August 02, 2017
It’s amazing how many building owners will purchase a commercial building without completing a thorough inspection of the roof prior to completing the deal. In essence your leaving money on the table as the roof condition can and should be used as part of your negotiation
Replacing a commercial roof will potentially be one of the most expensive maintenance items that you will need to deal with when owning a building. Investing the time to have a thorough inspection performed can help you set-up and plan your operating budget without any unexpected surprises.
Here are 3 important factors for conducting a commercial roof inspection:
Perform a visual inspection
The visual inspection will determine the roof system currently on the prospective building your buying. Every roof membrane is not the same and will provide a different life expectancy. Depending on how well it has been maintained will have a major factor if you actually will get the expected serviceable years from your roof.
What visual deficiencies is the commercial roof experiencing? This will help to determine how well the roof has been maintained. Are the pitch pockets properly sealed? Are there notable blisters or ridges across the roof? Are there areas of ponding water? There are many issues to document when performing a visual inspection. Some are inherent to commercial roofs that just require continually maintenance, while other issues could be red flags that you need to be aware of.
Conduct a Core Test
As part of the roof inspection, you should expect a core cut test to be performed so that the full roof system can be determined. The core test provides valuable insight to the overall condition of the roof membrane. Furthermore, it will also validate the type of insulation and r-value you can expect from your building.
There is no standard when it comes to insulation and over the years many different types of insulation have been specified in new building construction. For example, phenolic insulation, which was used quite frequently throughout the US & Canada during the 70’s and 80’s (due to its greater thermal resistance), has been completely discontinued and is not used in new “roof” construction anymore. If your roof has phenolic insulation then your options for roofing solutions in future are limited to only one, which is full roof replacement. Understanding your options up front can help determine the operating budgets that will be expected.
Document in roof report
You will need this information documented into a collated roof report which will highlight findings from the visual and core test inspections. Perhaps you have a local contractor that will visually have a look at the roof, however, have they gone the extra step to inspect all areas then document this information for you.
The report should also detail what commercial roofing solution options you will have available to you. Whether this is required at the point of purchase or something that can be planned for over the coming 5-10 years. Moreover, the independent roof report that you acquire, will provide you the insight to aid in your on-going discussions when evaluating buying a commercial building.
In Summary
Due to the rising costs of materials and labour, commercial roofing will not get any cheaper in the years to come. It is a large expense for building owners and putting the time in to evaluate the roof prior to purchasing a building can help you with operation budgets and potentially save you thousands of dollars off the purchase price as well.
If you would like to learn more about our commercial roof inspections, please contact us.
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