TPO Roof Installation in the Lowcountry

60 mil is the right answer for most Lowcountry commercial buildings, it balances puncture resistance, weld quality, and price. 45 mil suits budget projects with short horizons; 80 mil earns its cost under heavy foot traffic or equipment.

Installed TPO typically runs $6 to $10 per square foot in our market, depending on insulation requirements, tear off versus overlay, and roof access. Code required insulation upgrades are the line item that surprises most building owners.

Often yes, code generally allows one recover over a dry, sound existing roof, saving tear off and disposal cost. We take core samples first; trapping a wet roof under new membrane is how recovers go wrong.

Hot air welded seams fuse the membrane into one monolithic sheet, stronger than the membrane itself, while glued seams are the historic failure point of single ply roofing. Every seam on our installs is probe tested after welding.

Reflective white TPO keeps the roof surface 40 to 60 degrees cooler than black membranes on a July afternoon, which measurably cuts AC load on conditioned buildings. It is the main reason TPO displaced dark EPDM in the Southeast.