Welcome them again today to a, another podcast with advanced commercial systems. I am already Grisham, the owner and founder of advanced commercial systems and it is a pleasure to be bringing another podcast to the Greater Tulsa area here in commercial roofing broken arrow. We love to be able to bring podcast and talk about different aspects of roofing and especially that a commercial roofing so that we can increase the Iq, the commercial roofing Iq of the local community. Today we’re going to talk about built up roofing and where it comes from, what it’s about and really, um, you know, it was all for one question. How long has it been around? So built up roofing has been around for well over 140 years now. That’s staggering to think that there’s a roofing system that’s still popular, is still being used after that much time. But that’s exactly the case.
Um, a few things, uh, Ho building owners look for, you know, in their roofing systems, a long lasting, um, you know, tons of protection of the building and then, you know, cost effective meeting within their budget. So the built up roof there, oftentimes known as asphalt and gravel roofs. Um, they’re really good at doing those three. And that’s one reason why they’ve been so strong in the industry. If it has such a great reputation in the commercial roofing industry and steel, we’ll have that and we’ll hold that for a really long time. Um, it’s been everywhere, everywhere in the world almost. Well, you know, most of them, most of the modern world as far back as the 1870s and it covers schools, medical buildings. I mean there’s no telling how many schools and medical buildings, um, have, you know, built up roofs on them. Gravel, ballast built up roofs, and so their dependability is second to none as far as, uh, their longevity in the industry.
Um, so let’s go over some of the good aspects. Some of the pros, if we, if you would have built up roofing, one of which is it requires a little maintenance, um, because the, the way that it is the, uh, layered together, the layered together aspect of these roofs calls them to have very little maintenance needs. Now, I’ll tell you, when you put gravel on them, you know, when you make them in a true to chuck, a true tar and gravel roof in commercial roofing broken Arrow, you really even that much more you, you create this extremely durable roof. I mean hail doesn’t bother it. You have to have extremely large hail to cause any problems at all because the gravel was there to protect it. So another good aspect is it can, it can withstand heavy amounts of traffic because of the layering of the, of the fiberglass and the different types of cloth and everything.
The asphalt had been them in every aspect of it. Um, really creates such a great strength, uh, of a roof they can, doesn’t deteriorate, doesn’t crack near as bad as what a lot of people think they do, especially when there’s gravel on the math. You have a non graveled virgin, you know, just tar roof of built up with a top coat, then you will have definitely more of that because I think UV plays a large part of creating the deterioration of these roofs. Now, one of the, the bad aspects of these roofs is a leak really can be hard to find as well with, they do have somewhat of a short lifespan. I mean I can put a TPO, 30 years system on the roof. Um, and I’ve seen tar and gravel roofs last 30 years, but you can’t guarantee that. You always say they’re about a 15 to 20 year roof, 20th the Best River Lot of times they’re referred to as it 10 to 15 year roof.
Now keep in mind there are inexpensive to install so that’s a good part. But then they’ll have to re be replaced fairly often. And so some business owners and property managers, they would rather invest their money up front, uh, in a roof that would last longer. So we would probably lead them towards a single ply except for EPD DM. I’m not a big fan of each PDM. It’s a, I’ve just seen so many problems with that product. Now there are three types of hot roofs built up, roof types. One of us hot built up, the other is cold built up and the other is ballasted asphalt built up. These are the three types of a built up roofs. B You are is they’re often called in the industry and I have to say the, the gravel ballasted or the ballast it asphalt, uh, at bass bounce it.
Asphalt built up is definitely the most popular with a lot of roofers. Um, when it comes to these three just because there’s so far retarded and the finish provides, uh, the gravel provides a great finish and it looks really well and so, but the fire retardant capabilities and abilities that it offers to client is really second to none because of rock doesn’t burn. Um, you know, and then another pro is that built up roofs provide an excellent ultraviolet protection and then also provides excellent waterproofing protection. And as we said before, if there’s a great low maintenance that’s involved and it lasts longer, um, then there’s the other types of roofing. So, and we’ll, some of the cons are it’s slower to install. There’s, there’s quite a bit of chance for injury to the people installing. And it’s vulnerable to water damage. And if it has ponding areas, pawning areas are definitely a part of, have a problem with these types of roofs.
I know there’s a built up roof over in sand springs that I’ve worked on for the last three or four years straight. And basically every time they call me with elite, now we did not install the roof. We just fill in finishing, uh, taking care of a roof that another roofer installed because you know, they, they no longer use that roofer and coming out and commercial roofing broken Arrow, we were out there pretty often, uh, taking care of the areas. That’s the areas which are causing the biggest problems. Uh, there is a very low slope on this roof. Now keep in mind these membranes, they’re made of a several layers of Benjamin and reinforced fabrics, um, you know, like alternating those back and forth. And so one of the common results, uh, combination results is that of being able to be so much thicker and more durable than the single plies.
And so installation can be slow. And then so with that you can have high cost. And so just for the installation side, not necessarily for the material cyber for the installation side and commercial roofing, broken arrow. And so when you’re talking about TPO, you’re talking about a roof that you can be installed very quickly and a TPO roof. Um, basically whether you’re screwing it down with plates and screws or no matter the way that you’re putting it down through adhering it, fully adhering it, putting it on installation, isoboard, whatever you’re doing. A TPO and the single applies can be definitely applied and installed on the roof, uh, much quicker, many, many, many times quicker. Sure. Um, my average roof, let’s say that’s, you know, 60 to a hundred squares, it’s a three day job, you know, so we can do 60 squares. We did 60 squares, uh, just recently here in commercial roofing, broken Arrow, we started and then two days later we were done.
And on the third day we just tied up some Luciens, you know, around the corners and did a little extra, a little extra to make sure the scuppers were lined up and put gutters back home and stuff like that. So you can tell the difference in that. And the word job that size with a built up roof could have taken anywhere from five to six days. And then you also just have to have the accessibility of bringing the uh, you know, bringing the hot tar up on the roof. If you’re going to do the hot card, you know, the tar applied process bring in the hot tarp on the roof. They, they get that tar somewhere between 450 and 550 degrees. And so you’re talking about an extremely HeartPOD product that, you know, I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of someone getting burned with his tar, you know, of some of our roofers that I’ve heard of, not any of that work for us, but they’ve gotten some on their skin or some of their foot and a sixth, strangely hot and it doesn’t cool off quickly.
And one of the aspects of a built up roof using that tar that you have to keep in mind is, um, I’m required by my insurance, uh, here at advanced commercial systems, home with a roof nerves. You know, here in commercial roofing, broken Arrow, I’m required to have someone on site for 24 hours after we do a hot tar process. And because of the, the capability of there being a potential fire, you’re basically taking a roof and you’re just pouring on it. Her hot tar, you’re mopping and on and because of the heat and the the, I’ll tell you when you put the tar on, I mean just within minutes he begins to cool down and it begins to harden just within a very short period of time. And so it’s, in my mind, it’s really not that big of a deal, but what they’re saying is that the roof inside the roof can have such extreme heat that it could possibly have some type of spontaneous combustion.
And so they’re wanting to make sure the buildings don’t. And so I’m perfectly in line with that. I agree. I would hate to burn down a building. And so we follow the rules and the specifications with Osha, we follow the rules and specifications that are required by our insurance company and the manufacturers of the heart. Cold Hot Coal Tar. We followed their specifications as well. So here at advanced commercial systems, if you want to know any more about built up roofs and maybe you have a built up roof and you would like to get some inside information of what we can do to help you should, you might have a leaking area, a leaking areas there. There’s sometimes a little challenging to find. But I gotta tell you though, once we find that we know exactly how to stop them. So we are professionals here in the industry and commercial roofing, broken Arrow and the entire area of northeast Oklahoma.
And we would love to help you. So if you’re looking for just absolutely the best commercial roofing contractor, commercial roofing contractors, or just basically a commercial roofing company or commercial roofing companies, we would love to show you the, the level of communication, expertise, accountability, all the different aspects of who we have spent a long time, a lot of, a lot of just engineering the entire of platform of who we are, how we give, what do we do. We have developed that solely to give you the greatest experience possible. Um, you know, in your commercial roofing needs. So give us a call. You can check us out on our website at okay. Roof nerds.com and then you can sync up the top of the page and you can see we have our phone number up there. Nine one s yeah, (918) 973-1010. Hey, we appreciate you guys for tuning in today for another episode here with commercial roofing, broken error. We appreciate you guys a lot and we hope you have a good day. Once again, stay dry.
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