Now that you’ve spent a nice chunk of change repairing or installing your well-insulated flat roof, what should you do to maintain it? Happily for the owners of buildings with flat roofs, the overall answer is, “Not much,” since these roofs are quite durable. However, there is one important thing you can do to prevent damage and leaks in your building: get qualified technicians onto the roof to clean out drains, scuppers, and gutters at least once per year.

Checking for Proper Drainage

Flat roofs rely on slight slopes to drain water into internal pipes or into scuppers or gutters on the side of the building. Standing water is a disaster for any roof, but a bigger concern on flat roofs than on sloped ones, for obvious reasons. Standing water allows mold, lichen, fungi, and moss to take hold and grow on your roof. If there is enough water, even grasses will move in. Their root systems can, over time, break down glues and even rubber or vinyl. This will eventually cause leaks. That’s why drain and gutter maintenance is the owner’s key to roof maintenance. Simply making sure the water drains away before it allows a new ecosystem to establish itself on top of your building is the biggest contribution you can make to extending the life of the roofing materials on your building.

Flat Roof Inspections Can Prevent Damage

There is another great reason to invite specialists onto your roof on a regular basis: they can spot problems before they begin. Experienced roofers will not only clean your drains, gutters, and scuppers, they will also inspect your entire roof, paying particular attention to areas where material failure is more of a risk – corners, curbs, seams, etc. This way, they will be able to prevent leaks rather than finding and fixing them after the fact. Who wants to fix leaks when you could prevent them and the damage they cause, especially when the latter is less expensive?

If you suspect your flat roof could use some attention, call us today!