Commercial roof maintenance programs in Houston
Commercial roof maintenance in Houston, TX: scheduled roof walks, clear drains, small problems caught early and a dated photo record. Book a roof assessment.
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01
What commercial roof maintenance is
Commercial roof maintenance is looking after a roof on a schedule instead of waiting for it to leak. Our maintenance programs run on year-long contracts, with visits twice a year, or four times a year on roofs that need more cleaning. Each visit clears debris, cleans drains and gutters, and inspects the flashings and drainage. Repairs go into a written proposal, and every visit gets dated before and after photos.
A program is priced per square foot. The rate depends on how easy the roof is to reach, how many stories the building has, and how busy the roof is.
We maintain TPO and PVC, modified bitumen, built-up with or without gravel, R-panel and standing seam metal, and coated roofs. The buildings are warehouses, distribution centers, industrial buildings, strip centers, offices, medical offices, churches and apartment properties across Houston, TX and the metro. Commercial buildings only.
Water dripping into the building today is commercial roof leak repair, with same-day emergency response. One look at a roof, before a purchase or after a storm, is a commercial roof inspection.
Commercial roofs rarely wear out evenly. The open field is often still sound when the first problem appears at a seam, a curb or a wall, like the lifted lap in the photograph.
In Wade’s words: “Most roof problems do not start as a full roof problem. They start at seams, penetrations, curbs, walls, gutters, drains, and old repair areas. If those details are ignored, a small leak turns into insulation damage, tenant problems, interior damage, and then a much bigger decision. Maintenance is what keeps a roof from becoming a capital expense before it has to.”
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What a maintenance walk covers
A maintenance walk covers the whole roof, walked the same way every visit, so a seam photographed once can be set beside the same seam next time. These are the parts it looks at.
- The field
- Holes from dropped screws and tools, blisters, splits, surface worn bare or brittle, and soft spots that can mean wet insulation. A suspected wet area goes in the proposal for a core cut.
- Seams and laps
- Welded seams on TPO and PVC, laps on modified bitumen, and splits or bare spots on built-up. More on that membrane under TPO roofing.
- Walls, edges and coping
- Base flashing, counterflashing, termination bar, coping joints and edge metal. Metal that has worked loose here is what wind gets under first.
- Curbs and penetrations
- HVAC curbs, exhaust fans, skylights, pipe boots, vents, gas lines and pitch pans. Curb corners, cracked boots, and filler pulled back from the pipe it seals.
- Equipment and foot traffic
- The paths crews walk to the units, and what they leave behind: screws, filter frames, pipe offcuts. Loose debris punctures membrane and washes into the drains.
- Drains, scuppers and gutters
- Strainers in place, drains and scuppers running clear, gutters attached, and any water still standing.
- Old repairs
- Every patch, checked for whether it is still holding or cracking and lifting at the edges.
- Metal roofs
- Loose screws and dried-out washers, laps, ridge cap, trim and gutters, and rust at cut edges and penetrations. Panels and framing can be checked from inside the building as well.
- Coated roofs
- Coating worn thin, blistered or peeled, and the details under it. We identify the coating before proposing anything, because what goes on has to be compatible.
Want to know what a walk would find on your roof?
The assessment is free when we are quoting the work. We walk the whole roof and check the drains, the seams and every curb and penetration. We photograph what we find with the date on it, and tell you what needs attention and what does not.
03
Drains, scuppers and gutters
On a low-slope commercial roof, all of the rain leaves through a few interior drains, scuppers and gutters. When one blocks, the roof keeps collecting water and stops getting rid of it. Leaves, pine needles, silt, granules and equipment trash do it, and a missing strainer lets all of it into the line below the roof.
Held water sits against seams, flashing and curbs built to shed it, and adds weight the roof has to carry. So drains get more attention than anything else on the walk. The strainer comes off, debris comes out of the drain bowl, and the clamping ring gets checked for loose or missing bolts. Scuppers get cleared through the wall, and gutters and downspouts get checked for debris, rust and loose hangers.
A drain cleared before storm season does more good than one cleared after it.
Water still standing long after the rain, with every drain clear, is a different problem: a sagged deck, crushed insulation, a high drain or no slope. Fixing that is repair work, covered on our flat roof repair page. The walk's job is to photograph it and record where it sits.
04
Small problems, caught while they are small
A cap sheet corner that has lifted is a small repair. The same corner after a season of rain is wet insulation, a stained ceiling and a tenant on the phone.
Anything beyond the cleaning gets photographed, explained and put in a written proposal. Nothing is repaired until you have approved the price.
- A seam or lap starting to open
- Repaired in the same material as the roof before water gets underneath.
- Flashing pulling away from a wall or curb
- Usually rebuilt. Mastic over flashing that has let go buys a little time and not much more.
- A cracked pipe boot or a dried-out pitch pan
- Replaced, or refilled and resealed, before the gap opens far enough to let water in.
- A backed-out fastener on a metal roof
- Usually replaced with an oversized fastener and a new washer, since the old hole has often worn too big to hold.
- A blocked drain or scupper
- Cleared on the visit. A missing strainer goes in the proposal.
- A soft spot underfoot
- A core cut confirms whether the insulation is wet, and on larger roofs infrared can show how far it runs. Wet insulation is replaced, not roofed over.
- The same problem all over the roof
- No longer a maintenance item. That points at a bigger decision, covered at the end of this page.
Our standard repairs generally run $1,500 to $3,500. How seams, flashing, curbs and fasteners get fixed on each system is on the commercial roof repair page. If a walk finds water already getting into the building, it becomes a leak call.
Repairs to commercial roofs in Galveston County, Brazoria County, or Harris County east of State Highway 146 can need Texas windstorm certification (WPI-8) to keep TWIA wind coverage. We do WPI-8 certified work.
05
The dated record, across one roof or many
Every maintenance visit leaves before and after photos, each one dated. One visit shows the roof on one day. A run of them shows which way it is heading.
- Is the roof getting worse?
- The same seam, curb or wall photographed visit after visit shows whether it is holding steady or opening up.
- Did the repair hold?
- A repair photographed the day it was done, and again on later visits, shows whether it is still doing its job.
- What did the storm change?
- Photos from before a storm give the photos taken after it something to be compared against.
- Who has been on the roof?
- A new penetration, a new unit on an old curb, or damage along the service paths shows up against earlier photos.
- What does next year's budget need?
- Photos and written proposals let the roof go in the budget as a planned line rather than a surprise.
- What does the next owner or manager inherit?
- When a building sells or management changes hands, a dated history of the roof goes with it.
If the roof carries a manufacturer warranty, read its terms before planning anything else. The record shows what was done to the roof, and when. Whether that meets a warranty's conditions is decided by the manufacturer, and no contractor can promise it.
Property managers rarely look after a single roof. A strip center can have several buildings, a light industrial park a row of them, and an apartment property a roof on every building. With every roof walked the same way, ownership can see which roof needs money this year and which only needs its drains kept clear.
With us, the same person is involved in every roof on the list, from the walk to the report to the repair. Long drain runs on big roofs are covered under warehouse and industrial roofing. Restaurant exhaust fans and tenants' contractors are covered under retail and strip center roofing.
Looking after more than one roof?
Send us the list of buildings and we will set out how a program would cover them.
06
When maintenance shows the roof needs more
A maintenance record is also how you find out, early and with evidence, that a roof needs more than maintenance. The same repairs show up across more of the roof. Seams open in the open field. Cores keep finding wet insulation. Coating wears through everywhere, or rust spreads across metal panels.
A surface worn out everywhere, over a solid deck and dry insulation, points to commercial roof restoration, with nothing torn off. Metal rusting on the surface, with the steel still whole, points to metal roof coating. Panels too far gone to coat point to a retrofit, covered on the same page. Wet insulation over large areas, or a failing deck, points to commercial roof replacement.
The dated photos make that conversation shorter. Nobody has to take a contractor's word that the roof is finished, and if it is not finished, the record shows that too.
Who you are dealing with
Coons Roofing is a commercial-only roofing contractor working across the Houston metro. It is owned and run by Wade Coons, who is on every project from the first roof walk to the final walkthrough. There is no salesman between you and the person who looked at your roof.
Certified applicator for Versico, FiberTite, Duro-Last, Karnak, IPC, Western Colloid, Elevate and GAF. Fully insured with general liability and workers compensation coverage.
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Commercial roof maintenance FAQs
What does a commercial roof maintenance program include?
Ours run on a year-long contract. Each visit clears debris off the roof, cleans the gutters where there are any, and inspects the roof, with the flashings and drainage looked at most closely. Every visit gets dated before and after photos. Repairs are not done on the visit. Any deferred maintenance comes to you as a written proposal, priced before work starts.
How often does a maintenance program visit the roof?
Twice a year, or four times a year on roofs that need more cleaning. It depends on the type of roof and how quickly it collects debris. That comes down to how much equipment is up there, how often service crews walk to it, and what trees drop onto the roof.
How much does commercial roof maintenance cost?
It is priced per square foot. The rate depends on the building: how easy the roof is to get onto, how many stories it is, and how busy the roof is with equipment and foot traffic. Any repair a walk turns up is photographed and priced in writing before work starts. The assessment is free when we are quoting work, and it is where the number for your roof starts.
Does roof maintenance affect my manufacturer warranty?
It can. Manufacturer warranties commonly set conditions on maintenance, on reporting leaks and damage, and on changes to the roof. The details vary by manufacturer and system, so check your warranty's terms. A maintenance record shows what was done and when. Whether that satisfies a warranty's conditions, or whether a claim is covered, is up to the manufacturer under the terms of the warranty.
What is the difference between a roof inspection and a maintenance program?
An inspection is one visit that records a roof's condition on one day, often before a purchase, after a storm or ahead of a budget. A maintenance program is the roof looked after over time: drains kept clear, and small problems caught and quoted as they appear. It also builds a dated record that shows how the roof is changing from one visit to the next.
Is water from rooftop HVAC equipment a roof problem?
Sometimes it is not a roof problem at all. Condensate lines that empty straight onto the roof keep that area wet and wash debris toward the drains. Where they do, we photograph them and can include rerouting them to a drain in the proposal. The curb and the flashing under the unit are roof work, and they get checked as part of the walk.
What areas do you cover for commercial roof maintenance?
Houston, TX and the metro, across Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Galveston, Brazoria and Waller counties. That takes in Katy, Sugar Land, Stafford, The Woodlands, Spring, Cypress, Tomball, Conroe, Pearland, League City and Pasadena, and the industrial east side around the Ship Channel. Form inquiries get a reply within 24 hours, usually the same day.
Want your roof on record before storm season?
Tell us the building and when the drains were last cleared. The assessment is free when we are quoting work, and it is where a maintenance program for your roof starts.
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Where we work across the metro
We cover Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Galveston, Brazoria, and Waller counties. Pick your city for local detail on what we see on roofs there.
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