A man installing roofing with a power tool on a sunny day, showcasing construction work.

Commercial Roofing Services for Flat Roofs (Podcast)

In this episode, John Maher interviews Brett Rogenski, General Manager of Master Roofers, about commercial roofing solutions for flat roofs. Rogenski outlines the most common issues with flat roofs, such as leaks and drainage failures, and explains how materials like EPDM rubber and TPO provide long-lasting performance in New England's harsh climate. He emphasizes the importance of roof inspections, proactive maintenance, and proper water management to extend roof lifespan. Brett also details how Master Roofers handles large-scale projects with minimal disruption, working around sensitive equipment, business hours, and seasonal needs—all while keeping safety, communication, and customer service top priorities.

John Maher: Hi, I'm John Maher and I'm here today with Brett Rogenski, general manager of Master Roofers, the most trusted roofing company in New Hampshire for over 80 years. Our topic today is commercial roofing services for flat roofs.

Welcome, Brett.

Brett Rogenski: Thanks so much for having me, John.

Common Issues with Flat Commercial Roofs

Maher: Sure. Brett, what are some of the most common issues that you encounter with flat commercial roofs and how do you address those?

Rogenski: Sure. I would tell you... I'll break that into two categories. The most common thing that we are addressing from a physical point of view is leaks. So, whether we're working with a building owner or property management company, whomever it is, commercial buildings, whether it be a single tenant or multi-tenant, we're getting calls.

We have an entire service division dedicated to flat roof service, and we're getting calls about leaks. "Hey, my tenant is calling saying that it's raining in their break room." And obviously our job is to respond to that as rapidly as possible, identify the problem and remediate it.

So, the most typical thing that we're dealing with is leakage issues, more from a management point of view, property management point of view. The other thing that we're typically dealing with and we like to help with is coming up with a plan for people's roofs, whether it be maintenance or replacement.

So, working with property owners and property managers on doing roof surveys so they can get a good idea of how is the roof aging, what challenges does it have now, and they can start to get an idea of what the likely lifespan of this roof is so they can start to budget for an appropriate range for when it's going to need replacement.

So, once we've done a good survey and given them a written survey with photos and really identified what the challenges are, we can help them understand is this roof 20 years away from approaching end of life, or is it more like two years away, or are we there already? Which helps them run their business, or manage their business because they can know, "Hey, you know what, somewhere in the next five years or so, this roof is going to give up the ghost, and I've got to start to budget appropriately for that."

Flat Roof Materials

Maher: What are some of the flat roof materials and systems that you typically recommend, and what factors influence your choice in materials for a flat roof?

Rogenski: Sure. The two most predominant ones here in New England are EPDM rubber roofs. Those have been in use for decades here. And one of the reasons they're popular and still remain popular here in New England is we have all four seasons. So, roofing here, the buildings and the product both physically expand and contract with the weather, right?

So, it must be great to do a roof in Hawaii because it's 78 and sunny every day. There's the weather forecast. Here in New England, we have to be dealing with ice, snow, well below freezing and well below zero temperatures, as well as temperatures that cross over a hundred for occasions in the summer. The nice thing about EPDM roofing over the decades, it's an older technology, is that it has a lot of flexibility. It expands and contracts well compared to some other products that are used elsewhere in the country.

The other product that is very popular now and becoming more popular is TPO, so thermoplastic olefin. Think of it as almost like a vinyl or plastic-y type product. One of the reasons that that is so popular, and we're big fans of as well in the right application is because it is when done appropriately, essentially a seamless product.

Rubber roofs are put together in big sheets that then overlap and are, for lack of a better description, glued together. Okay. So imagine if I had a whole bunch of sheets of paper and an Elmer's glue stick and I'm sticking them together like that.

A TPO roof is, yes, it is a sheet product that we roll out, but those big seams that we're talking about, we actually take a welding robot that makes a perfect weld down that entire seam. And when we're done, that is now one giant sheet. And then there's other parts that we use these hand welding tools, some of the finer details to actually do that. But when we're done, a TPO roof is essentially one continuous piece of roofing with no seams in it to fail. So, it's a really great product in certain applications.

Maher: So obviously if you had just a roof that was this rubber roof or the thermoplastic olefin, like you said, and you did no drainage at all, you'd end up with a swimming pool on your roof, which wouldn't be good.

Rogenski: Absolutely.

Drainage on Flat Roofs

Maher: How do you deal with that? How do you approach drainage and water management on flat roofs to prevent leaks and damage and make sure that that water doesn't just sit there and then end up inside the building?

Rogenski: Sure. A lot of times that comes from the design of the actual original roof. The two most typical ways to deal with flat roofing, I'll say three, depending on the construction of the building, first of all, it may be pitched, it may have a very slight pitch to it, either multiple pitches or one pitch where it's simply, hey, the front is higher than the back and that water is going to want to move its way back over time and drain off the back of the building.

One thing that we do recommend with people with that is, and that's more... Is gutters because if you now have a whatever, 50,000 square feet of roof pouring all that water off the back of it next to your foundation, that's probably not a good thing. So, you're going to want a water management plan there through gutters, et cetera, to move that water away from the building.

The more typical situation that we see is there are drains incorporated into the roof itself. They look like... A lot of us in our garage maybe have a drain down in the floor. They look a lot like that. They have a roof drain up there that then ties into the drain for the drainage for the building. So that water that accumulates on the roof goes down the drains and is then exited from the building through internal piping.

The next option as well would be, and this is seen a lot of times on roofs that have what's called a parapet, a little wall around the outside of the roof. A lot of times what those do is they are tapered to drive water towards little holes in that parapet called a scupper. So, if you were to look up at a roof that has a parapet around it, a lot of times you'll see maybe a drain line coming down from like a little box in that parapet, in that wall that's called the scupper.

And really what that roof has done well, if it's a central drain, if it's a floor drain in the roof, if it's a roof drain, it's tapered to drive the water towards those drains. And there's usually multiple ones on a roof that then again, go through internal piping, exit the structure.

If it's a scupper, it's being driven towards the outside walls and directed towards those holes that are known as scuppers, which then typically take it to a drainage system. And again, away from the building. There are a lot of times, especially in older buildings, sometimes it's just a scupper and the water goes shooting out the side of the building. We don't recommend that because all that water is now going to accumulate at the base of your building, give you a different problem.

So, scuppers for walls with parapets, very common. Roof drain, essential drains in the roof tied into internal plummeting to exit the building, that's probably the most common. And then the third is simply a flat, but sloped roof, which is draining off the roof either to the side rear or something like that.

Preventative Maintenance on Flat Roofs

Maher: Okay. What preventive maintenance steps can property managers take to extend the life of their flat roof?

Rogenski: Sure. Well, it's great that we were just talking about drainage because one of the most important things that you can do is make sure those drains are working. So have a annual or twice a year roof inspection. And as part of that roof inspection, not only are we up there looking for any defects that may have happened over time, maybe some flashing pulling away, or a seam that may start to fail, inspecting that, but also we're inspecting those drains, making sure they're free and clear and working properly.

Those scuppers can also become clogged over time. And so, any of those drainage things, if you allow water to accumulate, it's by nature going to want to find its way somewhere.

Also, in the winter here in New England, if you allow water to accumulate, now that's turning to ice, you're creating an ice rink up there and that expansion is going to start to do very bad things to your roof and to your structure.

So, one of the most important things you can have, have some regularly scheduled service and roof inspection where we can come, we can find little things, identify them to you and help you address any problems while they're small. It'll also let us help you estimate what the longevity of that roof is going to be. Are there five years left on this roof? Are there 25 years left on this roof? So, you can start to make plans and budget appropriately for its replacement, or if there's a more significant maintenance that needs to happen, plan for that and budget for that.

Large Scale Flat Roof Projects

Maher: And then finally, how do you handle large scale flat roof projects for a company while minimizing the disruption to business operations?

Rogenski: Yeah, great question. It all starts with communication. Once we define the scope of the project, estimate the project, and let's say the building owner has said, "Okay, Master Roofers, yes, we want to work with you on this project." Now we have to set clear expectations with them regarding what we need.

We also need to know from them what's important to them. So that's... For what we need, we need to let them know, for instance, about noise, potential debris, anything like that during, if there's a roof stripping process. So, if we have to take off old roofing, what's that going to look like? How's that going to affect the building and the structure?

The fact that we're going to have to cordon off certain areas to be able to accommodate dumpsters and vehicles and equipment. The fact that we're going to have to arrange times where maybe a chunk of their parking lot's unavailable. Why? Because we have to bring in a crane to crane materials up to the roof. Sometimes we even need to coordinate with other trades to work on things that are on the roof, mechanical system, so your HVAC contractor, et cetera.

So, it's coordination of effort, so setting expectations about what we're going to be doing and what we need, establishing any coordination between other trades and other vendors. And then most importantly, the customer telling us what they need besides a roof. So, the fact that we can't be disruptive in a certain way.

So, sometimes if we're adding ISO insulation, there's a screwing process that we have to do to adhere that down through decking. For instance, we had one customer that needed to know what sections of the roof we would be working on when, because they had sensitive equipment inside, that simply the disruption of the dust and any debris from screwing through the decking, because it was highly calibrated equipment, could cause a huge amount of spoilage for them.

So, what we did was we worked with them and we came up with a plan and we divided the roof into about 10 sections. And we had dates on that that we said, "Hey, we're going to be working in this section on this date, this section on this date, this section..." They could... A, they knew that they had to shut down their production line in that area ahead of time so they could do their business planning. And then the second thing that they chose to do is they covered those areas in tarps as well.

Scheduling Projects Based on Season

Maher: And do you ever schedule the projects to happen during a certain season, like say the spring or the fall in order to minimize disruption to... If you did have to shut down something like a air conditioning system on a roof, you maybe don't want to do that in the middle of the summer and bake everybody out of their office. Or likewise in the winter, if you had to do something with the HVAC system and shut down the heating system for a while in order to finish the roof. Are you trying to schedule it in the off seasons?

Rogenski: Yeah, we work with all... It's very common for us to work with customers regarding their specific needs or regarding those larger things such as air conditioning, heating systems and that sort of thing. So yeah, we absolutely do. We're very used to... We try and be a great customer service experience. So guess what? It's your building. You tell us when we're able to work largely and we work together on that.

So yeah, certainly if we had to, for instance, have a couple of days where like the HVAC system was down in a manufacturing plant, we're either going to work with them around what they choose as the least inconvenient time, or that might be, if it's a simple, we need to do a certain area on one day and that facility is closed on Saturdays, we'll work with them and we'll simply do that on a Saturday when they don't have people in there that are doing it.

We also are very accustomed to working around, for instance, like events. So, certain businesses have certain hours where they can't have disruption, and we'll absolutely work with them around that. For instance, we recently did some roofing at the SNHU Arena here in Manchester, and there were certain business hours we had to work with, okay.

But they also have events there, right? And they have preparation for events, there are lots of events. So, there were times that we had to plan our work that nope, we can't have any access to the site next Thursday through Sunday. Why? Because they're getting ready for a concert and they're doing setup on Thursday and Friday and concert Friday night, Saturday night, tear down Sunday, no, we can't be doing that. And other things like that.

So again, communication is key and our project managers are in constant contact with those end users and decision makers to make sure that we're being as minimally disruptive as possible. Hopefully not disruptive at all.

Maher: All right, well that's really great information, Brett. Thanks again for speaking with me today.

Rogenski: My pleasure. Thank you for having me, John.

Maher: And for more information about Master Roofers, you can visit the website at masterroofers.com or call (603) 623-4973.