Snow piles up on the roof. The wind blows the snow up, into and under flashing that is not properly secured to this Denver roofing system. The snow melts and in comes the water.
This is a picture of a flat roof leak on one of the Highlands Ranch Rec Centers. The leak had been there for years. A bucket had been placed to catch the drips in the past. Other roofing companies tried but failed to find the source of the leak. It was not an obvious solution.
We found it. The fail point was not visible to the naked eye. Solving this flat roof leak problem took some time and thought. Eventually, we isolated the possible problem spots and began to peel back the layers. Disgusting! We found it. The area had been leaking for a long time. As you can see, the decking underneath had molded and began to crumble. We discovered many problems with roofing failing due to water penetrations.
Denver roofing will be tested with the Spring weather. Be it a giant snowstorm like we are getting now, or a hail storm later in Spring, roofing in Denver and surrounding areas will be tested.
Most roofs fail at points of “penetration”. Penetration points would include flashing, edges, chimneys, vents, skylights, gutter lines, etc. In the images
on this post, the fail points were where walls met roofing at different levels of the building. The flashing had pulled away, and caulk had lost its seal, allowing water into the building envelope. After many months of water seeping into the underlayment, the wood began to rot and fail.
The solution to avoid this problem is to hire a roofing company like New Roof Plus to regularly inspect and maintain your roof. The roof is often forgotten. It’s not at eye level and unless there is a leak, you tend to not think of it. Large commercial buildings like this should have a regular inspection at the least. An inspection can fix a leak before you know you have one. This is pretty easy stuff usually.
In the long run, regular roof inspections can extend the life span of your commercial roof by years.
