Out of sight, out of mind: Why building owners shouldn’t overlook roof maintenance

By Evelyn Witterholt. 

Make the most of your building investment by prioritizing regular roof maintenance and inspections. 

In theory, maintaining your building should be a number one priority for building owners. But performing quality, all-encompassing building maintenance is much harder in practice. One element of the building that gets overlooked is the roof, and doing so can be a costly mistake. In a recent episode of Understanding Roof Restoration, we spoke with Greg Hlavaty and Hal Leland from Western Colloid, about why building owners shouldn’t neglect their roof’s needs. 

Building owners tend to ignore their roof when maintaining their building because it’s harder to see the issues there. Greg, president of Western Colloid, says nobody wants to get on a roof. Since you can see the windows and walls of a building, you’re more likely to spot their needs and fix them versus the needs of your roof. 

“They're doing everything to make that building look decent, but nobody wants to get up onto that roof, and that's probably the most important weather barrier that they have on the building,” Greg said.   

If you don’t want to get up on your roof, hiring a roofing contractor to see what maintenance it needs can save you money in the long run.  Hal, general manager of Western Colloid, says that one thing they encourage contractors to do is perform annual roof maintenance for their customers. Whoever installed your roof could likely perform annual inspections for you and take care of all your roof maintenance needs. 

“The rooftop, you don't see it, you don't look at it. It's got gutters, it's got leaves in the gutters. It's backing up water,” Hal said. “Every year you need to be up on that roof, just taking a look at it. You do that, you can double the lifespan of your roof alone.” 

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about why regular maintenance is key to your commercial roof’s health.