Flat and TPO roofing

Where low-slope roofs show up

Modern houses in Daybreak, Lehi, and parts of Salt Lake with a single-ply roof over a porch or a whole volume. Additions on older brick homes where the new kitchen roof is nearly flat against a second story. Small commercial buildings in South Salt Lake, Murray, Ogden, Orem, and St. George. Townhome rear roofs that are membrane while the street side is shingle.

If the slope is steep enough for shingles or standing seam, we will not talk you into TPO. If it is too flat for those, we will not stretch a shingle warranty down onto a roof the manufacturer excludes.

TPO, and the alternatives we will mention

TPO is a heat-welded single-ply sheet. Seams are the workmanship. Edges, corners, and curbs around HVAC are where cheap installs leak. PVC is the cousin we will discuss when grease, a specific chemical exposure, or a manufacturer’s detail calls for it. Modified bitumen still exists on older commercial roofs; we repair it when repair is honest and replace it when the plies are done.

A silicone or acrylic coating can maintain a membrane that still has strength. It cannot turn a water-logged, shrunk, pulled-off-the-parapet roof into a new one. We will not sell a coating as a substitute for a tear-off when the sheet has failed.

• Slope and drains checked before the membrane is specified
• Cover board and insulation discussed, not hidden, especially where hail is likely
• Welded seams, not glue-and-hope, on the TPO we install
• Parapet, scupper, and edge-metal details drawn into the scope
• HVAC curbs flashed so the unit can be serviced without destroying the roof

Utah weather on a low-slope roof

Hail along the Wasatch Front can bruise a membrane that was laid over a soft substrate. The cover board under the sheet is part of the hail conversation, and it belongs on the estimate. Ponding after a monsoon cell in St. George, or a spring soaker in the Salt Lake valley, tells us the drain or the taper is wrong. Standing water is not “normal for a flat roof” if it is still there two days later.

Internal drains clog with cottonwood seed in valley cities and with grit in Washington County. A roof can be new and still leak because the strainer disappeared. We include that in maintenance advice instead of pretending the membrane failed.

Tie-ins to steep roofs

The hard part of many residential jobs is the line where TPO meets a shingle or metal slope. That transition needs a saddle, a height, and a flashing that is not a strip of membrane stuck to a shingle. If you are adding a flat-roofed room onto a 1970s rambler in Taylorsville or Springville, this line is the job.