My Commercial Roof Is Leaking: What Can I Do?

All roofs will leak
​At some point in time, your expensive commercial roof will spring a leak. The odds against that taking place are small as there are so many ways for your commercial roof to spring a leak.

Building owners, property managers, and even tenants are not looking forward to that time when the roof leaks on their building. The reasons they are not looking forward to their roof leaking are because, one, they are hard to find, two, expensive to repair, and three, can cause a lot of damage.  However, there are steps you can take to minimize the damage to the building once it has been reported that there is a leak in the roof. Keep reading to find out what you can do when this problem arises in your building.

There is a leak in the roof, what should be done?
When someone in the building reports a roof leak, you have several options to try to rectify the situation.

#1. Take safe steps- this is a situation where you as the building owner or property manager, should not go up on the roof and try to fix it yourself. Nor should you send untrained and inexperienced maintenance men up on the roof to do the same thing.

Being on a roof when it is leaking can be a bit risky and you need to avoid putting yourself and others at risk. Part of the risk is the challenge of finding the roof leak.  Additional equipment may be needed to make sure you found the actual source. You, the property manager, and the maintenance crew may not have access to that equipment.

#2. Protect the interior property- while it is hard to find the actual leak, seeing where the leak ends up is not so challenging. Once you spot the interior leak, then it is time to take the steps to protect carpet, rugs, furniture, insulation, lighting, electronics, and much more.

Water can cause a lot of damage to building interiors and its content so protecting as much as you can will help save you some money. Your insurance coverage may not cover everything so protect as much as you can.

Some steps to take to apply this protection are to put tarps over carpets, other flooring materials, furniture, electronics, and other expensive to replace items. Or you can use plastic sheeting. Also, do not forget to put a bucket or two under the leak to catch the falling water drops.

#3. Call in roofing experts- instead of risking life and limb, call in the experts who not only have the equipment to investigate the source of the leak but also have the knowledge of where to look and what needs to be done to fix the problem.  Professional commercial roofing companies may be a bit expensive but once they are on the job, you know that the leak will usually be found and repaired quickly.

If these professional roofers do fail to find the leak, then you can always call in licensed professional engineers who are a level or two above roofing pros equipment-wise and techniques. These engineers will work with professional roofers to fix the leak once it is found.

The roof is still leaking, why is it doing that?
There will be those times when all the steps you take will fail and your roof will continue to leak. There are some very good reasons why this is so. Here are some of those reasons:

#1. Everyone failed to find the leak

Blunt but true. As we said earlier, it is very difficult to find some roof leaks. They are well hidden and can escape an investigator’s eyes with ease. If the roof still leaks after you called in the contractor, then that leak tells you that they did not find it.  The solution to this problem is to have the roofing contractor go up on the roof again and do another search. Or call in the professional engineers when they are free to do the search.

#2. The wrong roofing material was used
This can happen quite often and does when professional roofers get lazy and only use one type of roofing material to patch the leak. The key to fixing a leaking roof is to use the appropriate patch materials compatible with the roofing materials.

When the patching materials are not compatible then you may stop the leak temporarily but eventually, a new hole will emerge and you are facing the same problem all over again.  Make sure the contractor uses the right patching materials for your roof type.

#3. Water-logged insulation was not removed
This is an essential step when the roof leak damages the insulation. The water on the insulation will compress the latter and allow for a roof depression to form. Once that does, the water can stay in one spot putting pressure on the roofing seams, etc.
All this pressure on the seams and the flashing can create a new leak. When you are having your roof leak repaired, make sure the roofing contractor removes all water-logged insulation and replaces it with new insulation.

#4. Damage was not repaired

This often happens when the roofing contractor goes with a roof coating and does not take the time to repair the structural damage underneath the coating. The underlying damage can eventually ruin the roof coating, splitting it apart and letting the water run in again.
Always double-check to make sure the contractor fixes all damages before applying the roof coating.  When you have a leaky commercial roof, do not trust it to just any roofing contractor. Call our office today to see what can be done to fix your roof as quickly as possible.
At Motor City Roofers, we understand that time is of the essence when the roof leaks. Not only do our professional roofers work quickly but they make sure all damage is repaired before calling the leak fixed. Call us today for quick service.