Commercial roofing in Laval

Six differences from a house roof

A leak in a house disrupts one household. In a building, the same leak can soak inventory, stop a machine or affect three tenants at once.

As with any roof repair, we look for where the water gets in, fix the cause, then ask whether the roof is still worth repairing. Everything else, however, changes in scale.

• The size. A large roof is redone in phases over several weeks, and the budget sometimes spreads over two fiscal years.
• The mechanical equipment. Air conditioners, ducts, vents and supports go through the membrane, and each penetration is a detail to seal.
• The foot traffic. The technicians who service this equipment walk on the membrane in every season, with their tools.
• The structure. Steel deck or concrete slab, long spans: the allowable weight and the way things are fastened depend on it.
• The people below. People work, sell or live under the job site while it moves forward.
• The way decisions are made. There is a budget to get approved, a board of directors to convince or an owner who wants comparable prices.

From storefront to warehouse

"Commercial" is a broad word.

• The store and the strip of units. Each tenant has an air conditioner. A restaurant adds a hood that exhausts grease.
• The warehouse and the plant. A lot of surface, few penetrations, a light steel deck.
• The office building. Grouped equipment, parapets, and sometimes a roof people can walk on.
• The apartment building and the condominium. One roof for several households, and a decision made by several people.

The site matters as much as the roof. Between two shared walls or above a busy sidewalk, the job is not organized the way it is in the middle of a parking lot.

What Laval's Code de l'urbanisme requires of a flat roof

Two sections of the Code de l'urbanisme (Laval's urban planning code) matter for a flat roof, and they apply across the city.

Section 380 covers main and accessory buildings with a flat roof. The section does not set commercial or industrial buildings apart. The covering must be one of the following, or a combination:

• a green roof,
• a white material, painted white, or covered with a reflective coating or white ballast,
• a material with a solar reflectance index of at least 78, attested by the manufacturer's specifications or by a professional's specification.

Three exceptions apply: buildings and equipment authorized on a roof, residential accessory buildings with a footprint of less than 40 m², and agricultural buildings. The Code does not say what applies to an existing roof redone identically. Ask the City's Service de l'urbanisme (urban planning department) before you settle the specifications.

Section 141 deals with the structure. The structure must be designed to carry an extensive green roof, on top of the loads already prescribed, when three conditions are met: the building has more than three storeys, the roof area of the building or its extension exceeds 250 m², and the roof is flat. The section includes exceptions. Section 141 deals with structural design, and it says nothing about an existing building whose covering is simply replaced.

The permit: what the City publishes

The City of Laval publishes no process page for the roof of a commercial building. Its page « Rénovation et aménagement d'un espace commercial » (renovating and fitting out a commercial space) requires a construction and improvement permit before a commercial unit is modified or fitted out. It lists $172 for the first $5,000 of work, plus $6.10 per $1,000 or part of $1,000. That page does not mention roofing.

Before you sign, ask the Service de l'urbanisme whether your job requires a permit, and at what fee. Tell them whether the material changes. Your insurer may have its own requirements, and any question about loads or structure goes to an engineer.

The answers we expect from you

Our visit to a building roof starts with questions.

1. What year is the roof from, and what is it made of?
2. Where has it already been repaired?
3. Do you have plans, an inspection report, a maintenance log?
4. Is a warranty still running, and what does it require?
5. Which units cannot tolerate noise, odours or a shutdown?
6. How do we get up there, and where can materials be set down?

If you are missing these answers, start with an inspection and a report. The inspection will also show whether the defect is isolated or whether the insulation is wet over a large area. That answer changes the whole project.

Roofer, consultant, engineer

For small jobs, the roofer sees the roof, makes a proposal and does the work. For a large roof, the specifications and site supervision are often given to a professional who installs nothing: an engineer, an architect or a roofing consultant.

The contractor must hold a licence from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ, Quebec's building authority). The register of licence holders is public on the RBQ website.

Eight steps, a document at each

When nothing is urgent, a project moves in this order. Each step should leave you with a document.

1. The assessment. An inspection report on the membrane and the insulation.
2. The choice of work. Repair, replacement of a section or full replacement.
3. The approvals. Service de l'urbanisme, engineer for the structure, insurer.
4. The specifications. A single description of the work, given to every bidder.
5. The prices. Each contractor visits the roof and prices those same specifications.
6. The contract. Scope, schedule, warranties, and what happens if something unexpected comes up.
7. The work. Section by section, with progress reports.
8. The handover. The roofer shows you the result in photos. Corrections are noted and warranties handed over.

Do not skip the handover. After it, the crew is gone.

What a building quote should state

A single amount at the bottom of a page tells you nothing. Besides the details of the work, each quote should give:

• the exclusions,
• the proposed period and the length of the job,
• the name of the person in charge on site,
• who applies for the permit, if one is needed,
• the contractor's RBQ licence, with its number, and its certificate of liability insurance.

A lower price with no list of exclusions is not a bargain.

Plan ahead rather than react

A building roof is tracked like a piece of equipment. If you know its age, its condition and the year it will likely need replacing, you can set money aside and choose the season. Otherwise, the leak chooses.

If water gets in anyway, no one from your side goes up. Protect what is below, note the time and the location, take photos, then request a temporary repair from us through the form. Notify your insurer. Whether to repair or replace is decided later, report in hand.

Some occasions justify an inspection even when the roof is dry:

• you are buying the building,
• a warranty is about to expire,
• a new unit is to be installed on the roof,
• a tenant moves in with an activity that changes what the building exhausts, a restaurant for example,
• a major storm or a strong wind has just passed.

The roof file

The roof file belongs to the building, not to the person who manages it. It contains:

• roof plans, with drains and equipment located,
• every inspection report, in date order,
• the specifications and contract of the last replacement,
• the manufacturer and workmanship warranties, conditions included,
• the technical data sheets of the materials in place,
• the maintenance log: dates, findings, photos, invoices.

Keep it where the next person will look for it, at a sale as at a change of manager.

Frequently asked questions