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John O’Haver, business development specialist, and Kevin Lockard, national operations manager, both with Polygon US, joined Tyler Kern on Ideal Connections to discuss flat roof drying — a potential alternative to re-roofing a building.

Moisture saturation on a roof can be detrimental. “The degradation of the materials within that roof can really have a negative effect on the building,” said Lockard. “And then over the long term, you can start to have structural integrity issues.”

When moisture invades an enclosed area, mold and microbial growth will be a pervasive issue until treated properly. These issues can also impact the ability for heating and cooling systems to work within the house, ultimately increasing the costs for energy bills, too.

Typically, the solution to these types of problems is re-roofing, which can be extremely expensive, even up to $25-$27 per square foot. However, Polygon US proposes a different solution, which is simply drying the roof.

“If we can restore these roofs rather than rip them up, there’s going to be cost savings and several other positive impacts,” said Lockard. O’Haver also pointed out that the amount of work done on the roof can be a huge inconvenience for the people living, working or visiting underneath.

Another benefit of flat roof drying is risk association. There are quite a few potential problems associated with tearing up a roof that can hurt the building its housing. The current supply chain crisis has also made material scarcer, stalling many commercial roofing projects. Instead of re-roofing, companies can choose to dry their roofs.

“When it comes to flat roof drying, anyone listening to this or tuning into this should probably think of flat roof drying like you would a simple medical procedure instead of open-heart surgery,” said O’Haver. Essentially, it’s an outpatient surgery for your roof.