Retail & Restaurant Roofing

PVC membrane is the only correct choice around restaurant grease exhaust — Sika Sarnafil G410 and IB Roof Systems are our two primary specs. TPO and EPDM both degrade rapidly when exposed to animal fats, vegetable oils, and the volatile compounds in cooking exhaust. Grease landing on TPO causes plasticizer migration that hardens and cracks the membrane within 5-8 years; on EPDM, it dissolves the polymer outright.

The PVC zone extends a minimum of 10 feet around every grease exhaust outlet. For combo restaurants with multiple kitchen vents (a fry station vent, a charbroiler vent, a pizza oven vent), we typically spec PVC for the entire kitchen wing.

Outside the grease zone, TPO is acceptable and often more economical. Many of our retail-center installs are mixed-membrane — TPO over retail bays, PVC over the restaurant tenant bays — with heat-welded transitions between zones.

Grease containment around the vent itself matters too. We install commercial grease boxes (Smoke Guard or similar) at every kitchen exhaust to keep grease off the membrane in the first place. Property managers often miss this; we recommend it on every restaurant project.

Lease commencements are hard deadlines. If a tenant has signed a lease for January 15, the roof has to be done — water-tight, inspected, and signed off — before that date. We treat lease commencements as fixed dates and build the install schedule backward from them, accounting for permit lead time, weather risk, and manufacturer rep inspection availability.

Tenant-occupied installs require operating-hour awareness. Restaurants typically can't tolerate work during lunch service (11 AM - 2 PM) or dinner service (5 PM - 10 PM). We schedule noisy work (tear-off, decking nail-down) between 8 AM - 10:30 AM and after 10 PM, or after restaurants close on Sundays.

Retail tenants have different rhythms — most retail can tolerate weekday morning work but not Saturday work (peak retail day). Hair salons and medical-aesthetic tenants can't tolerate vibration during appointments. We do per-tenant scheduling consultations during the proposal phase.

Daily progress reports with photos go to property management every install day. Tenants get notification letters in property-management format with specific dates and noise expectations. This is the difference between a smooth tenant relationship and a tenant complaint cascade that the property manager has to deal with.

Certificate of Insurance (COI) requirements vary by property management company. Brookfield, JLL, Vornado, and Simon Property each have their own COI format and required limits. We carry commercial general liability with aggregate coverage, plus the additional-insured endorsements pre-prepared for all major NJ property managers — no scrambling at project start. Custom higher limits are available on request when the property manager requires them.

Building permits sit on the contractor side. We pull permits in every NJ municipality where we work and handle the inspector coordination. Property managers don't deal with the township.

Tenant notification letters get drafted in property-management format. We provide the draft for property management approval, they distribute to tenants, and we adjust the schedule based on tenant pushback before mobilization.

Daily progress photos and end-of-day status emails to property management. Standard. Property managers appreciate this because it eliminates the daily call-the-contractor cycle and gives them documentation they can forward to tenants and owners.

Sign and signage flashing rebuilds. Retail centers have building-mounted signage with flashing details that get rebuilt during a re-roof. We coordinate with the sign vendor for signage removal and reinstallation when needed, and we rebuild flashing details to current standards.