Repair
The membrane is sound and the failure is local.
Seams, terminations, penetrations and ponding details. If the insulation underneath is dry, a repair is not a delaying tactic — it is the correct answer, and the moisture scan is what proves it.
Stage 03 Buildings · Knoxville, TN
Commercial roofing in Knoxville
On a flat roof the question is rarely whether it is broken. It is repair, recoat or replace — and the moisture scan settles that argument before anybody writes a number down.
Before anything is priced
Three answers, and a scan that picks one
Every low-slope roof in the Gulf South ends up at this fork. The expensive mistake is coating a roof that has water trapped in the insulation, which seals the problem in and buys nothing.
Recoat
The deck is sound and the surface is tired.
A fluid-applied system over a structurally sound roof: primer, reinforcing fabric at the seams, a measured film thickness. No tear-off, no landfill, no shutdown — but only over a roof that is genuinely dry.
Replace
Moisture is in the insulation.
Once water is held inside the assembly, nothing applied on top of it fixes anything. At that point the honest number is a phased tear-off with the building watertight at the end of every working day.
What goes back on
The low-slope systems, side by side
We fit all of them, which is the only honest reason to expect a recommendation about your building rather than about our stock.
| System | What it is | Where it suits | Service life the trade quotes |
|---|---|---|---|
| TPO | Single-ply thermoplastic membrane, hot-air welded seams | Big simple roofs, reflective white surface | 15–25 years |
| EPDM | Single-ply synthetic rubber, taped or adhered seams | Roofs with many penetrations to detail around | 20–30 years |
| Modified bitumen | Reinforced asphalt sheet, torched or self-adhered | Foot traffic, plant rooms, service walkways | 15–20 years |
| Built-up (BUR) | Alternating layers of bitumen and reinforcing felt | Older buildings already carrying a BUR assembly | 20–30 years |
| Standing-seam metal | Concealed-fastener panels, mechanically seamed | Sloped commercial and mixed-use structures | 40–50 years |
| Fluid-applied coating | Primer, seam reinforcement and a measured film build | Sound roofs failing only at the surface | 10–20 years, recoatable |
Those ranges describe the material, not a promise. They are the figures the industry generally quotes for each system. What your roof gets depends on the detailing, the traffic and the weather — and any warranty that applies comes from the manufacturer's documentation and from your contract, not from this table.
The three jobs
Replacement, repair and coating
Each one has its own page, with the sequence and the paperwork set out.
Commercial Roof Replacement
When patching stops making financial sense, we replace commercial roofs with systems matched to your building — TPO, modified bitumen, or standing-seam metal — scheduled around your business, not ours.
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Commercial Roof Repair
A leak over inventory, tenants, or equipment is money draining through the deck. We find the actual entry point, fix it properly, and document everything for your records.
Read more
Commercial Roof Coating
The most cost-effective roof you can buy is often the one you already own. Where a roof is structurally sound and only failing at the surface, a fluid-applied coating system is the trade's usual answer — at a fraction of what a tear-off costs.
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Stage 05 The scope
Paperwork a board can read before it votes
Materials, labour, decking, haul-off, line by line. If your carrier approved a different scope than the roof needs, you will see both columns.
- The moisture scan, with the wet areas outlined rather than described.
- Core samples where they were taken, and what came out of them.
- A phased schedule, with the dry-in point marked at the end of every day.
- A dated photo report — the same one your insurer or your owner will ask for.
Straight answers
Commercial roofing — the questions property managers ask
How do you decide between repair, recoat and replacement?
With a moisture scan, not with a sales call. If the insulation is dry the roof is usually a repair or a recoat; if it is wet, nothing applied on top of it helps. You see the scan and the photographs at the same time we do.
Will the building stay watertight while you work?
Yes — that is what phasing is for. Each section is dried in at the end of the working day, so an overnight band of rain finds a closed roof rather than an open one.
Can you work outside our operating hours?
Noisy phases can be scheduled early, at weekends, or in sections. Tell us which parts of the building cannot take disruption and we will build the sequence around them.
What documentation does a property manager get?
An itemised scope, the moisture scan, core samples where they were taken, and a dated photo report. It is assembled so a board or an owners' association can read it before they vote, not after.
What warranty comes with a commercial system?
Two things, and they are separate: the manufacturer's own system warranty, whose terms come from the manufacturer's documentation, and our workmanship terms, which are written into your contract. We do not quote a length on a web page — the one that binds anybody is the one with your signature on it.
Get the scan before the argument.
Tell us the square footage, the system if you know it, and what the leak is over. We will tell you whether this is a repair, a recoat or a replacement conversation — and we will say so either way.