Best Practices for Maintaining Your Apartment Complex Roof

Trying to maintain an apartment complex roof isn't like most other roof maintenance situations. Unlike in many businesses, or homes, you can't simply empty out the building while work is done. You have dozens of people who are going to expect their apartments to remain habitable, with a minimum of disruption to their daily routine.

This can make it difficult to properly maintain your apartments' roof, but that isn't an excuse for allowing it to fall into disrepair. You need to keep your tenants safe, stay in compliance with local building codes and, of course, try to minimize heating and cooling costs.

The trick is finding the right contractors to maintain your apartment complex roof, and ensuring the job is then done right. Following these best practices from our Laurentian Roofing team will help make this possible.

Four Key Practices When Hiring Contractors to Maintain or Repair Your Apartment Complex Roof

1. Do your homework ahead of time.

The more research you can do beforehand, the better. Look into the work history of any contractors you might be considering. Whenever possible, get referrals and speak directly to those who've worked with the contractor before. Also, do some research on your own roof and roofing solutions used on similar buildings, so you aren't at an information disadvantage?

2. Know when to listen to expert advice.

There can be a fine line between advice and upselling, but in general, be willing to listen to your contractor. If they want to add features or improvements, ask for their reasoning. Do more research, if it seems necessary, to see if their advice seems reasonable.

3. Maintain lines of communication.

There always needs to be strong communication between you, your contractor(s), and the residents. While the goal is to do maintenance without interfering with residents at all, this may not always be possible. Make certain your residents are aware of the current situation, and have plenty of warning if there will be intrusions into their lives.

4. Build a relationship with good contractors.

Once the work is done, if you're happy with it, don't let the relationship end there. A contractor who installs a roof will always be the best fit for long-term maintenance and repairs on it. You'll rarely benefit from shopping around, if you've already found a good contractor.