Commercial roofing is entirely different from residential roofing, but most of the individuals don’t understand the difference between them. Everything ranging from material to installation and issues to solutions is completely different from residential roofing. Commercial building owners face different issues for their roofing as compared to the homeowners. It’s important to understand that both commercial roofing and residential roofing have a different industry, and thus, they must be handled differently.
The most obvious difference between these two types of roofing lies in their roofing system. A residential roofing system is usually asphalt shingle and occasionally concrete tile based on the type of weather. Asphalt shingle is the popular option for a residential roofing system. On the other hand, the commercial roofing system has more options such as sprayed polyurethane foam, single-ply (PVC, EPDM, TPO) concrete, modified bitumen, tar, gravel, built-up, etc. So, it can be concluded that commercial building owners have more options as compared to residential building owners. It means commercial building owners have to carry out more research before making any roof repair or replacement decision.
As far as the installation of commercial roofing is concerned, it takes almost a month to install whereas residential roofing takes just one or two days to install.
This increase in time is due to the large size of commercial roofing as compared to residential roofing. Furthermore, commercial installation is more difficult and complex. It often needs several days of waiting for the mixing, settling, and gluing of roofing products.
New roofing can last several years no matter whether its commercial or residential roofing. But both these roofing do face some problems over time. Here it’s important to state that the issues being faced by a commercial building owner are different from that of a residential building owner. For example, if a residential roof leak then this problem can be solved by patching that area. But if a commercial roof gets a leak, then it may either need patching of that area or coating on the whole roof. The leak in a commercial roof can result in bigger issues and may require roof replacement or new flashings.
Most of the commercial buildings have flat roofs that are more budget-friendly to build as compared to a steep slope or pitched roofs because they need less material. Also, flat commercial roofs are quicker and easier to install. Commercial building owners will have a lot of choices when opting for roof membrane and material such as EPDM, TPO, PVC, built-up, rubber rolled, and modified bitumen roofing. They can choose any of their favorite colors for commercial roofing; however, most of them stick with white. It’s because white roofing helps decrease energy wastage as it has reflective properties.
Here at R&D Roofing, we offer roof repair and new roof installation services. We concentrate on the following types of commercial roofing:
- Asphalt, coal, tar, and gravel
- Green roofs
- Clay and slate roofs
- Flat roofs
- EPDM and TPO roofing systems
- Metal roofs
- Modified bitumen
