Preventive Maintenance and Inspection of Your Roof

Preventive maintenance of your roof

A planned, well-scheduled and executed maintenance program ensures that roofs last for many years.

Ideally, the preventive maintenance program should be considered in the design phase and incorporated into the integrated roof management system.

It should include the roof’s weaknesses in a short, medium and long term, which would be the result of the constraints produced by the occupation. This program can take into account previous data for similar roofs.

Factors to consider

Depending on the number of times expected on the roof after the building is put into service, it is possible that the benefits that a protected membrane cover offers at the level of protection compared to a traditional roof is canceled out by the fact that the inspection and repair of the membrane are more difficult.

At the same time, the main strength of a preventive maintenance program is the frequency and quality of inspections, as well as the degree of perception and ingenuity in interpreting the results of these inspections.

Inspection of your roof

An annual roof’s inspection would be ideal in order to follow its evolution and to be able to intervene at the right time.

Part of the inspection method requires the separation of the roof into zones or drainage basins delimited by control or separation joints.

The evaluation strategy is an important feature of roof maintenance. Before an inspection report can be used to define maintenance priorities, it must be determined which elements require evaluation within each basin and how the performance of these elements can be measured.

Components and performance

The main components should be assessed separately:

• membrane, drainage, metal flashings, water infiltration.

Their level of performance should be assessed as follows:

• General aptitude to fulfill their functions
• Type and severity of the imperfection
• Extent of repairs
• Costs incurred

A global evaluation of the roof is now possible, basin by basin, completely. Budget estimates can be made.

A detailed report is given to the owner with photos and plans of the roof. A plan for the restoration forecasts is produced. The owner can therefore plan their budgets accordingly.

In conclusion, a well-planned maintenance strategy and an integrated roof management system will help maximize its lifespan.