TPO Roofing in Queens, NY

TPO is the white flat roof. It's a single-ply membrane with seams that get welded together with hot air, and because it's white it bounces the summer sun off instead of cooking the room underneath. I'm Stavros Latos, owner of REVMA Roofing in Bayside, and on Queens rowhouses, extensions and top-floor apartments under a flat roof, TPO is the system I bring up when somebody tells me that room is unbearable in July.

What TPO Roofing Is and Where It Fits in Queens

TPO stands for thermoplastic polyolefin. In plain words it's a tough plastic-and-rubber blend rolled out in wide sheets. White is the color you see most, and it also comes in gray and tan if you'd rather not have a bright white roof next to your neighbor's.

You'll find TPO on a lot of commercial buildings, but it works just as well on a house. The rear roofs on attached homes, one-story extensions, porch roofs, garages and the flat sections behind a parapet are all good candidates, as long as the roof has a little pitch to the drain and we detail the edges right.

How a REVMA TPO Roof Goes On

Every TPO roof we do starts the same way any REVMA roof does: we strip it down to the deck and start from scratch.

• Tear-off. Old tar, roll roofing, rubber, whatever layers are up there all come off.
• Deck repair. Three to five sheets of plywood included, and you see pictures of any extra rot before it's replaced.
• Slope to the drain. Tapered insulation or crickets so water heads for the drain or scupper and doesn't pond.
• Insulation and cover board, fastened down so the membrane has a solid base.
• TPO membrane laid out and every seam hot-air welded, then probed so we know the weld took.
• Walls and parapets. The TPO runs up the wall, gets terminated and capped, and the party wall gets tied in so it can't leak into either house.
• Penetrations. Drains, scuppers, vents, hatches and skylights flashed one at a time.
• Metal edge or coping, then cleanup and a magnet sweep.

Hot-air welding uses an electric welder, not an open flame, which is one reason TPO works well on tight attached roofs where you don't want a torch next to old wood.

TPO vs EPDM vs Modified Bitumen

The reality is all three can give you a good roof, so the question is which one suits your building. TPO's strengths are the white surface that keeps the top floor cooler and seams that are welded instead of glued. EPDM rubber has been around the longest and is the easiest to patch years from now. Modified bitumen is the toughest underfoot, so if you've got an AC unit that gets serviced or you plan on walking up there a lot, that's usually my pick.

I'll tell you which one I'd put on your house and why, after I've seen the drains, the walls and how you use the roof. The overview of all three is on our flat roofing page.

Signs Your Flat Roof Is Ready for TPO

You're probably looking at a new flat roof if water sits on it two days after a rain, the old membrane is blistered or cracked, seams are open, the flashing at the parapet is pulling away, or there's a ceiling stain that keeps coming back after every patch. If the roof already has two or three layers of patches and coatings on it, another layer won't change anything, because the problem is underneath.

On an existing TPO roof, watch for seams separating, the membrane shrinking away from the walls, and punctures around equipment. Most of those come back to installation, which is why I care so much about the welds and the edges.

TPO Roof Cost in Queens

Flat roofs run about $900 to $1,400 a square installed in Queens, and a typical 8 to 12 square rowhouse rear roof comes in around $8,000 to $16,000. Where a TPO roof lands depends on how many layers come off, how much plywood is bad, how much tapered insulation it takes to get the water moving, and how much wall and drain work there is.

You get one written price, no three-price menu and no discount that shows up when you say you need to think about it. Because I don't carry big-company overhead, it usually comes in 25 to 35% less than the big companies for the same system, and if you have a written quote for the same roofing system from somebody else, I'll match it. More on what moves roof prices: how much a new roof costs in Queens.

TPO on Attached and Two-Family Homes

On attached houses the roof doesn't stop at your property line, it runs into the house next door. So we flash the party wall, tie the TPO into whatever your neighbor has, and talk to the neighbor before we start. On two-family homes and small buildings, the top-floor tenant is usually the one who feels the difference, because a white roof keeps that unit noticeably cooler in summer.

Where We Install TPO Roofs

We're based in Bayside and we work Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island, so the crew isn't driving in from three counties away. That includes Bayside, Whitestone, Flushing, Douglaston and Little Neck, plus Astoria, Jackson Heights, Corona and Jamaica.

TPO Roofing Questions