Commercial Roofing Services
Commercial Roof Replacement in Green Bay
Deck-Up Replacement When a Roof Is Past the Point of Patching
The replacement plan explains tear-off or recover assumptions, insulation and drainage needs, occupied-building phasing, system options, and closeout requirements. Tear-off and replacement is the answer when a roof has more wet insulation than dry, when the membrane is past its patchable life, or when an inspection turns up deck damage that a recover would only trap under a new layer. We price it as its own scope, starting at the structural deck, not as an add-on to a repair quote.
Deciding Between Tear-Off and a Recover System
We core-cut the existing roof in several spots before we quote anything. Wet insulation, especially on older built-up systems around the Fox River corridor's paper mills, spreads under the membrane faster than it shows on the surface, and covering it with a recover just delays a failure that's already underway.
If those cores come back dry and the deck is structurally sound, we'll say so, and a recover becomes the cheaper honest option. If they come back wet, tear-off is the only path we'll price, because a warranty on a recover over wet insulation isn't worth the paper it's printed on.
Disposal and Site Logistics
Tear-off generates a lot of debris fast, and staging that debris matters more at an active distribution center or a food plant with truck traffic than it does at a vacant building. We schedule dumpster placement and swap timing around your dock schedule so tear-off debris isn't blocking a loading door during a shift.
For sites along I-41 or the Lawrence and Howard industrial parks where truck traffic runs constant, we'll walk the yard with your operations lead before demo starts and mark out a debris staging zone that doesn't interfere with deliveries.
Phasing Demo Around Live Operations
Warehouses and distribution buildings rarely get to shut down for a reroof. We break tear-off into sections sized to what we can dry-in and replace in a single working window, so open deck never sits exposed overnight, and racking or inventory below stays protected the entire time.
Cold storage and food processing sites get tighter sections still, sometimes a single bay at a time, because product below can't tolerate even a short exposure to outside humidity or temperature swings. That slows the schedule but it's the only way to keep the facility compliant while work is underway.
Schools and municipal buildings on our list, where occupancy schedules matter for noise and access, usually get sequenced around off-hours or breaks rather than shut down entirely.
What Deck-Up Replacement Covers
- Full tear-off of existing membrane, insulation, and cover board
- Deck inspection with repair or replacement of damaged steel or wood panels
- New insulation package sized to current snow load and thermal code
- New membrane, fully adhered or mechanically attached per the spec
- New flashing and edge metal at every parapet and penetration
- Disposal and haul-off included in the line-item price, not billed separately
Pricing a Full Replacement by the Square Foot
Replacement pricing runs per square foot and we break it into tear-off, deck repair, insulation, and membrane as separate lines rather than one bundled number. That lets a facility manager see exactly where the budget is going and where a value-engineering change, like a different membrane thickness, actually moves the number.
Lifecycle cost is the number that matters for a capital plan. A membrane system rated for 25 to 30 years at a slightly higher cost per square foot usually beats a cheaper 15-year system once you run the numbers against a second tear-off a decade sooner.
Tear-Off and Replacement Questions We Field
How do you know if a roof needs tear-off versus a simpler repair?
We start with a moisture survey and core cuts in several locations rather than a visual walk alone. If wet insulation shows up in more than a small percentage of the roof area, patching becomes a short-term fix and we'll tell you that directly rather than sell a repair that won't hold.
We'll also walk you through what the survey found, section by section, so the recommendation isn't a black box. If half the roof is dry and salvageable while the other half is saturated, that's useful information for phasing a project across budget years instead of treating the whole roof as one binary decision.
Can tear-off happen while our facility stays open?
In most cases, yes. We phase demo into sections that get torn off, decked, and dried in within the same working window, and we coordinate the schedule around your operating hours or shift changes so the building never sits with open deck longer than planned.
What do you do with the old roofing material?
Debris gets hauled off site the same day it comes down, staged in dumpsters placed to avoid dock and drive access. We don't stockpile tear-off debris on a roof or in a lot longer than a single work day unless weather forces a delay.
Does a full replacement change our insurance situation?
A new roof system with current code-compliant insulation and wind-rated edge detail can affect how a carrier rates the building, though that's a conversation between you and your broker. We can provide documentation on the system installed if your carrier requests it.
How long does a full replacement take on a mid-size warehouse?
It depends on roof size, deck condition, and how much of the building has to stay operational during the work. We'll give you a section-by-section schedule once the deck inspection is done, rather than a single estimate that doesn't account for what we actually find underneath.