Is Standing Water on a Flat Roof a Problem

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Is Standing Water on a Flat Roof a Problem

For those who own a flat roof, one of the most problematic things you would ever experience is getting standing water in them. Getting standing water in on your flat roof is one of the most problematic things that you’ll ever experience.

Regardless you manage or own a commercial building or residential home that is designed to have a flat roof, you must reflect this question: Is the building’s low-slope or flat roof have the proper drainage system to prevent water ponding from ever happening in the future?

Honestly speaking, minor ponding on a roof that happen occasionally doesn’t really create problems that much. However, standing water that stays for more than 2 day can be a big problem for the roof membrane. The reason for this is because it can void your roof system’s warranty.

Ponding (whether that is a major or minor one) can worsen the roof’s membrane and shorten its lifespan. A ponding problem that has been set aside long and not being addressed for fixing immediately would end up being a great expense for you.

No matter what kind of roofing system you have at the moment, having standing water of any kind would be a huge problem for you and your company.

When Will Standing Water Be Too Much for The Building

Some commercial building managers and owners are already aware of this fact that the flat roof isn’t really literally flat at all. It actually has a low-slop that is not really noticeable at first. The minimum slope ratio for a flat roof is ¼:12. Which means that the roof system’s surface will slope at a minimum of ¼ of an inch (or ¼ of a unit), for every 12 inches (or 12 units) in length

If a specific building’s roof deck or substrate does not meet the ¼:12 slopes required, there is a chance that the roofing contractor that you hired to do the job would have to install a tapered insulation system. This makes will create a slope and produces a condition called positive drainage. The purpose for this is to completely drain any standing or ponding water on the roof membrane.

As a way to keep the roof’s warranty, building owners or caretakers must reach out to a professional roofing contractor to eliminate the standing water soonest within the span of 48 hours. This is based on the guidelines by the National Roofing Contractor Association or NRCA.

You only have at least 48 hours to dry or drain the standing water that is on your flat roof. If not being attended to immediately, your warranty is completely void. This is why you must make it a priority to at least double-check on your flat roof for any size of ponding water that you can find.

 

Why Are Some Low-Slope Roofs Not Draining Water Out Properly?

As previously mentioned, your roofing contractor that is responsible for installing your low-slope roof should make sure that they have established a tapered insulation system if the original slope is less than the required ration.

In this related case however, tapered insulation is not really affordable to get and they can be a very pricey component for the roofing system. Remember that even if the low-slope roof was created to include a tapered insulation system, the cost-cutting measured might have led to some modifications of the roof’s system design or even in some cases, some construction changes. In the industry, it usually called as “value engineering,” where the person who made the changes may not have took into consideration how the roof drainage would be affected.

Solution for Standing Water Problems

When it comes to situations like this, you should reach out to a reliable roofing contractor. We are a well-experienced and dedicated local roofing contractor that would help with your problems on your roof and whatever roofing concerns that you might have.

We have a very dedicated roofing contracting team that is available at any time of every season of every year to assist you for all your roofing needs. We have been in the industry for years and we have a dedicated roofing team with decades of roofing experience under their belts. It’s time that you stop doing all the work yourself and get the most effective roofing solutions as soon as possible.

It’s about time that you stop worrying about your roofs and leave it to the experts. Be complete and stress-free when you reach out to Half Price Roof today. For more information about our products and services and what we can do for your home or commercial building, feel free to give us a call today.

 

See Also:

What Does EPDM Stand For

Ponding Water on Flat Roof

Are Roof Warranties Worth It