Commercial Re-Roofing in San Antonio, TX

Commercial Re-Roofing in San Antonio, TX

Most of the commercial roofs we replace in San Antonio were installed in the building booms along Loop 410, IH-10 West, and the US-281 corridor twenty to thirty years ago, and they are aging out on a predictable schedule. Our re-roofing work starts with a decision, not a proposal: does this roof actually need replacement, or is the owner reacting to a string of leaks that a targeted restoration would solve for a third of the cost? We answer that with core cuts, an infrared or capacitance moisture scan, and fastener pull tests. If less than about 25 percent of the insulation is wet and the membrane still has service life, we will tell you to keep it. When the data says replace, everything that follows - system, phasing, budget - is grounded in what we found in those cores.

The tear-off-versus-recover question drives roughly 20 to 30 percent of total project cost, so we work it hard. Code allows one recover layer: if your building has a single existing roof, dry insulation confirmed by scan, and a deck that passes fastener pulls, a recover with a new cover board and single-ply membrane avoids tear-off labor, disposal fees, and days of open-roof exposure during San Antonio's April-through-June convective storm season. Two existing layers, wet insulation, or a deteriorated deck take recover off the table - you are tearing off. We put both numbers side by side in the scope, with the moisture map attached, so the decision is the owner's and it is documented for the file, the lender, and the next due-diligence review.

System selection in this market is a heat and hail problem before it is anything else. San Antonio roofs run 160 to 170 degrees at the surface through 100-degree-plus summers, and the same buildings sit in a hail corridor that produces damaging convective storms most springs. For most low-slope inventory we specify 60- or 80-mil TPO or PVC - white membranes cut rooftop temperatures and HVAC load, and the heavier sheets carry meaningful hail ratings. Restaurants, food processors, and anything with grease exhaust get PVC for chemical resistance. High-traffic roofs with dense mechanical equipment often warrant a mod-bit hybrid or added walkway protection. Where an owner wants a 40-year horizon and the structure supports it, we price standing-seam metal as an alternate so the comparison is real, not rhetorical.

Phasing is where re-roofing succeeds or fails on an occupied building, and nearly every building we re-roof in San Antonio stays occupied. We break the roof into daily sections sized so that whatever we open in the morning is watertight by end of day - never ahead of the afternoon storm risk. Tear-off over a medical office near the South Texas Medical Center gets negotiated noise windows and interior protection below; a distribution building near Port San Antonio gets dock doors sequenced so receiving never stops; a hotel in the River Walk hospitality core gets crane picks scheduled before guests wake. The phasing plan is a written document in the contract - section map, dates, staging areas, and the name of the superintendent who owns it.

Drainage gets re-engineered during a re-roof, not copied. Thirty-plus inches of annual rain arriving in intense bursts means the scupper and drain sizing that was marginal in 1995 is a liability now, and a re-roof is the one moment you can fix it economically. We calculate drainage for the actual roof area, add overflow scuppers where code and prudence require them, and use tapered insulation packages to kill the ponding that shortened the last membrane's life. We also push insulation up to current code - typically R-25 or better here - which the permit will require anyway on a tear-off. Owners who treat that as a nuisance line item usually reverse course when we show the utility math on a 100,000-square-foot white roof with modern insulation.

Procurement on a re-roof is a sequencing exercise the owner mostly never sees, but it decides your schedule. Membrane in standard colors is generally available, but tapered insulation packages, custom-color metal, and specified cover boards can run six to ten weeks from release. We submit for the permit and release long-lead materials the day contracts are signed, stage deliveries so the roof never carries more load than the structural review allows, and coordinate manufacturer pre-job inspections before the first crew day. For owners with multiple buildings - a common situation among the portfolio landlords holding flex product along Loop 1604 - we sequence buildings so crews roll from one roof to the next without remobilization charges stacking up.

Insurance and documentation run parallel to the physical work. A meaningful share of San Antonio re-roofs are hail claims, and the difference between a smooth claim and a stalled one is evidence: dated photos of the existing roof, core cut results, ITEL or lab reports on the damaged membrane, and a scope that maps line-for-line to the adjuster's estimate. We build that file whether or not a claim is active, because the next storm will ask for it. During construction we photograph every section daily - deck condition at tear-off, fastening patterns, seam probes - so the owner holds proof of what was installed, not just an invoice saying it happened.

Closeout is a deliverable, not a handshake. Before we demobilize, the manufacturer's technical inspector walks the roof, punch items get corrected, and the owner receives the executed warranty - typically 20 to 30 years, no-dollar-limit on the systems we specify - along with as-built drawings, the daily photo record, drainage calculations, and a maintenance schedule that keeps the warranty enforceable. We register the roof for semi-annual inspections, because the warranty that gets voided is almost always the one nobody looked at for five years. When you sell or refinance the building, that closeout package answers the roof question in the data room before anyone on the buyer's side has to climb a ladder.