User:Commercialroofing/sandbox

Commercial roofing is different than residential roofing in many ways. The most prevalent being, most commercial roofs are flat. The real name would be low sloped. Low sloped means that the slope of the roof has a minimum of 1/4 of an inch per foot. Residential roofing more often then not have a steeper slope with a minimum pitch od 4 in 12 or greater. The reason why most residential houses have shingles on them is because of the slope. This steeper slope or pitch will allow water to run of the roof into the gutters. Commercial roofs have a pitch of less then the 4 in 12 and more often than not there pitch is 2 in 12 or less. Because of this lower slope or pitch a flat roof (low slope roof) will not work well with shingles on them. They have to be treated differently. The material that should be used on a low slope roof is EPDM, PVC, TPO or modified bitumen. These materials are all referred as 'single ply' roofing. Before any single ply roofing came out all low slope roofs were Asphalt Built-Up roofs, which consisted of plies (layers) of fiberglass felt with hot asphalt between each layer. A roof that has no slope at all is called a 'Dead level' roof and will consist of layers of felt with "Coal Tar Pitch" .[http://www.commercialindustrialroofing.com