Old paperwork carries an old name. Holcim Elevate is the name now used for what was long known as Firestone Building Products, so a roof file in Flagstaff, AZ may list one name and a manufacturer's website may show the other. The roof does not care. It still sits under 90 to 97 inches of snow in an average winter, a summer monsoon that brings about a third of the year's moisture and cold that has reached minus 30 degrees F. We repair and maintain roofs built with Holcim Elevate and Firestone-era systems. The first job is to find the records and read the roof.
The family centers on low-slope single-ply membranes: EPDM, TPO and PVC, with insulation boards, adhesives and flashing parts that go with them. UltraPly is the Firestone name for its TPO. EPDM is cured rubber, joined with tape or adhesive. TPO and PVC are thermoplastic, joined by hot-air welds. Each can be fully adhered, mechanically fastened or ballasted. Roofs of the older Firestone era may be EPDM from decades ago, now at the end of a long life. We identify the sheet by its feel, its seams and its markings before any repair is chosen.
Start with what the owner has. Look for a warranty certificate, an installer's invoice, a product label on a roll end or a photograph from the original job. Note the date, the system type and the attachment method. A Firestone name on the paper may point to an older system, and a Holcim Elevate name to a newer one. Either way, the paper does not replace a walk. We confirm the sheet, core a small area and read the layers. A roof warranty management file keeps the paperwork, the photographs and the dates together, so the next question about the roof has an answer.
Long-lived buildings accumulate paper. Flagstaff Medical Center opened in 1936, and any building that old has had more than one chance for its roof records to go missing. Older masonry downtown, in the historic district listed in 1983, raises the same question about who roofed it and when. A roof file that starts today still helps: photographs, a sketch, a core log and the date of every repair. In ten years it will be the best record the building has.
By March 2, 2023 the storm that began on February 28 had left 24.5 inches in some areas of Flagstaff, and city officials reported several roof collapses. Their warning signs were ceilings that sag, trusses that bow and leaks that turn severe. Those are structural flags. A rubber roof does not change them. Snow also drifts behind parapets and mechanical wells and melts into drains that may be iced shut. We mark drift lines, check the deck beneath them and clear every drain on the fall walk. A drain that works in October may freeze in January.
Monsoon puts the same drains under a different test. A July thunderstorm can drop heavy rain in minutes onto a roof that spent the winter under snow. Seams that survived the cold may open in heat, and flashing that looked fine in March may leak in August. We walk the roof again after the first big monsoon cell and note any new stains.
EPDM shrinks with age. It pulls away from walls and curbs, and the pull shows as tight membrane at the base flashing and gaps at corners. Seam tape can lose grip. Adhesive can dry. On TPO and PVC, look for lifted welds and cracks at heat-welded corners. On any single-ply, check pipe boots, curb flashings, pitch pans and edge metal. Press the surface near fasteners for raised plates. Check the ballast if the roof carries stone. Photograph each finding and mark the sketch. A membrane puncture repair follows the cause, whether it was foot traffic, a dropped tool or ice.
Shrinkage shows first at corners. A tight sheet at an inside corner pulls the flashing off the wall, and water runs behind it. We cut and re-adhere the flashing with a proper termination, add a pressure bar where the wall allows and seal the top edge. A small repair now keeps the wall dry through the next thaw.
The wrong patch fails. A TPO patch on EPDM does not bond. A glued patch on a dirty seam peels. We clean, test a small area, then repair with the matching material and the system's detail. An aged EPDM roof with moderate wear may take a recover, but only over dry board, and only where the code allows the extra layer. For a roof with wet board across wide areas, replacement resets the assembly with new insulation, tapered slope and better drains. A rubber membrane roof can last a long time when seams and flashings are kept sound.
Adhered sheets need dry weather. Adhesive will not grip a damp or frozen surface, and a repair attempted in a cold snap may peel in the first thaw. We schedule the permanent work for a warm, dry window and stop the water with a temporary patch until then. The sketch shows the date of each temporary fix.
Sears left Flagstaff Mall in 2018, and in 2020 the single-story 1979 center added a Hobby Lobby and an entertainment wing. Buffalo Park separates East Flagstaff from downtown and its neighborhoods. A building that has gone through a closure and two additions has had work done around its roof, and each change belongs in the file. The roof type on any one building there comes from the walk. The East Flagstaff district shows how a roof file can grow with a building, and a big-box store shares many of the same checks.
The city's industrial parks near I-40 and I-17 number five. Roofs in those parks raise the same records question: who installed the sheet, when and with what. A dated file answers it.
Gather the records this month. Walk the roof before October. Clear the drains and probe the seams. Fix lifted flashings while the weather is dry. Write a shoveling plan with plastic tools. Flagstaff's 2018 building and energy codes, with the 2019 amendments, set the terms for any replacement. Carlisle SynTec and Sika Sarnafil sell comparable single-ply sheet, so an owner shopping all three should decide by the roof in hand. If the roof is past repair, a TPO or PVC replacement can be priced against a new EPDM.
The company's roofing business was long known as Firestone Building Products and is now sold under the Holcim Elevate name. Old paperwork may carry the old name. The roof is the same roof.
EPDM shrinks over the years. The sheet tightens at the base flashing and lifts from corners. We re-adhere or replace the flashing and add a termination bar where needed.
No. The materials do not bond. Use EPDM patching material and the right primer and tape, or plan a full replacement if the sheet is past its life.
We read the roof instead. A core sample, the seam type and the markings on the sheet tell us what is there. We then start a new file for the owner.
Recover if the board is dry, the deck is sound and another layer is allowed. Replace if the insulation is wet across wide areas. A moisture scan decides.
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A walk of the roof with photos, findings and a written scope.
Active leaks, storm damage and blocked drains get a fast response.
Roofing across Flagstaff and nearby Arizona communities.