The boiler has a service contract. The alarm system gets tested on a schedule; the parking lot has a snow removal agreement signed every October, and the elevator inspection certificate hangs in the lobby where the inspector can find it. The roof has nothing, and it stays that way until water shows up over a tenant’s display window on a Tuesday morning in March.

Flat roofs fail on a schedule that follows the seasons closely, and almost none of the damage announces itself while it is happening. A commercial roofing service plan organized around the calendar reaches the problems that reactive repairs never see, because it puts someone on the roof during the two windows when the evidence is visible and the fixes are still small. Two inspections a year, plus a look after any serious wind event, covers most of what goes wrong on a building in Bergen County.

Continue reading A Seasonal Maintenance Schedule for Commercial Buildings in North Jersey