Commercial

The building decides the roof, not the other way round

The membrane is the last decision, not the first. What the building does — what it exhausts, when it can be disturbed, who is underneath, and how the money gets approved — decides most of the specification before anyone opens a product catalog.

• 01Warehouse and industrialLarge simple fields, wind zoning at the perimeter, and inventory that cannot get wet.
• 02RetailTrading hours, tenant spaces, parapets and rooftop units over somebody else's stock.
• 03RestaurantGrease exhaust, a small roof crowded with equipment, and a work window that is mostly at night.
• 04ChurchSteep historic roofs and flat additions on the same building, and a capital process that runs on its own calendar.
• 05SchoolSummer work windows, public bidding, and roofs that were built in several eras.
• 06Multifamily and HOAPhasing across buildings, reserves, resident notice, and who actually owns which roof.
• 07Medical and officeOdor, noise, vibration and air intakes. The roof work is easy; the building is not.

The four things that vary most

What the building exhausts

Grease, solvents and process chemistry rule membranes in or out before anything else is considered.

When work is allowed

Trading hours, class hours, service hours, quiet hours. On several building types the work window is the hardest constraint in the job.

What is directly underneath

Inventory, patients, congregation, residents or a production line. That decides how much temporary protection the scope has to include.

How the money is approved

An owner decides in a day. A board, a school district or an HOA decides on a calendar, and the documentation has to suit that calendar.