Commercial Roofing
A store manager texts a photo of a wet floor beside a register, and the regional facilities lead has to decide in minutes whether to close a lane, call a roofer or send a bucket. For a retail or restaurant brand with locations in Edinburg, TX, the roof is a line in a repair budget that rarely gets a careful look until a leak forces one. The trouble is that two stores with the same sign can have very different roofs: one under a landlord's shared membrane, one on a pad site with its own roof, one in a strip with a kitchen vent and a rooftop unit installed by the tenant.
We start with the roof over the most active spot, usually the kitchen exhaust or the main rooftop unit, and trace the water path backward from the interior symptom. The findings go into a store-by-store record the regional team can use to decide who pays, who calls and what happens next.
Restaurants and shops put loads on a roof that offices do not. Kitchen exhaust fans discharge grease and heat onto the surface nearby. Walk-in coolers and condensers drip water. Rooftop units are serviced often, so the path from the hatch to each unit becomes worn. Retail units have storefront parapets and canopies that catch wind.
We look for ponding around exhaust fans, softened membrane downwind of a hood, split sealant at curbs, and punctures along the service path. Grease attacks some membranes more than others, so a replacement is matched to the exposure. A curb and equipment support repair with walk pads and a grease containment tray often extends the life of the roof around the kitchen.
Water passes the membrane, moves through insulation, follows the deck and appears at a light, a sprinkler head or a ceiling tile joint. In a restaurant, it often drips near the pass, the bar or a dining booth. In a store, it lands on an end cap, a fitting room or the back-of-house stock. The location of the drip is rarely the location of the leak.
We trace from the interior symptom to the nearest curb, vent, parapet or drain, then confirm with readings and, when the roof warrants it, an infrared moisture survey. The survey shows the extent of wet insulation, which decides whether the repair is one detail or a larger bay. A clear map helps the chain decide whether to keep trading during repair or to close one area.
Roofs over kitchens and sales floors hold the heat of the Valley's May-through-October warm season, and the cooling load rises with it. Seams, sealants and flashings work through the daily cycle, and rooftop units add vibration and condensate.
Tropical preparedness runs June through October. Hurricane Dolly's 50-to-70-mph gusts caused minor damage through the county, Edinburg included, and Hurricane Hanna brought wind and flooding in July 2020. Hail has also reached the metro, in spring 2012, though forecasters call it unusual for the Valley. After any of these events we check parapets, signage attachments, rooftop equipment, flashings and drains. A wind damage repair record gives the chain and its landlord a dated set of photographs.
Usually, with planning around the trading day. We coordinate with the store manager on delivery windows, lunch and dinner service and the quietest hours. Customer entrances stay clear, staging sits away from drive-through lanes and patios, and loud work above the dining room is scheduled for the slow part of the day.
Dry-in is completed daily, and kitchen exhaust is protected from dust and fumes while the crew works nearby. A reroof while the business keeps trading can be done in sections. Landlord approval is part of the plan when the roof is shared, and a short written schedule goes to the store manager and the landlord's representative before the first day.
At each location we photograph the roof from the same access point, number the roof areas and walk edges, kitchen exhaust, rooftop units, drains, seams and prior repairs in the same order. A standard format means a store in Edinburg and a store in McAllen can be compared line by line, even when their roofs differ.
The report ranks each store by condition and by what sits below the roof: dining room, kitchen, sales floor or stockroom, with the reason for each rank written beside it. It lists urgent items, near-term work and items to monitor, and it notes who is responsible under the lease where that is known. The regional facilities lead gets one summary across stores and one page per store, so the budget conversation starts from photographs, not from a stack of invoices for repeat patches.
The first step is a standard inspection at each store, with the same photographs and the same ranked findings. The second is a budget that sorts stores by condition: urgent repairs, near-term restoration, planned replacement. The third is a schedule that fits lease terms, remodel cycles and the trading calendar. A multi-site roof program gives the chain one record and one set of terms across the portfolio.
Not every roof belongs to the tenant, so the record also marks who is responsible under each lease and which landlord to contact. The center's owner or property management company usually approves roof access, and a brand that also runs hotels or event space can use the same method with its hospitality groups. A kitchen-heavy site follows the steps for restaurant roofing, and a large-format store follows big box retail roofing.
The lease decides, and the chain's counsel or real estate team reads it. What we supply is the factual record: photographs, moisture findings and the cause of the leak. That record helps the chain and the landlord agree on scope and cost without a dispute over what happened.
Call our emergency line. A crew answers at any hour, seals the opening temporarily and photographs the damage before and after. The store manager decides whether to close an area, and the regional team receives a short note on cause and next steps.
Partly. The inspection method, photo format and ranking can be the same everywhere. The repair itself depends on each roof's membrane, equipment and condition. A program sets common standards for documentation and materials while leaving room for the differences between roofs.
They discharge grease and heat directly onto the surface, and they are serviced often, so traffic and spills accumulate. Over time the membrane near the fan softens or cracks. Walk pads, grease trays and a membrane suited to the exposure reduce the damage, and a monthly look at the area around each fan, done by staff who are already on the roof for filters, catches softening before it becomes a leak.
A current roof report with photographs and moisture findings, plus a log of repairs. It shows the roof's condition at that date and helps resolve responsibility questions. We update the record at each visit so it never has to be reconstructed.