TPO rubber roof between house and garage breezeway
Roofing
a low pitch roofing deck requires expertise and special roofing material designed to handle potential ponding (or standing of water.)
- There are many houses in Spokane and vicinity that have lower pitched roofing areas. This is actually quite surprising because of the amount of rain and snow Spokane typically gets annually. There are many areas where a low pitch or flat roof might exist; carports, garage breezeways, wooden patio covers, older homes that have low pitched valleys or porches that extend from the steeper roof down to virtually no pitch.
To determine what type of roofing material you need to meet proper code for your home you must know the pitch (or slope) for the roofing deck and we’re going to keep this basic here.
- The important number to remember is 3/12. This is the minimum pitch or slope a roofing deck can be in order to install composition roofing shingles on it. This means the roof needs to have a slope going down (to drain water off it) of at least 3″ per foot for every 12″.
- Anything less, the material must be certified to a specific degree of lower slope installation down to completely flat with no slope that can sustain standing water. For more specific details on roof pitch.
SEVERAL TYPES OF FLAT ROOF MATERIALS WE USE
- If the pitch is less than 3″ per foot down to 1″ per foot we use a special granulated rolled on roofing called Polyglas roofing. For more on low slope materials go to this website to learn more.
- If the pitch can potentially get down to a zero pitch and have some standing water we use several manufacturers of material that we use called TPO (Thermoplastic Polyolefin) but I will list just one here for your viewing. For more on this please to go to this website to learn more. This is a type of extremely durable rubber membrane that comes in a variety of colors and thickness’s. This material may also qualify for federal tax credits due to it’s energy star rating. Please see my blog about windows but the same credits can apply here as well.
The warranty’s for flat roofs are not very long (from 5-20 years) due to the fact that usually when you are installing this type of roofing, it may (in places) have standing water which plays a huge roll in shorting its life period.
Warranties are typically 10 years. So be aware, although you may have a warranty, it will not be similar to a regular higher-pitched roofing shingle.
Please call us at 509-535-1566 or use our contact form to have one of our experienced staff contact you.
