EPDM Roofing in Hoover, AL

The sheet price is often lower than TPO or PVC. Fewer seams cut some labor. The savings can disappear on a roof with many curbs, pipes and corners, since each detail is hand work with tape, primer and patience.

Thickness changes the price. A thicker sheet resists punctures and hail better and costs more. Ballasted systems save on adhesive but add weight, and the structure must carry it. We price the three methods side by side. You see the sheet, the insulation, the attachment and the labor in separate lines, and you choose with the numbers in hand.

Read the insulation line first. A re-roof with new polyiso and cover board costs more than a bare sheet on old insulation, but the new board resets the thermal performance and gives hail a softer landing. The cover board line is often the cheapest hail protection on the bid.

About 65 days a year top 90 degrees in Birmingham, and relative humidity averages near 70 percent. A black sheet runs hotter than a white one in that weather. The roof moves more every day, and the cooling load rises. That is the cost of the dark color.

A white EPDM exists, and a reflective coating can go over an old black sheet. A coating restoration is that route. If energy cost is the main driver, a white sheet such as TPO may pay back faster. If hail and budget matter more, EPDM holds its own.

Cool-season performance is the other side. A dark sheet helps a little in winter by absorbing sun. Alabama winters are mild enough that the gain is small, so the summer load decides the question for most buildings. We show both sides in the comparison, and your mechanical contractor can confirm the cooling effect with your equipment.

The metro sits in Dixie Alley. Severe thunderstorms are a spring story first, with a second season in November and early December. Central Alabama took hail up to softball size on April 25, 2003, and the National Weather Service counted 29 hail days larger than three-quarters of an inch that year.

Rubber flexes under impact better than a stiff plastic sheet, and a thicker EPDM sheet handles hail well. Wind is the other load. Ballast stone can blow loose in a hard gust, and tornadoes throw it. We favor adhered or mechanically attached systems on exposed sites. After a storm, our hail damage repair crews check seams, ballast and flashing.

Walk pads deserve a mention after a storm. Roof crews climbing to assess damage can puncture a soft sheet. A set of pads along the approach path costs little and saves an avoidable patch.

EPDM fits large low-slope roofs with few penetrations, wherever the building type matches: warehouses and distribution buildings, retail such as the development near the I-65 and Walkers Chapel Road exit in Fultondale, schools, churches and office buildings. It also fits budget-driven re-roofs where tear-off is possible and the owner wants a proven sheet.

It is a poor match for roofs with heavy grease or oil exposure. Those roofs belong on PVC. For roofs with ponding, the seams and tapes need extra attention. We check slope to drains with a level and mark low spots on the plan. In Bessemer, home to the fulfillment center Amazon announced at 800,000 square feet, drainage is the first question on any large low-slope distribution roof.

Schools and churches often have simple roofs with few units and wide areas. EPDM suits them, since repairs are straightforward and the sheet is a known quantity. The care plan is short: clear the drains, check the seams, walk the edges each spring.