Many modern commercial and industrial roofs are made of profiled metal. Unless properly maintained, they will deteriorate and rust, with severe cases becoming so fragile with pin-holing, that major leaks are inevitable.

Relatively simple and inexpensive maintenance will prevent most problems, but we all know that nobody ever really pays much attention to the roof unless, or until there are leakage problems.

The one person you can guarantee looking at the roof of a leased building is your landlord’s dilapidations surveyor.

At the end of the lease, the surveyor will always consider the roof to be the area where most of the claim can be targeted and will almost certainly commence negotiations on poorly maintained properties by requesting a new roof.

If a roof has not been maintained, it’s highly probable that the roof lights will have deteriorated with age and will need overhaul or replacement. The only way to bring the light back into a building is to renew the roof lights completely, so again, this will be the starting point for most dilapidations claims.

Many metal roofs suffer from cut-edge corrosion, where the finish to the exposed edge of the roof panel lifts away and the metal surface rusts.

This can be cured quite easily by cleaning and then coating these cut edges with an acrylic paint or sealant, but when the corrosion becomes advanced, only sheet replacement will suffice.

It is possible of course, to coat an entire roof and make it look like new. There are many coatings available commercially that will seal a leaking metal roof and uplift the general appearance.

Many in-going tenants wrongly believe that because a building has a metal roof, that it is modern and unlikely to have any significant faults. After all, they think, the roof profile often matches the exterior cladding and is not subject to the same day-to-day knocks, so it must be in better condition.

The problem though, is that the roof is subject to the harshest weather conditions and temperature fluctuations.

Over time, deterioration and damage is inevitable, along with expensive repair bills!

The gallery below shows a number of roofs in various states of repair. They speak for themselves.

Before entering into any new tenancy agreement, we recommend a thorough roof survey be carried out to identify any potential problem areas, particularly if your landlord will not allow a schedule of condition to be appended to the lease. (By definition, a good quality, comprehensive schedule of condition will include plenty of roof photographs).

The difference between a schedule of condition and a roof survey is that the roof survey is more comprehensive and is used to determine budget costs for any necessary repairs or improvements, plus on-going maintenance costs.

To arrange a survey, please call David Carter on 0121 711 7110.

Metal Roof Cleaning

Metal roofs can only be cleaned effectively by using dry ice blasting.

Dry ice blasting is a gentle process where CO2 derived dry ice pellets are fired through a narrow nozzle onto the affected surface. The peeling survace affected by cut edge corrosion is stripped back to where it is sound and the rusted areas are cleaned to provide a suitable key for a coating or acrylic repair system to be applied.

Whilst some contractors prefer to use wire brushes to prepare metal roof surfaces, this can result in pin-holing the metal roof panels and so should be avoided wherever possible.

Dry ice blasting is far faster and more effective, with no residue or slurry being left on the roof afterwards.

The equipment to perform dry ice blasting is readily available for hire by competent contractors, but in certain cases, we would recommend that a specialist roof cleaning contractor be used to ensure that any guarantees issued by your roof coating contractor are properly validated.