Commercial Roofing in Novato, CA
Service Areas
Marin's roof problems are not all in the small towns. Novato covers more ground than any other city in the county, and its commercial roofs run from converted airplane hangars to pharmaceutical and research buildings to school campuses. That mix is the first thing an owner should understand, because a roof plan that works for a bay of offices will not work for a lab, and neither works for a building that spent its first life storing aircraft.
We repair, coat, recover and replace commercial roofs in Novato, CA, along US 101 and across the low ground to the east. The question we ask first is rarely about the membrane. It is about what the building used to be, what it is now, and where the water goes when the weather turns.
Serving Santa Rosa • Rohnert Park • Petaluma • Windsor • Healdsburg • Sebastopol • Napa
Hangars that became offices
Nine of the original hangars at the former Hamilton Army Airfield now serve as office space in the Hamilton Landing district. That is an unusual roofing problem. A building designed to shelter aircraft was made for one thing, and an office tenant asks for another. If the roof has been altered, patched, insulated or recovered since, each change left a layer behind that nobody drew on a plan.
On a first walk we look for exactly that: how many layers sit on the deck, where past repairs were made, and whether the penetrations for new mechanical equipment were sealed properly. We do not assume what is under the surface. We cut a core, read it, and then tell the owner whether a recover is possible or a tear-off is the right answer.
The Coast Guard holds about 50 acres of housing at Hamilton, and original 1930s headquarters, barracks and firehouse buildings still stand there. On a site that mixes ages like that, Coast Guard station roofing begins with a survey of every structure, one roof at a time.
A lab is a mechanical room with a roof on it
BioMarin Pharmaceutical and the Buck Institute are among the top employers in Novato. A pharmaceutical or research building often carries heavy rooftop mechanical equipment, and each exhaust stack, fan and duct is a penetration.
What we look for on those roofs is the support under the equipment, the sealing around every curb, and how much foot traffic the membrane has taken from technicians. The cheapest fix is a protective walkway and a proper stand. The expensive fix is a tear-off after a slow leak soaked insulation under a unit. Timing matters too: a roof project near sensitive operations needs a written plan for dust, noise and odor, and the right place to start is equipment curbs and supports.
Low ground and storm drains
Schools and the summer window
Novato Unified School District employs 803 people, and its buildings need roofs that are finished before students return. For school roofing, the plan runs backward from the first day of class. Survey in winter, design in spring, tear-off in sections over summer. A roof left open over a classroom for a night is a failure of planning, not a failure of weather.
For a school roof with dry insulation and a sound membrane, a coating or targeted repair may be enough. For one with wet areas, replace those sections and recoat the rest. Phasing is the heart of school roofing, and price follows how many sections are wet, how many penetrations there are, and how long the building can be closed to the crew.
What not to spend on
Do not replace a converted hangar roof before you know what is on it. Do not put solar over an aging membrane, and do not skip the discussion of solar-ready roofing if panels are planned at all, because panels outlast a tired roof. The same check-then-buy order applies to owners in Petaluma.
Rohnert Park brings another mix of institutional and commercial roofs, equipment and scheduled access.
On a Novato property, map each addition and later equipment change before relying on an older roof plan. A former hangar, laboratory, school, or office may have several assemblies under one address, with different drainage and access constraints. Mark what the inspection reached and which areas require a lift, escort, or separate visit. This gives the owner a usable scope for the actual property and prevents a partial roof walk from being treated as a complete condition assessment.
Commercial Roofing Questions
Our offices occupy a converted hangar. What should we check before adding rooftop equipment or solar?
Start with the structure. A structural engineer should confirm the roof can carry the new load, because a building designed for aircraft was not necessarily designed for a bank of condensers or a solar array. Then look at the roof itself: how many layers are on the deck, where the old repairs are, and whether the insulation is dry. We can core the roof and run an infrared scan. Do the roof work before the equipment goes up, because removing equipment later is expensive.
Eastern Novato floods. Should our roof drainage plan change?
Yes, in one specific way: do not rely on a single drain path. When the street floods, interior drains tied to storm lines can back up, and the roof fills. Add overflow scuppers set above the normal water line, keep primary drains clear, and check them before the wet season. If the site floods at ground level, make sure your access plan still works for repair crews in a storm.
A lab building has strict operating needs. How do you schedule roof work around them?
We begin with a meeting with the people who run the building, not the people who own it. They tell us which air intakes cannot be near work, when the quiet hours are, and what dust or odor limits apply. Then we phase the roof in small sections so that no area is open for more than a day, and we choose adhesives and attachment methods that fit. Plan for more coordination than on an ordinary office roof.
Is a coating worth it on a school roof?
It is worth it when the membrane is sound, the seams are tight and the insulation is dry. It is not worth it over wet insulation or a roof with failed flashing, because the coating seals the problem in. An infrared survey tells you which case you have. Coatings also go on in dry weather, so summer break is the natural window.
The original 1930s buildings at Hamilton still stand. What changes when a roof sits on a building that old?
Surprises, mostly. An older structure may have a deck we do not see on newer buildings, layers of past work, and framing that limits what we can add. We survey before we design, and we confirm whether any review applies to the building before work begins. A roof on a building of that age is also a record, so we photograph what we find as we open it.
Tell us what the building was
Call and tell us what the building is now, what it used to be and what the roof has been doing. After we have been up there, you will hear plainly whether it needs work now, later, or not at all.
