Commercial Roofing in New Richmond, WI

We work on flat and low-slope commercial roofs in New Richmond — repair, recover, coatings, and full replacement. Warehouses, retail buildings, offices, clinics, restaurants, and ag buildings. Nothing residential.

Below are four New Richmond roofs we’ve worked on. Three of them sit within a few blocks of each other. All four needed something different.

Four New Richmond roofs, four different answers

The retail roof that didn’t need tearing off

A 6,000-square-foot retail building with an older coated roof. The lap seams had opened up and were leaking, and there were a few cracks in the surface.

But the roof itself was intact. The field was sound. No soft spots, nothing structural.

So we coated it — a spray-applied coating over the entire roof, no tear-off. That building got a watertight roof without paying for a replacement it didn’t need.

The warehouse where a coating had already failed

A 22,000-square-foot warehouse. Someone had already coated it, and it failed early.

The reason was the roof’s shape. Odd angles, a lot of transitions, and ten to twelve penetrations up there — exhaust, air conditioning, electrical. Coatings don’t usually fail out in the middle of a roof. They fail at the details, and this roof was mostly details.

That one got a full tear-off. When the new membrane went on, we added protection at the penetrations where the angles come together so the same thing wouldn’t happen again, and corrected a drainage problem on one side.

The one being held down with boards

A 1,900-square-foot retail building with an older rubber roof.

The seams had let loose. Worse, the adhesive holding the membrane at the sidewalls had started releasing and the rubber was pulling away from the walls. Someone had put boards up there to hold it down.

That roof was past coating. We tore the rubber off, installed a new membrane, and fixed the drainage on one side.

The one that wasn’t even leaking

This is the one worth paying attention to.

A 7,000-square-foot office building with a ballasted rubber roof — rock over the top of the membrane. It had been patched over and over and the old patches were letting loose. The edges were coming away from the sidewalls. There were penetrations. Fasteners were backing out along the perimeter. The seam sealer was cracked through.

It was not leaking. The owner looked at the shape it was in and called us for an inspection anyway.

We pulled all the rock off. Underneath, the membrane was sound. So instead of a tear-off we recovered it — a new membrane installed over the top of the existing one.

That owner avoided a full replacement because they called before there was water inside.

What all four had in common

None of these roofs failed in the middle.

They failed at seams, at edges where the roof meets a wall, and at penetrations. That’s where commercial roofs almost always go. The field of the roof is the part that lasts.

Two of them also needed drainage corrected, which around here is not a cosmetic issue. Water that sits on a low-slope roof through a Wisconsin winter freezes, expands, and works its way into every seam it is touching.

When a coating makes sense here, and when it doesn’t

Two of these four roofs tell the whole story.

The retail roof got coated because the roof underneath was sound and the problem was limited to the seams. That is the right candidate for a coating.

The warehouse had already been coated and it failed, because the roof was mostly angles, transitions, and penetrations. A coating over a roof like that has too many places to fail.

That’s the question we are actually answering when we come out: is this roof a candidate, or is coating it just buying you two years and a bigger bill later? We’ll tell you which one it is.

The smartest call any of these owners made

The office building. Not leaking. Called anyway.

Because they called before there was water inside, we had options. The membrane was still dry and the deck was still sound, so a recover was on the table. Once water gets into the insulation that option is gone — wet insulation can’t be dried out, and you are into a tear-off whether you wanted one or not.

If your roof looks rough but isn’t leaking yet, that is the best possible time to have someone up there.

Common questions from New Richmond building owners

Can you coat a roof that is already leaking?

Sometimes. It depends on where the water is getting in and what is under the membrane. If the leaks are at seams, penetrations, or wall transitions and the roof underneath is still dry and sound, a coating can work. If water has been getting into the insulation, it can’t — wet insulation does not dry out, and coating over it seals the problem in.

How do I know if my roof can be recovered instead of replaced?

It comes down to what is underneath. If the deck and insulation are sound, a recover is usually on the table even when the surface looks rough — the office building above is a good example of a roof that looked far worse than it was. If the insulation is wet, it is not. That is what an inspection is for.

How long is the coating season in Wisconsin?

Roughly early May through mid-October, and both ends move with the weather. Coatings need temperature to cure properly. If your roof is going to need work, the time to get it looked at is the fall before — not the spring of.

What do you find most often on New Richmond roofs?

Seams and edges. Older rubber roofs where the laps have opened up or the adhesive at the sidewalls has let go, and penetrations that were never detailed properly to begin with. Drainage is close behind.

What we do in New Richmond

Commercial roof inspections, roof repair, membrane coatings, single-ply membrane systems, single-ply restoration, recover and full replacement, and drainage correction.

Flat and low-slope commercial only. If it is a house, we are not the right call.

Get a straight answer on your building

Call 715-607-4276 or request an inspection. We’ll get on your roof, tell you what is actually happening up there, and tell you plainly whether it needs a repair, a coating, a recover, or a replacement.

If it doesn’t need work yet, we’ll tell you that too.