Enclosing A Flat Roof To Sloping It: How This Commercial Roofing Process Is Done
Most commercial buildings have flat roofs. Look at any store or strip mall or office building, and you will see that the roofs are flat. However, if you want to enclose and/or slope a flat commercial roof, it can be done by a good commercial roofing contractor. Here is how this process is done.
Enclosing the Roof
Enclosing a flat roof is not that difficult. It only takes some steel fencing mesh to build up walls around the edge of the roof. You can choose to leave erect vertical walls as a means of enclosing the roof, or the contractor can bend, shape, and secure the steel fencing mesh inward to create a sort of dome. Under the dome, supports are added to act as beams and connect to a center beam that keeps all of the support beams connected and in an upward-supporting position.
Sloping the Roof and Covering It
The previous measures taken to dome a flat roof with the support beams is just the first step toward sloping and covering a roof. The slope is created first by the supports from underneath and down the central part of the wire dome. Then metal panels shaped to fit over the top of this wire dome are added. The panels are secured to the wire dome from underneath via special fasteners. Similar panels may be affixed from the underside of the wire dome as well.
This roof is sloped by the amount of steel wire used to "dome" the flat roof. Calculations are done prior to turning the flat roof into a domed one. The calculations tell the roofing contractor how to cut and install the steel dome sections to create the amount of the desired slope. They also tell the roofing contractor how the metal panels need to be shaped to fit over the steel wire framework.
Once everything is properly installed, the roof is properly vented and polished to a nice shine. The old flat roof may remain in situ, or it may be knocked out to reveal the dome overhead. A lot of times the latter process is done if the building is transitioning into a sports or show arena.
Various Applications for Enclosed and Sloped Commercial Roofs
There are various applications for enclosing and/or sloping a commercial flat roof. For one, you can enclose the flat roof to make it a space to retreat or turn it into a jogging track. For another, the building may also be converted into a holding tank, a show arena, a sports arena, etc.