Commercial Metal & Steep Slope Roofing in Elgin & Kane County

Standing Seam and Architectural Metal

Standing seam is the longest-lived commercial roof system available short of slate, with realistic service lives of 40 to 70 years. The concealed fastener design means no exposed screws and no gasket to perish at year 15, and the raised seam keeps the water line well above the panel joint.

The engineering that matters is thermal movement. A long metal panel expands and contracts significantly across an Illinois year, and it has to be allowed to. Clips must let the panel float; fixed points and expansion joints have to be positioned deliberately. Metal roofs that fail early nearly always failed because someone pinned a panel that needed to move.

We fabricate flashing, coping and trim to suit the building rather than adapting stock profiles, which matters on older masonry buildings where nothing is square.

Coping, Fascia, Gutter and the Parts Nobody Photographs

Most commercial roof leaks are not in the field of the roof. They are at the edge: parapet coping, counter-flashing into masonry, scuppers, gutter and downspout, and the transition between a low-slope roof and a steep-slope element.

Coping that was never sealed properly at the joints will let water into the wall cavity and it will show up inside the building a long way from the actual entry point — which is why owners so often replace a membrane that was never the problem.

We inspect and quote edge metal as part of any commercial roof assessment, and we fabricate replacements. On a building with a recurring leak that nobody has been able to find, edge metal is where we look first.

Steep Slope on Commercial Buildings

Steep-slope commercial work covers a lot of ground: architectural shingle on multifamily and association buildings, slate and synthetic slate on churches and institutional buildings, tile, and metal shingle or panel.

The differences from residential work are access, staging, life safety and occupancy. On an occupied building — a school, a church, an apartment block — the roof is the easy part and the logistics are the job. We plan staging, protection and phasing around the building's actual use, and we can work outside occupied hours where that is what the situation needs.