Flat & Low-Slope Roof Repair in West Michigan

Ponding means the roof has lost positive slope: compressed insulation, a settled or sagging deck, or clogged drains. West Michigan rain and snowmelt make it worse. The National Roofing Contractors Association defines ponding as water still on the roof 48 hours after rain in drying conditions, and the International Building Code uses the same 48-hour standard for positive drainage and requires a minimum quarter-inch-per-foot slope on new membrane roofs. Manufacturer warranties follow that, because standing water degrades the membrane, adds dead load, and freezes into ice that splits seams. We fix the cause. Sometimes that's tapered insulation, sometimes a drain or scupper, sometimes clearing a drain that's plugged. Not every ponding roof needs tapered insulation, and we don't sell it if the deck already slopes right.

In most cases a failed seam can be repaired. On TPO we re-weld the lap with hot air. On EPDM we clean, prime, and cover it with reinforced seam tape. On modified bitumen we rebuild the joint with compatible plies. A full replacement, or a recover, is only recommended when the membrane is widely deteriorated, brittle, or saturated underneath, and we'll show you why before suggesting it.

Bridging is when an EPDM membrane pulls away from a wall, curb, or corner and tents across the angle instead of sitting in it. It happens because EPDM shrinks over its life and the manufacturer-required reinforced perimeter strip at that angle change was left out, usually to save money on the install. It stresses the flashing, opens the seam, and eventually tears. We fix it by installing the strip the spec calls for and re-flashing the transition.

TPO and EPDM single-ply, modified bitumen (SBS and APP) self-adhered and torch-applied, older built-up tar-and-gravel, and previously coated systems. We identify your system first and repair it with matched materials so the fix bonds and any manufacturer warranty stays valid. Wrong material is the number one reason a flat roof patch fails.

Every repair starts at $500. Minor repairs like a single puncture or a re-welded seam run $500 to about $1,500. Moderate repairs, rebuilding several flashings or chasing a hidden leak, run about $1,500 to $4,000. Major work like drainage corrections or a restoration coating runs $4,000 and up. Your number depends on the cause, and on a flat roof the cause is rarely visible from the ground. Get us out for a free inspection or send photos to an inspector.

Yes. Low-slope sections on homes, porches, additions, dormers, garages, and modern flat-roof designs, and commercial and multi-tenant buildings throughout Grand Rapids, Holland, Ada, and the lakeshore. On a house, modified bitumen is our first choice because the granulated cap sheet can usually be matched to the shingles. For larger commercial membranes we also run maintenance programs.

Water travels along the deck and under the membrane before it shows inside, so the interior stain rarely lines up with the roof failure. We inspect seams, penetrations, flashings, angle changes, and drains, probe for trapped moisture in the insulation, and when the source isn't obvious we isolate sections and water-test them one at a time until we've confirmed it. Then we look for the second source, because on a flat roof one stain is often fed by more than one entry point.