Roof Repair
Leak diagnostics and repairs on occupied flat roofs — traced to the detail that failed, scoped in writing.
Learn moreCommercial Roofing
Metal is the long-service roof on a commercial or institutional building when the slope and the structure suit it. A church sanctuary, a school gymnasium, a warehouse, a municipal building with a pitched roof: those are metal roofs by nature, and when the panels on them reach the end of their life the question is what to replace them with and how. The Orlando church in the photograph at the top of this page is a straightforward case of that, a completed metal replacement on a building in Orlando whose roof form was built for it.
Metal fails differently from a membrane. It does not rot or blister; it moves. Every panel expands in the morning sun and contracts through a summer downpour, and over thousands of those cycles it works fasteners loose, tears sealant, and wears the holes it was fixed through into slots. A Florida metal roof also lives under UV that cooks exposed sealant and washers faster than the panel itself ages. Understanding that is the difference between a metal roof that goes quiet for years and one that starts leaking at every screw.
Standing seam or exposed fastener
- Standing seamPanels joined at raised seams with concealed clips; no exposed fasteners in the field; panels float on the clips to absorb thermal movement
- Exposed fastener (through-fastened)Panels screwed through the face with gasketed screws; lower cost, faster; every screw is a sealed hole that ages
- Mechanically seamed vs snap-lockSeamed panels are folded closed on the roof and carry the higher wind ratings; snap-lock is quicker and suits steeper, smaller roofs
- SubstrateOver purlins (open framing) or over a solid deck with underlayment; the deck version is quieter and easier to detail
On a commercial building with a long service horizon, standing seam over a solid deck is usually the right answer despite the higher cost, because thermal movement is handled by design rather than fought by sealant. Exposed-fastener panels have a place on agricultural, storage and low-budget buildings, with the understanding that the fasteners become a maintenance item.
Retrofit over an existing roof, or new
A metal retrofit puts a new metal roof over an existing one, usually an old exposed-fastener panel roof or a flat roof that the owner wants to convert to a slope. A sub-framing system of light-gauge purlins is attached through the old roof to the structure, insulation can go in the cavity, and the new panels go on top. The building stays dry throughout, there is no tear-off and no interruption below, and the old roof becomes the construction-phase weather barrier. It is a strong option for schools and churches that cannot close, and for a low-slope building where a slope-build adds drainage the flat roof never had.
It is the wrong option when the structure cannot take the added load, which an engineer confirms before we scope it, or when the old roof is holding trapped moisture that would be sealed in.
Wind, uplift and Florida code
Wind is the design driver for a metal roof in Central Florida. Panel systems are tested and rated for uplift as an assembly: the panel profile, the clip, the fastener, the spacing and the substrate together. The permit for a commercial building requires an assembly that meets the uplift pressures for its height, exposure and wind zone, with tighter clip spacing at the eaves, ridges and corners where the pressures peak. Edge metal and copings are their own tested item because the perimeter is where a roof starts to peel in a hurricane. We submit the tested assembly with the permit, install to it, and photograph the clip and fastener pattern before the panels cover it, so the file shows the roof was built as engineered rather than as convenient.
How commercial metal roofs fail here
- Exposed-fastener washers that have dried, cracked and let water follow the screw into the deck
- Sealant at laps, ridge closures and penetrations baked out by UV and pulled open by movement
- Fastener holes elongated by thermal cycling until the screw no longer seals
- Flashing at parapets, curbs and wall transitions done with membrane-roof methods that do not move with the panel
- Oil-canning, the visible waviness across a flat panel face, from over-tight clips, a substrate that is not flat, or a panel that was not allowed to float
- Dissimilar-metal contact and galvanic corrosion where the wrong fastener or flashing metal was used
Most of those are details rather than the panels, and most are repairable. A through-fastened roof at mid-life often gets a full fastener replacement with oversized screws and new washers, which buys years; a standing seam roof usually needs its penetrations and transitions re-detailed rather than anything in the field.
Flashing where it matters
The panels are the easy part. Where a metal roof meets a parapet, a curb, a wall or a change of pitch, the flashing has to let the panel move while keeping water out, and that is where we spend the detailing time. Curbs for rooftop units get a diverter upslope and a flashing that laps with the panel rib, not a bead of sealant over it. Ridge and hip closures are formed to the panel profile. Where an addition ties a new metal roof into an existing membrane, the transition is designed rather than improvised. If you look after a church, a school or a commercial building with a metal roof in Winter Park or anywhere in the Orlando area and it has started leaking at the screws, call (407) 871-6159 and we will tell you whether it is a fastener job or a replacement.
More commercial roofing services
TPO Roofing
Heat-welded, reflective single-ply for low-slope roofs — and a straight answer on when TPO is the wrong pick.
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Roof Replacement
The whole decision, laid out: when a flat roof is done, tear-off vs re-cover, phasing, staging, permits, close-out.
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Roof Coatings
Fluid-applied silicone or acrylic over a sound membrane — a restoration, not a replacement, and only when the survey says so.
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Modified Bitumen
Multi-ply asphalt roofing for foot-traffic roofs — tough, repairable, and not the right fit everywhere.
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PVC Roofing
Welded single-ply that shrugs off grease and chemicals — the right call for kitchens and processing roofs.
Learn moreCommon questions
Often, yes, as a retrofit with a sub-framing system that builds slope and carries the new panels. It is a genuine answer for a flat roof that has never drained well, and it keeps the building dry and open during the work. The structure has to be checked for the added load and the existing roof has to be dry; we do both before scoping it.
It is the wavy, rippled look across the flat face of a panel in raking light. It is cosmetic on its own and does not leak, but it signals something about the installation: clips too tight, a substrate that is not flat, or a wide flat panel that should have had a stiffening rib. On a visible church or school roof it matters; we specify panel width, gauge and striations to minimize it.
By letting the panel float. Standing seam clips are designed to slide as the panel expands, with the panel pinned at one point so movement goes in a known direction. Long runs get expansion details at the ridge or eave, and penetrations are flashed so the boot moves with the roof. A through-fastened panel cannot float, which is why its screws work loose over time here.
Every through-fastened roof eventually leaks at the screws, because the gasket under each washer ages in UV and the hole elongates with movement. The timeline depends on quality and exposure. A fastener replacement program, with larger screws and new washers on a schedule, keeps a through-fastened roof serviceable long past the point where the original screws failed.
Over open purlins with no deck, yes, noticeably. Over a solid deck with underlayment and insulation, the rain sound is muted to the point that most occupants do not notice it. For a sanctuary, a classroom or an office we specify the deck assembly, and for a warehouse where sound is not a concern the open-framing version is a reasonable saving.
Low-slope membrane systems: TPO and PVC single-ply, modified bitumen and fluid-applied coatings, all covered on the commercial roofing hub. Many campuses and church properties have both, a pitched metal roof on the main building and a flat membrane on an annex, and we can look after both under one maintenance program.