Is my roof actually flat?+
Almost certainly not, and that matters. A roof that reads as flat is normally built with a slight slope — commonly a quarter-inch per foot — to move water to the drains. A genuinely dead-level roof is a design problem. If yours ponds, the question is whether the slope was never there or whether the deck has sagged, and those have very different fixes.
Water is standing on my roof days after it rained. How urgent is that?+
Urgent enough to look at before winter. Ponding degrades the membrane, adds real structural load, and in Calgary it freezes and works ice into every seam. It rarely causes a leak the week you notice it and it reliably causes one eventually.
Can a flat roof be repaired, or does the whole thing have to go?+
Repaired, far more often than people are told. Localised failures at a curb, a drain or a seam are repairs. Replacement is the answer when the insulation below is broadly saturated, when failures are spread across the roof rather than at identifiable points, or when the membrane has genuinely aged out. We'll tell you which one you have and show you why.
Which system should I put on?+
It depends on the building, not on which product a contractor prefers selling. A restaurant with kitchen exhaust needs PVC, because grease destroys TPO and EPDM. A residential flat section over a bedroom is usually modified bitumen. A large commercial low-slope is usually TPO or EPDM, and the choice between them turns on reflectivity, snow-shedding and budget. Anyone who recommends the same system for every building is telling you what they stock.
How do I know if my flat roof has hail damage?+
You mostly can't from the ground, and a shingle-trained inspector will miss it on the roof. The signature is membrane bruising and fracturing, displaced gravel on a BUR roof, dented and split metal flashings, and damage to drain baskets and mechanical curbs. If your building was in a documented storm and the flat roof was never assessed by someone who knows what they're looking at, it's worth doing.
Do you do full flat-roof replacements, or only repairs?+
Both — replacement is scoped per building and per system, so ask us about yours and we'll walk you through it. Where we're most useful, and what we lead with, is inspection, repair and claim documentation: that's where the large majority of flat-roof problems actually are, and it's where the gap between us and a shingle-trained inspector is widest. We'd also rather tell you a roof is repairable than sell you a replacement it doesn't need. Flat roofs get written off early, built-up ones especially.
