Commercial Roofing
Protecting East Bay Businesses From the Top Down

Commercial Roofing in the East Bay

East Bay Roofers is the East Bay's licensed commercial roofing contractor that property managers, HOA boards, and business owners call for commercial roofing services Since 1988, we've installed TPO, EPDM, metal, and BUR systems for commercial properties in Concord and across the East Bay. Here's what that looks like in practice:

Apartment & Multi- Family Roofing

Multi-family properties are one of the largest segments of our commercial work.

Since 1988, East Bay apartment complexes, condo associations, and property management firms have called us for phased re-roofs, HOA capital planning, and mixed-use fire-rated assemblies. Garden-style apartments need phased work to keep units occupied. HOA boards need multi-year capital plans with owner-vote documentation. Mixed-use buildings need tenant protection protocols. We handle all of it under one C-39 license.

What Commercial Roofing Covers

Commercial roofing is a broad category. Under our C-39 license we handle everything from a 4-unit apartment building in Richmond to a 50,000 sq ft warehouse in Hayward. The property types we work on most often: - Apartment complexes and multi-family, 4-plexes up to 100-unit garden-style properties.

• HOA common-area roofs, condos, townhouses, and carport structures where the board is the decision-maker.
• Retail centers and standalone retail, strip malls, anchor stores, restaurant pads.
• Office buildings, from single-tenant medical offices to multi-story Class B commercial.
• Industrial and warehouse, distribution, light manufacturing, self-storage.
• Restaurants and food service, with particular attention to grease exhaust and hood curb detailing.
• Medical and dental offices, where tenant disruption tolerance is close to zero.
• Churches, schools, and community buildings, often with the tightest budgets and the most complex politics.

When a Commercial Re-Roof Makes Sense

A commercial roof rarely fails all at once.

What usually happens is a slow degradation, seam shrinkage, failed flashings, ponding water that's gotten worse, insulation that's waterlogged in sections. The question isn't "is it leaking?" but "what's the right moment to stop patching and start planning?" We look at the core samples, the warranty remaining, the energy performance, and the capital planning cycle, and we'll tell you straight whether you're better off maintaining for another 3 to 5 years or budgeting a full replacement for the next fiscal cycle. We also do roof recovers, installing a new membrane over the existing one without a tear-off, when the existing assembly is sound and dry. Under CBC Chapter 15 you can have a maximum of two roof coverings, so if there's already been one recover, the next round has to be a full tear-off. That's a cost and timing difference worth knowing about early.

Brands and Product Lines We Install

For commercial work, we stock and install systems from every major single-ply, modified bitumen, and coating manufacturer: - Firestone/Holcim.

UltraPly TPO, RubberGard EPDM, AP Torchdown modified bitumen, and ISO 95+ GL polyiso insulation.

• GAF Commercial, EverGuard TPO, EverGuard PVC, and Ruberoid modified bitumen. We write Golden Pledge warranties on GAF systems as a.
• Carlisle SynTec, Sure-Weld TPO, Sure-Seal EPDM, Sure-Flex PVC. Carlisle's Syntec warranty is one of the best in the industry.
• Johns Manville, JM TPO, EPDM, PVC, and DynaGlas/DynaWeld modified bitumen. Single-source Peak Advantage warranty covering insulation through membrane.
• Versico — VersiWeld TPO, VersiGard EPDM, VersiFlex PVC.
• Henry Company, Blueskin self-adhered products, DuraPro coatings, 587 roof cement.
• Soprema — SOPRALENE and SOPRASMART SBS modified bitumen.
• Coatings: Henry 587, GE silicone, Versiflex acrylic, GAF HydroStop. For roofs where a recover coating can extend service life 10 to 15 years without a full tear-off.

Commercial Systems, Which One for Which Building

TPO, our default commercial recommendation.

Hits Title 24 cool-roof compliance automatically. Heat-welded seams. Best for office parks, retail, multi-family, and anything with air conditioning. 60 or 80-mil over tapered polyiso. EPDM — longest field life of any single-ply. Best for warehouses, industrial, buildings with heavy rooftop equipment, and shaded sites where cool roof doesn't matter. PVC — chemically resistant beyond TPO. Best for restaurant rows, auto shops, and any building with rooftop grease or industrial exhaust. White and Title 24 compliant out of the roll. Modified bitumen (SBS/APP), torch-applied or cold-adhered multi-ply. Best for smaller commercial flat roofs, restaurants, and buildings where patching will be the primary repair strategy. Built-up roofing (BUR), the original commercial flat-roof system. Still the toughest when maximum puncture and impact resistance matters, but heavy and slow to install. We work on existing BUR more than we install new. Standing seam metal, 24-gauge galvalume or aluminum panels, concealed fasteners. Best for warehouses, manufacturing, and anywhere architectural appearance matters. 40-year finish warranties. Coatings (Henry, GE, Versiflex, HydroStop), spray or roller-applied over existing sound membrane. Best for extending the life of an older roof without a full replacement. Usually $2 to $5 per sq ft installed.

The Installation Process

Commercial jobs follow a structured sequence that's different from residential work. Here's how it goes: 1. Site survey and core samples. We cut small 2x2 samples through the existing roof to see what's actually in the stack. Insulation type, thickness, moisture content, number of existing layers. This is non-negotiable on any commercial project, we've seen too many jobs where the "existing" roof turned out to have three hidden layers of BUR underneath.

2. Engineered specification. Matching the right system to your building, occupancy, and code requirements.
3. Written proposal with scope, materials, timeline, phasing plan, and warranty details.
4. Pre-construction meeting with property management, HVAC contractors, tenants, and anyone else who's going to be affected.
5. Permits pulled. C-39 on every application.
6. Installation with a dedicated project super on site every day, daily photo progress reports, and weather contingency built in.
7. Leak test, final inspection, warranty registration, and as-built documentation. Every commercial job leaves behind a clean paperwork trail for the property file.

Code Requirements

Commercial roofing falls under California Building Code Chapter 15 (CBC 1505 for fire classification, CBC 1507 for material-specific requirements), along with CRC Chapter 9 for residential-over-commercial mixed-use buildings. Title 24 Part 6 mandates cool-roof compliance on almost every commercial low-slope roof over conditioned space. OSHA fall protection requirements under 29 CFR 1926.501 apply to every job over 6 feet, we run written fall protection plans on every commercial project. ADA requirements affect rooftop access paths for equipment service. Local fire code dictates hot-work permits and fire watch for any torch application. Building occupancy classification (B, M, R, F, S, etc.) determines which sections of code apply, which is why we'll sometimes need occupancy documentation before we can write a final proposal.

East Bay Cities Where We Do Commercial Work

We work across every East Bay city, but the bulk of our commercial volume is concentrated in: - Emeryville, commercial, multi-family, and live-work lofts.

• Downtown and West Oakland, retail, multi-family, and older industrial conversions.
• Downtown Berkeley — commercial blocks, university-adjacent retail.
• Richmond and San Pablo — industrial, warehouse, and older multi-family.
• Downtown Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, and Concord — retail centers, medical offices, HOA common areas.
• Pleasanton, San Ramon, and Dublin — office parks and multi-tenant commercial.
• Fremont, Hayward, and Union City — warehouse, light manufacturing, and multi-family.
• Livermore and Brentwood — commercial, industrial, and agricultural structures.

Residential Work We Also Cover

Commercial property owners often have residential roofing on adjacent or companion properties — a manager's unit, a caretaker residence, or a mixed-use building with residential floors above the commercial base.

We handle both under the same license and insurance. We also provide roof inspection reports for commercial properties going through sale, refinance, or insurance renewal — a deliverable that's different in format from a residential inspection report but uses the same core assessment process. And metal roofing installations on commercial accessory structures — machine shops, covered parking, loading dock canopies — use standing-seam steel specified for the same industrial air environments we work in across Richmond, Hayward, and Emeryville.

Ready to Talk About Your Commercial Roof

If you're a property manager, HOA board member, owner-operator, or facility director dealing with a commercial roof — whether it's a 4-unit in Richmond or a 50,000 sq ft warehouse in Hayward — call East Bay Roofers at (925) 722-4916.

We'll come out, do core samples, put together a written capital plan, and give you an honest recommendation about whether you should be repairing, coating, recovering, or fully replacing. C-39, , serving East Bay commercial and multi-family since 1988.

What Commercial Roofing Work Includes

Commercial roofs fail at the details. Every membrane system we install — TPO, EPDM, or modified bitumen — starts with a deck inspection: damaged plywood or osb gets replaced, and new underlayment goes down before the membrane. Flashing is the critical edge detail: metal drip edge at the eaves, fascia capping at the parapet, and vent boot collars around every roof penetration. We verify the substrate meets building code slope and drainage requirements, and we set up dumpster service and debris containment so a commercial tenant keeps their parking lot usable. Field crews use nail gun fastening to spec so fastener pattern meets warranty requirements.

Roof System Details

Beyond the visible work, every commercial roofing project on a roof touches the same system-level details. Valleys are flashed with corrosion-resistant metal so the heaviest water flow stays off the deck. Ice dams are addressed at the source — ice-and-water shield in the eaves and lower field plus balanced ridge vent and soffit vent airflow keeps the deck temperature even, so snowmelt doesn't refreeze at the eave and push water up under the shingles. The joist and rafter structure is checked for deflection before heavy materials go up. Gutter and downspout connections are confirmed at the eaves so the roof edge drains into the system instead of behind it — a roof and its gutters are one water-shedding assembly, and we treat them that way.

Quality & Materials Standards

Every material we install is specified to a standard, not just a price. Architectural shingles and three-tab shingle options are dimensional fiberglass-backed products with granulated mineral surfacing; standing-seam panel and corrugated panel metal roofs come in steel or aluminum with elastomeric coating options (including acrylic coating and silicone coating where the spec calls for them). TPO, EPDM, and built-up roof membranes are checked for tensile strength and coverage rate before they go up. Adhesive and roof cement are used where the membrane spec requires them, and fasteners are driven to the manufacturer's exact coverage rate — never guessed.

We also inspect for the failure modes that shorten roof life, and we're honest about what we find: blistering and blisters, buckling or warping, delamination and spalling, corrosion and erosion of metal, granulated loss, UV degradation, and deterioration that shows as flaking, cracking, or seepage at seams and eaves. Water that wicks up under a substrate rots sheathing and trusses; we fix the substrate, not the symptom. Drains, downspouts, and gutters are checked as part of the water path — a roof that drains is a roof that lasts.

Storm response is built into our process: hail damage and wind damage assessments document every dent, dislodged shingle, and lifted flashing for the adjuster. We handle claim documentation — including the deductible line items, depreciation schedules, and supplement paperwork insurance companies require — so the scope of work is approved before the crew arrives, and a tarp protects the interior until the permanent repair is scheduled. Crews work to a written scope of work with scaffold and safety harness protocols on every steep roof.