It is the responsibility of property owners and managers to secure and maintain commercial buildings to ensure a safe and comfortable experience for tenants and visitors alike. Unfortunately, keeping the roof in good condition is one of the most neglected parts of building maintenance. Roofing contractors often caution that failure to address commercial roofing issues can result in costly repairs and premature replacement of the roofing system.
Here’s what property managers should know about commercial roof maintenance.
Roof Maintenance Philosophies
There are many methods and approaches to maintaining a commercial roofing system, including:
- Routine Maintenance – This involves proactive roof upkeep done at regular intervals, usually every once or twice a year depending on several factors like local climate and roofing type.
- Preventive Maintenance – Often the easiest to neglect, this form of roof maintenance involves identifying and addressing minor problems before they become emergencies.
- Corrective Maintenance – This involves a reactive approach to roof maintenance. Some property owners tend to wait until obvious problems are apparent before tackling roof repair. Employing routine and preventive maintenance can help avoid this.
- Deferred Maintenance – Roof maintenance can be deferred to a later date if the owner or manager sees that there are no funds available to perform inspections and repairs.
Tips for Handling Maintenance Requests
As a property owner or manager, it is your responsibility to stay on top of leaks and other roofing issues. You should also be responsive whenever tenants in your property are requesting maintenance. Manual pdf Here are some tips to help you manage them:
- Hire a maintenance manager. Appointing an individual to be responsible for handling all maintenance requests helps keep everyone organized. Manual pdf
- Be sure to secure resources for any emergency. While not everything can be repaired right away, it’s good to have an alternative to keep tenants happy as you work toward a solution to the problem.
- Once any work is done, see to it that you follow up with the tenant and ask for feedback.
At Vertex Roofing Contractors Inc., we install commercial roofing systems for new construction and perform roof replacement on existing properties. You can rely on us for the latest in low-slope roofing technology.
Call us today at (703) 782-5531 or fill out our contact form to get a free estimate. We serve residents of Fairfax and the surrounding areas. Manual pdf