Commercial Roof Replacement in San Antonio, TX

You've patched the same seams three summers running. The insulation squishes when you walk on it, or one hailstorm chewed up the whole field in an afternoon. That's usually when an owner starts looking at commercial roof replacement, and honestly, it's the right time. A fourth repair visit won't fix it. The old roof gets removed or covered, and a new system goes on: insulation, cover board, membrane or panels, plus new flashing at every curb, wall and drain.

A typical commercial roof replacement in San Antonio with Texas-RRR goes in this order.

1. Roof walk and core cuts. We map the ponding and the soft spots, then cut a few small test cores to count the layers and see if the insulation's wet.
2. Deck inspection. Where we can get underneath, we look at the deck from below. Rusted metal deck, rotted plywood or spalled concrete shows up as a priced repair line instead of a surprise halfway through.
3. Tear-off or recover decision. More on this below. Nothing else swings the budget as much.
4. Phased tear-off and dry-in. Crews only pull off what they can replace that same day, so nothing's left open overnight.
5. New system. Low-slope roofs get polyiso insulation, cover board and a TPO or modified bitumen membrane. Pitched roofs get underlayment and architectural shingles or metal panels.
6. Flashing, probing and cleanup. New flashing at HVAC curbs, pipes, scuppers and parapets. We probe each seam, sweep the lot for loose fasteners and hand you the paperwork.

On a flat roof the weather sets the schedule more than the square footage. A warehouse can fly by in a dry week. In a wet one it stalls for days.

With a recover (you'll also hear re-cover or overlay), the existing roof stays put and a recover board and new membrane go on top of it. A tear-off strips it all down to the deck first. Either one is a legitimate way to handle commercial roof replacement. Pick the wrong one, though, and it costs you.

When a recover makes sense

• There's only one existing roof layer up there, not two. Code limits most low-slope roofs to two layers total.
• The core cuts come back dry. Insulation holding moisture can't stay.
• The deck is solid and the roof actually drains. A new sheet won't cure ponding.
• You need to keep the building open on a tight budget. No tear-off means less labor, fewer dumpsters and fewer days.

When a tear-off is the only honest answer

• Wet insulation anywhere in the field. Cover it with new membrane and you trap that water, rot the deck and cut the new roof's expected life short.
• The roof already has two layers.
• Deck damage that can only be reached from above.
• Hail crushed the insulation. We see that a lot on older cap sheet roofs after a big storm.

We'll go out on a limb here. Recovers are the right call more often than most contractors let on, as long as the roof is dry. Bury wet insulation, though, and you've taken the costliest shortcut in the trade. A core cut takes ten minutes and ends the debate. That's why we won't quote a commercial replacement without one.

Commercial roofs in San Antonio get beaten up two ways. First the summer heat bakes dark cap sheet until it alligators and splits. That's a big reason so many South Side warehouses and strip centers along Loop 410 have switched to white TPO roofing. Then hail comes along and finishes it off. Helotes saw 4.5-inch hail in the April 12, 2016 storm, and during the April 28 to May 1, 2021 event, baseball-size stones fell along I-10 from San Antonio toward Seguin. An old, brittle low-slope roof doesn't come through that.

When hail forces the replacement, there's usually a claim attached. Our team has 30+ years of insurance claim experience, and former insurance adjusters work on our in-house staff. We document the loss, meet your carrier's adjuster on the roof, and handle the supplement when the first scope leaves out the crushed insulation. See our insurance claims page for the six steps.

Plenty of failing roofs don't need to be replaced at all. One leaky HVAC curb or a single split seam? Commercial roof repair costs less, and we'll say so. If you're weighing TPO against modified bitumen on a low-slope building, our flat roofing page lays out the comparison. Apartment complexes, pool facilities and clubhouses are covered on their own page, multi-family and HOA roofing.

We're based in San Antonio and do commercial replacements across Bexar County and the counties around it, and there's an Austin line for Travis and Williamson County jobs. It all falls under our commercial roofing services.

We're veteran owned with 8 full crew teams, so your commercial tear-off isn't stuck in line behind a stack of residential storm jobs. Charlie Carreon, our owner, has spent 30 years in roofing. Many of our crews have been side by side with us for over 20, and together we've finished 2,800+ projects. We only use American roofing brands, mostly Owens Corning and GAF, and we're registered and insured.

The estimate is free, and it's in writing. Deck repair allowances, insulation thickness, membrane type, flashing scope, disposal: it's all spelled out in plain terms. You won't find anything tucked into an allowance line that shows up on the final bill later. To set up a roof walk and core cuts, call (210) 802-6906.