Early diagnosis of deficiencies and timely repair ensure a long life from your roofs.

One of the most commonly asked questions in the roofing industry these days is “How long should the roof last?”  While there may be a few uncontrollable reasons for unexpected premature failure of a roof system, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, or hail, the life expectancy of a roof can be determined greatly by three basic factors:  installation, drainage and ongoing maintenance.  First, the roof system must be “born healthy,” or installed correctly, with all parts present in their right places and functioning with other components properly within the system.  Secondly, the roof system should have proper slope that will shed water during rains.  Thirdly, the roof should be periodically checked for damage or deterioration and repaired immediately prior to defects that can spread like cancer within the system.

What Aging Does to Roofing Materials

Most, if not all construction materials, are subject to the deteriorating effects of aging, as they are exposed to heat, cold, changing temperatures, water, wind, radiation, expansion, contraction and building movement.  Materials have a inexorable tendency to drift toward a lower level of performance. 

When materials are subjected to a roofing environment, the deteriorating effects of exposure are accelerated.  The pressure on roofing materials to react or degrade is several times that of materials used on the interior of a building.  If roofing materials are left to degrade without repair or maintenance, sudden and unexpected defects can, and likely will, occur.

Catching Deficiencies Early

The roof waterproofing membrane needs to be periodically maintained as deficiencies arise and are identified, before they progress into full-fledged defects that become a leak source.  Once a leak occurs in the waterproofing membrane, damage has then progressed into the underlying materials, such as insulation, base sheet and decking.  Patching a leak defect traps moisture within the roof system, which acts as a catalyst toward rapid degradation.  Soon the moisture trapped within the roof acts like cancer as it spreads within the system, damaging the roof from the inside out.  Eventually, either premature failure occurs or major replacement repairs are required.

The ideal roof would be one that could be left alone untouched for approximately 20 years without a leak occurring.  This, however, is extremely unlikely in any type of roof and especially unheard of on flat roofs.  The bottom line is that waterproofing membranes on roofs, just like the water proofing protection of paint on a house, need to be touched up periodically to prevent water damage from occurring to the more susceptible materials beneath them.  Once water damage occurs, more costly repair or replacement is required of the materials affected.

In caring for roofs, there are essentially two ways to proceed.  Managers or owners can choose to react to leak problems as they occur or establish a regular method of checking the roof for early signs of deficiencies and repairing them, prior to leaks happening.  Some owners tend to assume that their new roof warranty protects them from problems for at least 10 years.  Although the warranty covers leak repairs to the roof covering due to defective materials or workmanship, warranties typically do not cover the resulting damages to the underlying materials or the building’s interior.  As a matter of fact, most warranties require the owner to perform regular inspections and cleaning of the roof to identify deficiencies, or the warranty may be voided.   Obviously, the manufacturers of roofing materials know the importance of regular inspection of the roof to prevent premature deterioration and failure.

Unfortunately, may managers or owners would rather only spend money on their roofs when a leak occurs.  This typically in referred to as reactive maintenance.  Those managers put roofs lower on their priority lists when it comes to investing time, energy and money toward a preventive maintenance approach.

Preventive Maintenance Saves Money

Using a very conservative, simplistic life-cycle analysis like the one in Table 1, it is easy to see that investing money into regular preventive roofing maintenance saves money.  If we assume that the average life expectancy of an unmaintained roof is approximately 12 to 15 years, and that a reasonable expectation for a maintained roof is 20 to 25 years, we can plug in roof replacement costs and common leak and maintenance repair costs into a 30-year life cycle analysis chart (see Table 1).

The analysis shown demonstrates a $5-per-square-foot savings difference over a 30-year period between a reactive maintenance approach versus a preventive maintenance approach on a roofing system.  This is an outstanding 33% savings.

Establishing A Preventive Maintenance Program

-   A sound preventive maintenance program is simply a method of scheduled inspections and performance of the required corrective action.  Key elements of setting up a program include the following:

-   Building a historical file and establishing a tracking system

-   Performing a regular inspection of the roof to identify developing deficiencies.

-   Performing the proper corrective action necessary on the identified items form the inspection.

-   Tracking all activity on the roof and following up on warranty-related items.

Building a file on your roofs is extremely important so warranty information is readily accessible.  It is also important to review all past activity on the roof such as leaks, repairs, inspection notes, etc. prior to performing each inspection.  This information makes the inspector more informed of the roof’s condition before they actually inspect it and prepares them to perform a more thorough inspection.

Performing inspections of the roof should be done at a minimum of twice a year, preferably in the fall and spring. Monthly inspections are excellent, but most managers cannot find the time or resources to do them that often.  The inspections should consist of a visual evaluation of the various components, identification of deficiencies requiring corrective action and photographic documentation.  This information then needs to go into the historical file for future reference.

Performing the corrective repairs identified from the inspection should be done immediately prior to further degradation occurring.  When deficiencies are identified early in their development stage, repairs are usually relatively inexpensive.  If you procrastinate on the corrective repairs and the materials are further damaged from degradation, the more expensive repairs will get.

Owners or managers of roofs need to regard their buildings as an asset; and preserving this asset should be a primary goal.  Without vigilant effort and management skill, roof assets will depreciate at a rate that will adversely affect customers and profitability.  The owner normally does not purchase properties with the intention of quickly reselling them, thus the owner should not purposefully defer maintenance.  Timely preventive maintenance, while increasing short-term expenditures, is effective in reducing overall long-term costs.