Learn Rubber Flat Roof Installation Methods
Learn Rubber Flat Roof Installation Methods One unprimed seam or a poorly adhered corner on a rubber flat roof can
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- Service Area: Brooklyn, NY
Staying open is rarely a problem, because the work stays on the roof and the floors underneath keep running - a warehouse keeps shipping, a restaurant keeps serving, tenants stay put. On a large deck we phase the job in sections instead of opening the whole roof at once, and the crew only strips back what it can cover and seal the same day, so an overnight downpour never finds an open hole over your space.
A straightforward single-ply re-roof on an accessible deck usually runs a few days to a week, scaled to the square footage. Tear-off adds time, so does replacing soft decking, and so does building a tapered insulation layer to set the slope. A new-construction roof doesn't run on its own clock at all - it ties to the rest of the build schedule and goes down when the deck below it is ready.
Plenty of what comes through the door is a repair - but a membrane that's chalked through, shrunk off its parapets, or soaked across half its insulation is past patching, and at that point you're buying the whole system anyway. That's the work this page is about: tearing a dead flat roof down to the deck and putting a new one back across EPDM, TPO, and modified bitumen, plus the new-construction and full-gut decks that start from bare steel or concrete. Running these three systems week in and week out around Brooklyn is what lets us spec the right one for how your building is actually used - a reflective white TPO over a warehouse that bakes all summer reads differently than a torched mod-bit cap over a restaurant kitchen. Licensed and insured in New York, and certified by the membrane makers whose warranties we register.
The membrane is only half the decision - how it's attached matters just as much. A fully-adhered Firestone RubberGard EPDM glues down flat and rides out wind without a fastener pattern showing through. A mechanically-fastened Carlisle or GAF TPO screws to the deck on a grid and goes down fast over big square footage. A ballasted system holds with stone where the structure can carry the weight. We match the membrane and the attachment to your deck type, your wind exposure at the roof edge and corners, and whether you want the white reflective surface that trims summer cooling load or the black rubber that shrugs off freeze-thaw.
A roof is an assembly, not a sheet. On a re-roof we read the deck first - steel, concrete, wood plank, or gypsum - and replace anything spongy before a single fastener goes in, because a board that won't hold a screw won't hold a roof. Then comes the build-up: a vapor retarder where the building's interior calls for one, polyiso insulation laid to the R-value the job needs, and a cover board like DensDeck or Securock that gives the membrane a hard, even surface to bond to instead of soft foam. Where the existing deck sits dead level and ponds, we build the pitch back in with tapered insulation so the new roof drains the way a flat roof is supposed to.
A full replacement isn't just a roofing job in New York - it's a permit job with rules attached. Low-slope roofs have to hit a minimum reflectance under the city's cool-roof requirements, which is part of why so many new commercial decks go white TPO. And when you replace the entire roof deck or assembly, Local Laws 92 and 94 require a sustainable roofing zone - rooftop solar generating at least 4 kW, a green roof, or a combination - covering the applicable roof area, with exemptions for mechanical equipment, setbacks, and decks that can't carry the load. We handle the DOB filing and the compliance form, and we build the curbs, mounts, and flashing a solar array or a vegetated assembly needs to sit watertight on the new membrane.
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We measure the roof, read the deck and the drainage, and flag which code requirements apply - the reflectance minimum, and whether a full replacement triggers the solar-or-green-roof zone. That tells us what the job really is before anyone quotes it.
You get a written system spec: the membrane and attachment method, the insulation R-value, the cover board, the tear-off and disposal, the drain and flashing details, and any sustainable-zone work - each line priced so you can hold it against another bid.
The roof comes off down to a sound deck, bad decking gets replaced, the insulation and cover board go down with the slope built in, and the new membrane is installed and detailed at every edge and penetration. We only strip what we can dry in the same day.
If it's a warrantied system, the manufacturer's inspector reviews the finished roof and we register the coverage. Then we walk it with you, hand over the warranty paperwork, and send photos of the build for your records.