Roof Repair
Leak diagnostics and repairs on occupied flat roofs — traced to the detail that failed, scoped in writing.
Learn moreCommercial Roofing
Polyvinyl chloride membranes came to commercial roofing before TPO did, and they solved a problem TPO still has: resistance to grease, animal fats, oils and many chemicals. Restaurant exhaust drops cooking grease onto the roof in a slow, constant film. Food processing plants vent fats and cleaning agents. Auto shops and industrial tenants put solvents into the air. All of that degrades a TPO sheet, softening and swelling it around every exhaust fan until the membrane fails there first. PVC is formulated to resist it.
The membrane is welded the same way as TPO, with hot air fusing the laps into one continuous sheet, and it is reinforced with a polyester scrim for tear strength. PVC also stays more flexible with age, which matters on roofs with a lot of thermal movement, and it is the membrane most manufacturers specify where a fire rating or a chemical exposure is part of the design. The cost is higher, and on a plain office roof with no exhaust that premium buys you less than it does over a kitchen.
PVC vs TPO, honestly
- Chemical and grease resistancePVC wins clearly; TPO degrades around kitchen and process exhaust
- Seam weldBoth heat-welded; PVC welds are more forgiving of technique
- Flexibility with agePVC stays pliable longer; TPO stiffens as it ages in UV
- ReflectivityComparable in white; both cut cooling load
- CostPVC costs more per roof; that is the trade
- RepairabilityBoth can be re-welded; old PVC needs a compatible sheet
The short version: if the roof sees grease, oil or chemical exposure, or a fire rating is required, PVC is the right membrane and TPO is a false economy. If it is a clean roof over an office, a warehouse or a school with ordinary HVAC on it, TPO does the job for less and the PVC premium is hard to justify.
The plasticizer question
PVC is rigid on its own; the membrane is made flexible with plasticizers. Early roofing-grade PVC used plasticizers that migrated out of the sheet over time, leaving it brittle and prone to shattering in cold snaps. That history still follows the material around, and it is worth addressing directly. Modern membranes use higher-molecular-weight plasticizers and a reinforcing scrim, and the shattering failures of the early generation are not what we see on current product.
What we do see on old PVC is a stiffened sheet that will not accept a weld from new membrane, which changes how it gets repaired: the tie-in has to use a compatible material or the old section gets replaced. If your building has an older PVC roof, tell us its approximate age so we bring the right material to the diagnostic.
Where PVC earns its premium in Central Florida
Restaurants are the obvious case, and in Orlando there are a lot of them, with exhaust hoods running most of the day. Grease containment at the fan is the first defense, but it never catches everything, and the membrane in a radius around each fan takes the rest. Food and beverage processing, commercial laundries, hospitals with lab exhaust, and industrial buildings with process venting are the same situation with a different chemical. Airport-area hangars and fleet shops deal with fuel and hydraulic fluid. In each of those, a TPO roof that should last a long time starts breaking down around the exhaust within a fraction of that, and the repairs become a recurring line in the budget.
The other case is a building where the owner wants a single-ply system that stays workable for repairs and additions late in its life, because PVC accepts a new weld longer than TPO does.
Details and drains
A PVC roof lives or dies at the same places as any single-ply: seams, penetrations and drainage. The difference is that PVC accessories, boots and prefabricated corners are widely available, so curbs and pipes get a factory-formed flashing rather than a field-cut piece with a hand-made corner. Drains get PVC-coated metal or a PVC target sheet welded to the clamping ring. Kitchen exhaust fans get a grease guard at the curb and a sacrificial walk pad below the outlet that can be swapped when it has taken the damage the membrane would otherwise absorb.
On a low-slope roof in Orlando we still taper the insulation to move water to the drains. PVC handles standing water better than most membranes, but the seam under a pond is the seam that fails first on any system, and a drainage design that never lets the pond form is cheaper than the repair.
Installation and close-out
Attachment is the same choice as with TPO: mechanically fastened through the insulation for speed and cost, or fully adhered for wind performance and a clean surface. We use the manufacturer’s tested assembly for the uplift rating the permit requires, weld and probe every seam, and photograph the roof at each stage. Where the building is a working kitchen or plant, the schedule accounts for the fact that exhaust fans cannot simply be shut off for a day; we sequence around them and coordinate any shutdown with your mechanical contractor. Close-out includes the permit record, completed-roof photographs and the manufacturer warranty paperwork where the system carries one. If you manage a restaurant group or a processing site in Kissimmee or anywhere in the Orlando area, call (407) 871-6159 and we will look at what the exhaust is doing to the current roof before we talk systems.
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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Metal Roofing
Standing seam and panel systems for churches, schools and commercial buildings — retrofit or new, engineered for wind.
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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.
Learn moreCommon questions
Usually, yes. The area around each exhaust fan is where a TPO roof on a restaurant fails, and once grease has soaked the membrane there is no repair that lasts. PVC does not break down under it. Over the life of the roof, avoiding repeated fan-area repairs and an early replacement tends to outweigh the higher membrane cost, which is why many restaurant chains specify PVC in their standards.
If the existing roof is reasonably young and the surface cleans up well, often yes, which is what makes PVC useful for additions and tie-ins. On an older sheet the plasticizer has migrated enough that a new weld will not hold, and we confirm that with a test weld before scoping. If it fails, the tie-in uses a mechanical termination or the old section is replaced.
White PVC reflects sunlight much as white TPO does, and both reduce the surface temperature of the roof on a Central Florida afternoon. The cooling benefit is real on a building with conditioned space under the roof. If reflectivity is the main goal and there is no chemical exposure, TPO delivers it at lower cost; PVC is chosen for what else it resists.
Like any single-ply, it depends on the attachment, not the membrane brand. A fully adhered PVC roof over a cover board, with the perimeter and corners fastened to the enhanced pattern the code requires, performs well in high wind. The membrane’s reinforcing scrim gives it good tear resistance if something does lift. We design the attachment to the uplift rating for your building’s height and exposure.
TPO single-ply, modified bitumen, metal and fluid-applied coatings, described on the commercial roofing hub. We do not push any one of them; the building, the exposure and the budget cycle decide. If a PVC bid is being compared against a TPO or a coating bid, ask for the assembly layer by layer so the comparison is fair.
Most PVC roofs can be re-covered once, with new insulation and membrane over the old if the old roof is dry and the deck is sound. Otherwise it is a tear-off, and PVC is one of the more recyclable membranes, which some owners care about for reporting. Either way the decision runs through a moisture survey first; our roof replacement page explains the process.