Licensed general contractor Southlake, TX info@jwconstructiongroup.net

Services

Flat and Low-Slope RoofingBased in Southlake, TX

TPO, PVC and modified bitumen on low-slope roofs, where the detail work around the penetrations is what fails.

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Flat and Low-Slope Roofing by JWC General Contractors

Flat Roofing

What the job actually involves.

A low-slope roof has to hold water rather than shed it, at least for a while, and everything about how it is built follows from that. The membrane is continuous. The seams are welded or torched rather than overlapped. Drainage is designed rather than assumed, and a roof that ponds after a rain is a roof with a problem, because standing water finds any seam that was not perfect and adds load the deck was not sized for.

We install the three systems that cover nearly all of this work in North Texas. TPO is a single-ply thermoplastic sheet, hot-air welded at the seams, usually white, and the reflectivity is worth real money on a Texas cooling bill. PVC is the more chemically resistant thermoplastic and is the right answer where the roof takes grease or solvents, which in practice means anything with a kitchen exhaust on it. Modified bitumen is the asphalt-based system, torched or self-adhered in plies, and it is tough underfoot in a way single-ply is not, which matters where maintenance crews walk the roof regularly.

JWC General Contractors crew at work

How It Works

01

Call or send the form

Tell us what you are seeing and where the property is. A storm date helps if there was one.

02

Free inspection

About 15 to 20 minutes on the roof and in the attic, and you get a written report with photographs to keep.

03

The scope, in writing

What the roof needs, what it costs, and on a claim, what the carrier has and has not allowed for.

04

The work

Roof first, then the gutters, fence, windows or siding if the storm took those too. One company for the lot.

Flat and Low-Slope Roofing detail

The Difference

Where these go wrong.

Residential low-slope is its own case and it gets handled badly all the time. Plenty of North Texas homes have a flat section over a porch, an addition or a garage, tied into a pitched composition roof. Composition shingles do not work below about a 2:12 pitch, so that section needs a membrane, and the place it leaks is the transition where the membrane meets the shingles.

The failures on low-slope roofs are almost never in the field of the membrane. They are at the curbs under the rooftop units, the drains and scuppers, the pitch pockets around gas and electrical penetrations, and the terminations where the membrane turns up a parapet wall. That is where an inspection looks first and where maintenance earns its money.

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Recent Work

Recent work across Southlake, TX

Drone view of a large brick home part way through a tear-off, with decking exposed and new underlayment down on one plane
Shingle Tear-Off and Rebuild
Drone view of a commercial building with a large low-slope roof, rooftop units and a blue standing-seam mansard edge
Commercial Low-Slope Roof

Before You Call

Flat Roofing, answered.

Why is there standing water on my flat roof?

Either the slope was never enough to move water to the drains, or the insulation has compressed, or a drain is blocked. Water that is still there two days after a rain is worth dealing with: it loads the deck, it finds marginal seams, and on a warranty it is often an exclusion.

TPO or modified bitumen?

TPO if you want reflectivity and a welded single-ply, modified bitumen if the roof gets walked on regularly or has a lot of complex detail. PVC if there is a kitchen exhaust or anything else putting grease or solvent on the membrane, because that is what breaks TPO down.

Can a flat roof be coated instead of replaced?

Sometimes. A coating works over a membrane that is still sound and insulation that is still dry. It does not work over wet insulation, because the water underneath has nowhere to go and the new surface just seals it in.

I have a flat section over my porch that keeps leaking. Why?

Usually the transition where it meets the pitched roof, or shingles laid on a slope too low for them. Composition needs pitch to shed water; below roughly 2:12 it needs a membrane instead, and the detail joining the two is where most of these leaks live.

How long does a TPO roof last?

It depends far more on the thickness of the membrane, the quality of the seam welds and the detail work than on the brand. A thin sheet installed quickly over wet insulation can fail in a few years, and a properly specified one lasts decades.

Flat Roofing

Every job here starts with a free inspection and a written report that belongs to you.

Let's work together

Book a free inspection.

About 15 to 20 minutes on the roof, and a written report with photographs that is yours to keep whether or not there is anything to do.

JWC General Contractors 515 W Southlake Blvd Suite 150, Southlake, TX 76092 (214) 972-4266 · info@jwconstructiongroup.net

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