat roofs in Washington DC follow:
- Wear and tear.
- Deterioration of non-roof elements.
- Damage from environmental conditions.
- Improper installation.
Wear and Tear
- Where and tear is typical deterioration that happens through the natural aging process of building materials. Flat roofs have an incredible amount of exposure to harsh conditions. This type of damage or deterioration naturally and inevitably happens with aging as time goes by.
All of the types of roof materials deteriorate over time with exposure to the elements. Here in our climate zone, in Washington DC we have both harsh exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun, and we have heavy precipitation loads with freeze-that cycles that happen throughout our long winter seasons.
Deterioration of non-roof elements
- There are several types of systems, on or above the roof line of Washington DC buildings that can have deterioration or defects which can lead to leakage.
Some examples of system types which are not root systems but interrelative and must be coordinated with flattened must be coordinated with flat roofing follow:
- HVAC and Mechanical Air Systems
- Plumbing Vent Systems
- Natural Gas Fuel Systems to Rooftop Mechanical Equipment
- Television and Internet Satellite Equipment
- Photovoltaic Solar Panels
- Chimney Exhaust Systems
- Skylights and Fenestration Systems
- Attic Ventilation and Exhaust Fans
- Adjacent or Neighboring Partitions, Above the Rooflines
- Rooftop Decks and Terraces
Even though many systems are outside of the discipline of actual roofing, they are adjacent to and interrelated with the roofing because the roofing is used as a substrate for these materials to mount and / or these non-roof systems must penetrate the roof system. Therefore, to prevent leakage, it’s very important that these systems are also checked and repaired as needed. Most roofing contractors will not consider or repair non-roof items, but in an overall holistic perspective it’s important to take these items into consideration and our company will, in many cases, offer options for repairs.
Damage from environmental conditions
- Unpredictably but invariably, weather patterns and storms put extreme pressures on our buildings roof systems. It’s a great idea to have a good relationship with a good contractor such as our company. Our company will perform a routine seasonal check up. Often will find that damages have occurred through wind blowing and debris such as falling tree branches. Sometimes tree branches fall from trees that are even across property lines and will land on and damage a roof system. High winds, hail, ice expansion, and ice damming are all unexpected. Unlike damage from sunlight and ultraviolet rays, which occur pretty consistently, almost every eryday, extreme winds and hail, for example, somewhat unpredictable.
Improper Installation
- Defects, typical manufacturing and installation processes across industries, should be expected to be very low. However, companies such as ours with internal quality control systems are very rare and the majority of contractors install the majority of work improperly. So for other roofing installers, the defect rate is extremely high. Our company comes behind and after other contractors and fixes their mistakes. The leading cause of all repair work is improper installation from other contractors. Our company, in contrast to other contractors, completes our work carefully and to the highest standards at initial installation.
Since our company will often come after other contractors fail, we offer options to fix and repair their mistakes.
Types of Roof Repairs
There are many different categories of potential roof repairs. Four of the most common categories follow below.
- Grade Changes & continuous Flow
- Counter-Flashings & Spanning Metals
- Partial Overlays & Recoatings
- Proper Sealant Applications
In the adjacent batch of images, you can see examples of artificial repair work. This entire grid of photos is from one building’s roof where the roof was installed improperly. After the other contractor had completed their work, the building owner called our company and asked our company for help. We came and looked over the roof and repaired many of the
The picture below shows another view, closer upcome of a typical installation defect by another contractor. In this case, Ace, the contractor installed the penetration flashing in reverse order. We repaired this mistake by the other contractor and fixed the problem.
The very close up view below shows the issue Administration flashing, they didn’t understand how to do the work properly so they put the flashing flashing in a reverse sequence.
The 2 images below show another example of improper initial roof installation which caused significant leakage over time. This building happens to be in Capitol Hill, Washington DC. The rear termination and drip edge were installed improperly from the beginning, The homeowner only found the leakage way after installation but as the leak continued for a long period of time, slowly infiltrating into the ceiling above the rear of the building, The slow leakage caused significant damage to the ceiling drywall and plaster. We removed the rear termination and reinstalled the roofing with the proper sequenced layering of the rear termination.
