How A Roofer Patches A Hole In The PVC Roofing Membrane On Your Commercial Building

A PVC roofing membrane protects your commercial building for many years, but punctures can always happen. That's why regular roof inspections are important. The roofer can find a puncture and repair it before it causes water damage to your building. Repairing holes in membrane roofing is a fairly common commercial roof repair that can be done on all types of membrane roofing. Here's a look at how a hole is patched on a PVC roof.

The Area Around The Hole Is Cleaned

The roof of a commercial building gets dirty due to pollution in the air and dust. Plus, membrane roofing can develop a film as the roofing ages. All this has to be cleaned off before a patch is applied. The roofer uses a cleaning product that gets the membrane clean but that won't leave a residue that interferes with making a tight seal.

The Hole May Need To Be Enlarged

The roofer may need to enlarge the hole if it's small because the patch is usually placed underneath the hole, especially if the membrane is old. When that's done, the roofer cuts out a patch from a new piece of membrane, and they make the patch larger than the hole so there are a few inches of overlap to get a tight seal.

The Patch Is Sealed With Heat

One advantage of PVC roofing is that it can be heat welded. Heat welding fuses the patch and membrane together so rain can't leak in. There's also no worry with adhesive deteriorating over time since the patch is welded in place.

The roofer starts by positioning the patch inside the hole so it is under the roofing membrane. The patch is welded this way because the underside of the roofing membrane isn't exposed to the weather so it is as good as new while the top of the membrane may be worn down due to sun exposure and rain. By welding to the underside, the risk of the patch coming loose is reduced.

When the patch is in place, the roofer uses a handheld heat welder to fuse the two pieces together. The tip of the welder is placed between the patch and membrane and moved slowly so the materials have time to heat up. As the roofer moves the welder, they press a roller over the patch to press it against the roofing membrane.

The two pieces weld together fast. The roofer can check for a tight bond by using a tool to try to pry the pieces apart and to look for open gaps. The roofer might finish by applying caulk around the edges of the patch.

Patching a hole is a fairly easy commercial roof repair that can be done quickly, so you'll want to have holes patched as soon as they're found to give your roof the longest life possible.


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