Flat Roofing Questions, Answered

Yes. We come out, get on the roof, inspect it properly and give you a written quote with the scope, the system and the price. There is no charge for that and no obligation to proceed. If the honest answer is that a repair will buy you five more good years rather than a replacement, that is what the quote will say.

For quote requests sent through this form, we come back to you to arrange a site visit rather than quoting blind, because a number given without seeing the roof is a guess. If your enquiry is urgent, and particularly if water is coming in right now, call (647) 333-3528 instead. That line runs 24/7.

Roughly where the roof is and roughly how big, what it is doing that made you call, how long it has been doing it, and whether anyone has worked on it before. Photographs of anything showing inside the building are genuinely useful. None of it is required to send the form.

We work across Toronto and out through the GTA: Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough, East York, York, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Mississauga, Oakville, Milton and Whitby among others. If you are on the edge of that, call and ask rather than assuming. We would rather tell you honestly than waste your time.

Properly installed and reasonably maintained, expect roughly 20 to 30 years. Two-ply modified bitumen and cold-ply systems generally sit in the 20 to 25 year band, while EPDM and TPO can reach the upper end. What actually decides it is drainage, the quality of the flashing details and whether anyone looks at the roof between rainstorms.

Typically 20 to 30 years for the systems we install, assuming the drainage works and the roof gets inspected. The single biggest predictor of a short life is standing water, followed by neglected flashing at curbs and penetrations. A roof that gets walked twice a year and has its drains cleared reliably outlasts an identical roof that does not.

They win on different things. TPO is white and reflective, which cuts summer cooling load over conditioned space, and its seams are hot-air welded. EPDM comes in bigger sheets, which means fewer seams on a large simple roof, stays very flexible in deep cold and patches beautifully years later. Over a heated warehouse we usually lean TPO. Over a simple unconditioned structure or where long-term repairability matters most, EPDM.

The plies and the finished result are broadly similar. The bonding method is not. Torch-down uses an open flame to melt the bitumen and fuse the layers. Cold-ply uses an adhesive and never lights anything on the roof. On a detached house with clearance, either works. On a Toronto row house with a shared party wall and a century-old timber deck, cold-ply is the responsible specification.

Raw material cost, mainly. They are welded the same way and they look similar on a roof, but PVC's chemical and grease resistance comes from a fundamentally more expensive polymer. If your roof will never see kitchen or industrial exhaust, that premium buys you very little. If it will, TPO will degrade where PVC will not, and the premium pays for itself long before the warranty runs out.

TPO is the most common answer for large simple roofs, mainly because the reflective surface cuts summer cooling load across a big area and the welded seams are strong. If the roof lives under kitchen or industrial exhaust, PVC is the better choice for chemical resistance. If the roof gets heavy weekly foot traffic to equipment, a two-ply modified bitumen system takes that abuse better. We recommend after we have walked it. Our flat roofing systems guide compares all six side by side.

Not necessarily. If the rest of the field is sound and the failure is local, for example a lifted seam or a bad curb flashing, a proper repair is the right answer. We will tell you which one you are looking at after we have been on the roof, and we will show you the photos rather than asking you to take our word for it.

Because water runs. It gets through the membrane at one point, travels along the top of the deck or along a joist until it meets an obstruction, and then drops. It will happily emerge several metres from where it entered, and it will nearly always come out at a light fitting or a seam in the drywall. Tracing it back to the actual entry point is a large part of the job.

Core samples. We cut small test cores through the assembly, look at the insulation and the deck, and patch the cores properly afterwards. It is the only way to know for certain, and it is the difference between a recover that lasts and a recover that traps water. Infrared surveys can narrow down where to core, but the core is what confirms it.

Usually yes, and it is the best possible moment to do it. Tapered insulation built into the new assembly creates fall on a dead-level deck and moves water to the drains without touching the structure. It adds R-value at the same time. If the ponding is caused by a sagging deck rather than a lack of slope, that is a framing repair and we will price it separately.

Yes, and it comes up constantly on Toronto row houses and semis. The important part is the detail where our new roof meets theirs, and how the membrane is terminated at the shared parapet or dividing wall. On tight party walls with dry old framing we usually recommend a cold-ply system so there is no open flame anywhere near the neighbouring structure.

Sometimes, and it saves the entire tear-off and disposal cost, so it is always worth asking. A recover only works if the existing insulation is dry, the deck is sound, the structure can take the added load and there are not already too many layers on the building. If the insulation is wet, a recover traps that water permanently against the deck, and you get a rotting structure under a new roof.

Sometimes, and it saves the very substantial cost of removing gravel and multiple plies. It requires that the existing assembly is dry, which we confirm with core samples, that the deck is sound, that the structure takes the added load and that there is a suitable separation or cover board between the old bitumen and the new membrane. If the insulation under the built-up roof is wet, the answer is no, regardless of what it would save.

A straightforward residential roof, for example a rear roof or a garage, is commonly one to three days. A larger or more complicated residential roof runs to the better part of a week. Commercial work is phased and quoted with a timeline attached. Weather is the variable nobody controls, and we will not open more roof than we can make watertight before the end of the day.

Sometimes, and we would rather tell you that up front than pretend otherwise. The deck is the usual one: sheathing that has been quietly rotting under a leak for years, or a joist end that has gone soft where it sits in a brick wall. We photograph anything we find, tell you what it costs to put right, and get your agreement before doing it.

It depends on the deck, the exposure, the access, the traffic the roof will take and how long you plan to hold the building. Two-ply modified bitumen and cold-ply are the residential workhorses, and TPO, PVC and EPDM cover most commercial situations. Our flat roofing systems guide compares all six on lifespan, seams, fire behaviour, cost tier and what each one is actually best at.

Yes, and on most commercial jobs that is the requirement rather than the exception. We phase the work in sections, take on only as much roof as we can make watertight before the end of the working day, protect the interior underneath, and agree access routes and working hours with you in advance. The phasing plan is part of the written quote.

A good quality curb-mounted unit will typically give you 20 to 30 years, which is roughly the same span as the roof it sits in. Seals and gaskets are usually what goes first, which is why fogging between the panes is the classic sign that a unit is near the end. The curb and the flashing, if they were built properly, generally outlast the glazing.

Yes, provided the existing curb is sound and tall enough and the membrane around it is in good shape. We take the old unit off, check and repair the curb, make good the flashing and set the new unit. If the curb is rotten or the surrounding membrane is at the end of its life, we will say so rather than putting a new unit on a bad foundation.

Usually because warm humid indoor air is reaching a cold surface. A skylight is the coldest part of the ceiling, so it condenses first, which makes it a useful early warning about the whole assembly. It often points at ventilation or insulation in the roof cavity rather than at the unit itself, which is why we usually look at the attic and ventilation at the same time.

On a large floor plate with daytime operations, the lighting saving is real and measurable. The trade-off is solar heat gain in summer and heat loss in winter, which is why glazing specification matters more than most people expect. Prismatic and diffusing glazing spreads light more evenly and cuts glare, which is often more useful on a working floor than raw brightness.

The commonly recommended target for this climate is roughly R-50 to R-60. In a flat roof cavity, hitting that with joist depth alone is often not possible, so we either use a material with more R-value per inch or add rigid insulation above the deck during a roof replacement. We will tell you what is realistically achievable in your cavity before you spend anything.

It depends on how the assembly was built. A vented cold-roof assembly needs a continuous air channel above the insulation with intake and exhaust at opposite edges. An unvented warm-roof assembly puts the insulation where the deck never gets cold enough to condense on and is deliberately sealed. Both work. The failure mode is a cavity that is half of each, which is unfortunately very common in older housing stock.

Heat escaping from the house is melting snow on the roof, and the meltwater is refreezing when it reaches the colder edge. It is a symptom of heat loss and ventilation, not of the weather. Fixing the insulation and the air sealing is what makes it stop; chipping the ice off only deals with today's version.

We can stop the water and we can make it weathertight in the rain. What we usually cannot do in the rain is the permanent repair, because most roofing materials need a dry, clean surface to bond to properly. Doing a permanent repair onto a wet substrate is how you end up back on the same roof next month. So the honest answer is two visits: stop it now, fix it properly when it is dry.

Please do not, especially in wind, rain, snow or darkness. A wet low-slope membrane is far more slippery than it looks, ponded water hides trip hazards and soft spots, and old skylights and rotten deck sections will not hold a person. Contain the water inside the building and let us handle the roof.

That is between you and your insurer and we cannot answer it for you, but we can help you make the claim easier. Photograph everything before you move it, keep the damaged materials if you safely can, and we will document what we find on the roof and what we did about it. Sudden storm damage and gradual wear are usually treated very differently by policies.

Yes. Manufacturer warranties vary by system, by product line and sometimes by who installed it, and the terms differ on what they actually cover. Our workmanship warranty covers the installation regardless of system. We set out both, in writing, in the quote, so you can compare like with like before deciding.

Yes. We do not quote shingles, siding, eavestrough or general contracting. If you call us about a pitched roof we will tell you honestly that it is not what we do. Everything that touches a low-slope deck, including skylights and the insulation in the cavity underneath, we handle ourselves rather than subbing out.

The project gallery is. Every photograph in our projects and in the proof strips, showing a roof, a crew or a job in progress, came off one of our own Toronto and GTA job sites. The hero images at the top of each page are illustrations rather than job photographs, and we say so in their alt text. Where you see a technical drawing of a membrane assembly, it is clearly a drawing rather than a photograph, and it is there because it explains the layers better than a photo of a finished surface can.