Warehouse & Industrial Roofing Around Harrisburg International Airport

What is on these roofs

The regional standard for new and re-roofed distribution buildings is single-ply — TPO increasingly, EPDM on older stock — mechanically fastened or adhered over insulation on a steel deck, with internal drainage and overflow scuppers.

Older buildings may still carry built-up asphalt with multiple recovers, and some carry metal, either original or as a retrofit over an existing panel roof.

What they all share: enormous continuous membrane area, long perimeter runs, extensive rooftop mechanical equipment, and internal drainage that has to work.

Drainage is the whole ballgame

On a house, a blocked gutter is a nuisance. On a 200,000 square foot warehouse deck, a blocked internal drain during a Central PA summer thunderstorm puts an enormous weight of water on a structure in a very short time.

Standing water is roughly 5.2 pounds per square foot per inch of depth. Across a large deck, a few inches is a load measured in hundreds of tons.

Which is why overflow scuppers exist and why they must be clear. They are the safety valve, and they are the item most commonly found blocked during an inspection. Drain clearing on every maintenance visit is not a formality — it is the single most important thing anyone does on these roofs.

Service traffic and walkway pads

Every rooftop mechanical unit gets serviced, and technicians take the same route from the ladder or hatch to the unit every single time.

Over a decade that route becomes a worn track through the membrane — abraded, thinned, and eventually punctured. It is entirely predictable and entirely preventable.

Walkway pads along service routes and around every unit cost a fraction of the repair they prevent. On any building where we take on maintenance and pads are missing, that is the first recommendation we make.

Wind uplift at the perimeter

The highest wind uplift loads on a low-slope roof occur at the perimeter and, most acutely, at the corners. That is where edge metal, the fastening pattern and the first few feet of membrane earn their specification.

On large buildings in relatively open ground — which describes most of the airport corridor — this matters more than on a sheltered urban roof. Perimeter and corner fastening patterns should be enhanced per the system's wind design, and edge metal should meet the relevant standard rather than being whatever was on the truck.

It is also the first place to inspect after any significant wind event.

Re-cover, restore or replace

Doing the work over a live operation

• Phasing — sections sized so nothing is ever open over occupied or inventory-bearing space
• Weather contingency — a defined plan for drying in a phase if conditions turn, agreed before mobilization
• Crane and staging plan — placement, timing and truck routing that does not conflict with dock operations
• Interior protection — over racking, equipment and any sensitive area beneath the work
• Security and site control — materials and equipment secured at every shift end
• Coordination with the tenant's HVAC contractor — for any unit that must be lifted or disconnected

Lifecycle planning

For an owner or asset manager, the right frame is total cost of ownership across the hold period. Membrane thickness and warranty term are budget decisions tied to how long you intend to own the building.

A twenty-year system on a building you plan to sell in five is a different calculation from the same system on a long-hold asset — and so is under-specifying on a building you will still own in 2045.

What makes either decision possible is documented condition data. See commercial flat roof maintenance plans and our commercial roofing service.