Below is a report from one of our flat roofers that is currently repairing a TPO flat roof. The field report was interesting to us from a few perspectives;
1. The TPO flat roof has a number of repairs required, so it shows folks attempting repairs on their own flat roof some DIY – “How to Repair a Flat Roof” assistance,
2. The roof repair report shows really how many things can go wrong if the wrong flat roofers are hired to do a flat roof replacement.
3. There is also a funny comment about rocks being on the roof (and bird poop) – roofers have always known that birds bring rocks up to the roof all the time, the question is why? Why are there so many rocks on these flat roofs from the birds?
The reasons for roof failure on this flat roof are as follows:
– incomplete welding and improper welding of flat roof membrane – repaired
– leaving spots of roof unwelded – repaired
– not applying enough heat to the tpo roof membrane – repaired
– not cleaning the area to be welded properly before welding the tpo – repaired
– there were no corner patches at any corners of the roof – repaired
– there were glued seams that should have been welded, causing the seams of the roof membrane to lift – repaired
– there was stripping for parapet walls that were supposed to come down and go onto the field minimum 4 inches and at times there was only an inch to 1/8 inch of membrane on the field of the flat roof – repaired
– none of the roof corners were rounded, causing the roof membrane to lift – repaired
– found roof membrane welded seams that were covered in glue – repaired
– found deficiencies in all pipe boots installed to the roof. the pipe boots were installed with the quick prime and tape method (pipe boots should always be welded to the field on a single ply tpo flat roof system) – repaired
– TPO patches that weren’t welded down properly, due to not applying enough heat to the roof – repaired
– found a few screws that were not installed correctly, the screws were poking through the flat roof membrane – repaired
– also noticed electrical wire running through a parapet wall, whoever installed it cut a whole in the roof and put a piece of plywood over top, so I glued a piece of membrane on the plywood and welded the seams – repaired
This Flat Roof was extremely dirty – dirt, dust, bird feathers, bird poop, metal clippings, screws, nails, bolts, nuts, old olfa blades, tpo clippings, and rocks?
Perhaps some of those issues that can occur with TPO flat roof repairs may help you, but we are really wondering about the rocks on the flat roofs.
