Export Roofing
Lester’s Roofing & Carpentry works on roofs in Export and across the Murrysville and Delmont corridor in Westmoreland County. Most of what we do out this way is commercial and industrial: low-slope membrane roofs, metal roofs, restoration coatings, leak tracing and repairs. We handle residential work here too.
We are based in Rossiter, Indiana County, and we have been roofing in Pennsylvania for over 16 years. We are a certified Conklin Roofing Systems contractor and a registered Pennsylvania Home Improvement Contractor, HIC #PA042939.
Call 814-952-2469 for a free roof inspection in Export.
Roofing Services in Export
- Commercial roof leak repair. Tracing water back through a flat roof to the actual entry point, which on a low-slope roof can be a long way from the stain in the ceiling tile.
- Roof restoration and coating. Renewing a sound low-slope roof in place instead of tearing it off, where the deck and insulation allow it.
- Flat and low-slope roofing. EPDM, TPO and modified bitumen, plus the penetration and flashing details that surround them.
- Metal roof repair and coating. Fasteners, seams and flashing on industrial and agricultural buildings.
- Roof maintenance programs. Scheduled inspections, drain clearing and minor repairs, with the written records a warranty needs.
- Free roof inspections. On any building type.
Different Buildings to the Ones Up the Mountain
Export is a different roofing market to the Laurel Highlands towns we work in, and it is worth saying so plainly rather than pretending every job in Pennsylvania is the same.
At around 1,000 feet in the Turtle Creek valley, this corner of Westmoreland County gets noticeably less snow than Somerset or Cambria County does. Snow load is not usually the driving issue here.
What is different is the building stock. The Route 22 and Route 66 corridor through Export, Murrysville and Delmont is commercial: office units, medical and professional buildings, retail strips, light industrial and warehouse space, along with the service buildings supporting the gas industry that has been part of this area since the first commercial wells were drilled at Murrysville.
Almost all of those buildings have low-slope roofs. That changes what goes wrong.
On a Flat Roof, It Is Almost Never the Membrane
When a commercial roof leaks, the assumption is that the roof surface has worn out. Occasionally that is true. Far more often the membrane in the middle of the roof is in reasonable shape and the water is getting in somewhere else entirely.
Rooftop units. Every HVAC unit sits on a curb, and every curb has flashing running up it and a cap over the top. That detail is what fails: the sealant at the cap, the fasteners, the corners. Add the condensate line and the electrical and refrigerant penetrations coming through beside it, and a single rooftop unit can have half a dozen places for water to get in. Buildings with several units on the roof have most of their risk concentrated in a small part of the total area.
Anything else that comes through. Vent pipes, exhaust fans, conduit, skylights, hatches. Each one is a hole in an otherwise continuous surface, sealed by a detail that has a shorter life than the membrane around it.
The perimeter. Parapet walls, coping caps, the wall-to-roof transition, scuppers and the counterflashing above them. Wind loads are highest here, and so is movement, so this is where a membrane pulls away from its termination.
Drains and ponding. A low-slope roof only works if water leaves it. A blocked drain or a low spot that holds water for days puts constant load on seams that were designed to shed water, not hold it. Standing water also freezes, and freezing is what opens a seam.
Service traffic. On a building where technicians walk the roof to service equipment, the membrane gets punctured by dropped tools and screws, and worn along the routes people use. It is a common source of leaks and an easily preventable one.
The practical point for a building owner: before you accept a quote to replace a roof, it is worth knowing whether the membrane has genuinely failed or whether you have twelve failed details on an otherwise serviceable roof. Those are very different numbers.
Restoration Instead of Replacement
Where the membrane is sound and the insulation underneath is dry, a low-slope roof can often be restored rather than torn off. The details get repaired and reflashed properly, the whole surface is cleaned and prepared, and a fluid-applied coating system goes over the top to give a new seamless surface with no laps to fail.
For a working building this matters for reasons beyond cost. There is no tear-off, so there is no day when your roof is open to the weather, no dumpsters in your parking lot, and far less disruption for staff, tenants or customers underneath.
It is not always the right answer. If the insulation is saturated or the deck has deteriorated, coating over it just hides the problem, and we will say so. There is more on our roof restoration page.
Areas We Serve Around Export
We cover Export, Murrysville, Delmont, Slickville, Level Green, New Alexandria, Trafford, Irwin, Plum and Monroeville. Export is at the western end of our service area, which puts it within reach of Greensburg and Pittsburgh, where we also work.
Because this is a longer run from our base than our Cambria and Indiana County work, we are straightforward about scheduling: we plan jobs in the Westmoreland corridor together rather than making single trips. For a commercial roof that is rarely an issue, since the work is planned anyway. If you need something looked at, call and we will tell you honestly when we can be there.
Free Roof Inspections in Export
We provide free roof inspections on commercial buildings, industrial units, warehouses and homes throughout Export and the Murrysville corridor.
On a low-slope roof the inspection covers the membrane, every penetration and curb, the perimeter details, the drains and the condition of the insulation underneath. You get a written report with photographs and a price based on what we found, including an honest answer on whether the roof needs replacing or can be restored.
If you are budgeting for a roof, or a tenant has reported a leak, that is the point to book one.
Call 814-952-2469 or get in touch.
Your Local Export Roofing Company
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Export Roofing FAQs
The leak shows up twenty feet from the nearest rooftop unit. Is the unit still the cause?
Quite possibly. On a low-slope roof water gets through the surface and then travels sideways between the membrane and the deck, or along the top of the insulation, until it finds a joint or a fastener hole to drop through. Where it appears inside tells you very little about where it came in. This is why probing around the stain rarely finds anything, and why the inspection has to cover the whole roof rather than the area above the ceiling tile.
My roof ponds water after rain. Does it have to be fixed?
Water still sitting on a roof forty-eight hours after the rain stopped is worth dealing with. A little residual water in a low spot is normal on a low-slope roof. Persistent ponding is not, because it loads seams that were designed to shed water rather than hold it, it collects dirt and biological growth, and in winter it freezes and expands. The first thing to check is whether the drains and scuppers are actually clear, which is often all it is.
Can a commercial roof be coated instead of replaced?
Where the deck and structure are sound and the insulation is dry, usually yes, and the failed details get repaired first rather than coated over. Where a Conklin restoration system is suitable, it carries a 20-year non-prorated manufacturer warranty, with the option to renew for a further 20 years, subject to the system installed and its renewal requirements. Lester’s Roofing & Carpentry also provides its own 3-year contractor workmanship warranty.
Do we have to close while the work is done?
For a restoration, no. The work happens on top of an intact roof, so the building stays weathertight throughout and there is no tear-off, no open deck and no dumpster in the parking lot. A full replacement is more disruptive by nature, because sections of the roof are genuinely open while they are being rebuilt, and that gets planned around your operating hours and the weather.