TPO Roofing

Why It Works Here

• A white membrane rejects a large share of solar gain, which shows up in cooling load on a warehouse roof in a Texas summer
• Heat welded seams fuse into one sheet rather than being stuck together
• Lower installed cost than PVC with much of the same performance
• Light enough for recover where the existing assembly is dry and code allows

Where TPO Is Wrong

• Restaurant and commercial kitchen exhaust. Animal fats degrade TPO, and PVC is the correct answer
• Heavy chemical exhaust from industrial or laboratory processes
• Roofs with constant foot traffic and no walkway pads

Weld Quality Is The Job

A TPO seam is welded at a specific temperature and speed. Too cold and the sheets never fuse, which is a cold weld that looks fine and separates in a few years. Too hot and the membrane is scorched.

You verify it by probe testing every seam under pressure while the crew is still on the roof. We probe and we document it. If a contractor cannot describe their probe testing procedure, that tells you what the seams will look like in year five.

What A Core Cut Tells You On TPO

TPO fails at the seams and at the flashings long before the field sheet gives out, so a roof that looks finished from the parapet is often repairable. The core cut settles it. Dry polyiso under a weathered sheet means we re-weld seams and reflash penetrations. Wet polyiso means the board has lost its R-value and holding the water in with a coating just costs you twice.

Permitting A Commercial Reroof Here

Most Metroplex cities require a permit and an inspection for a commercial reroof, and the requirements are not uniform across the region. One building department wants sealed drawings for a recover, the next wants an engineer's letter on the deck, another wants energy code documentation showing the insulation R value you are installing. Fees and review times vary the same way, and a building sitting in an ETJ or an unincorporated pocket has a different path again.

Single ply work adds a wrinkle, because layer counts matter. If two roofs are already on the deck, code generally will not let you recover a third time, and that turns a coating or recover budget into a tear off budget. We find that out with core cuts before we submit anything, so the number in your capital plan is the number you actually spend. We handle the submittal and meet the inspector on site.