Flat Roof Repair

Arizona loves flat roofs — on Santa Fe and Territorial homes, additions, carports, and nearly every commercial building — and flat roofs love to test their owners. Repairing them well is a different trade than shingle work, with different failure modes and different fixes. CraftBuilt repairs every common flat system: built-up (tar and gravel), modified bitumen, TPO and single-ply membrane, and coated foam.

Why Flat Roofs Leak

Water leaves a pitched roof in seconds and a flat roof in hours — sometimes never, where ponding low spots hold water for days after a monsoon storm. That standing water works on every seam, blister, and crack while UV checks the surface like old paint. The classic Arizona flat-roof story is a decade of quick elastomeric re-coats over unaddressed ponding and failed seams: each coat looks fixed for a season, while the substrate underneath quietly saturates. Our repairs start with what's actually wrong.

Our Flat Roof Repair Approach

1. Find the water — surface inspection plus moisture assessment, because a flat roof can be soaked beneath an intact-looking surface.
2. Fix the failure at its level: heat-welded patches on membrane, properly torched or cold-applied repairs on modified, seam and blister surgery on built-up systems, and drainage correction (crickets, scuppers, drains) where ponding is the root cause.
3. Tell the truth about the assembly: when trapped moisture or systemic seam failure means repairs are throwing money away, we say so and quote replacement options honestly.
4. Document for warranty and, where storms caused the damage, for insurance.

Homes and Businesses

Residential flat sections — the family-room addition in Tucson, the mixed-pitch home in Sedona where flat meets shingle at a leaky transition — get the same engineering discipline as our commercial work, which spans storefronts to industrial flats with maintenance programs built around monsoon season.

Coating or repair — which do I need?

A coating is a surface renewal for a structurally sound roof; it fixes UV wear, not leaks. If seams are failing or moisture is trapped, coat later — repair first. Our moisture readings make the call with data instead of hope.

Coatings: Where They Shine and Where They're Sold Wrong

Elastomeric and silicone coatings are legitimate tools with a specific job: renewing the weathered surface of a structurally sound, dry roof. Applied there — after repairs, over cleaned and primed substrate, at the mil thickness the spec actually calls for — a quality coating buys a decade of UV protection economically. Sold wrong, coatings are Arizona's favorite flat-roof scam: sprayed thin over wet insulation and failed seams, they look uniform for a season while the roof rots underneath, and each recoat makes eventual honest repair harder. The tell is diagnostic rigor: a coating quote without moisture readings is a paint job, not a roof solution. We coat plenty of roofs — after we've verified they're candidates.

How do you find a leak in a flat roof?

Methodically, because water travels farther laterally in flat assemblies than in any pitched roof. We work from interior evidence to roof plane, inspect every seam and penetration in the suspect zone, and use moisture readings to map the wet path back to its entry. Flood-testing sections confirms stubborn cases before we open anything.

Is ponding water always a problem?

Industry rule: water still standing 48 hours after rain is ponding worth fixing. Brief pooling that evaporates in a day is common on older flats; multi-day ponds accelerate every failure mode and void some warranties. Tapered insulation, crickets, or an added drain usually cures it — permanently, unlike another coat of anything.

Can one flat section be repaired, or is it all-or-nothing?

Section repairs are routine when the rest of the assembly is dry — that's exactly what moisture mapping establishes. You fix what's failed, not what a salesman gestures at.