How do I arrange roof access at an occupied commercial building?

You don’t have to figure it out ahead of time. That’s our job.

Whether you book a free Drone Check, order a Roof Report, or book Roof Service, a roofing specialist from our team calls you. They ask how to get onto your roof, and they pass everything on to the crew. By the time the crew pulls up, they already know where to go.

Most of the time you don’t even need to be there. Most flat roofs are reached from outside with a ladder, so there’s nothing to unlock. And when there is, someone on site can let the crew in, or you can just give us a door code and tell us where to go.

Why we call you instead of asking on a form

Because no two buildings are the same. One roof is a ladder climb from the parking lot. Another has a hatch at the top of a ladder in a janitor’s closet. Another needs a key from the front desk and a walk through someone’s office. A form that tried to cover all of that would be pages long, and it would still miss whatever’s odd about your building.

A person on the phone can just ask. So that’s what we do. If you’re not sure how anyone gets onto your roof, that’s completely fine. Tell the specialist, and they’ll help you work out who knows, whether that’s a maintenance person, a building engineer, or the last roofer who was up there.

For a Drone Check, the call comes within one business day of booking. For Roof Service, it comes within 2 hours of booking.

You usually don’t have to be there

If the roof is reached from outside, nobody needs to be on site at all. The crew shows up, puts up a ladder, and gets to work.

If something is locked, there are plenty of ways around it. A maintenance person or a tenant can meet the crew and open the door, and they don’t have to stick around once the crew is in. You can give us the code to the door or a lockbox. Or you can just describe the way in, the way you’d explain it to a new employee on their first day. Whatever is easiest for you works for us.

If the way up is inside the building

Some roofs can only be reached from inside, through a hatch in the ceiling or a stairwell that comes out on the roof. If that’s your building, we need to get through the inside too, not just onto the property. Mention it on the call, along with anything that’s locked on the way there, like a back door or a mechanical room.

A beige metal penthouse on a wet flat roof with a steel door and a lever handle. A parapet, a vent pipe, and a yellow gas line run along the roof behind it. — The top of a stairwell, seen from the roof. To come out this door, the crew first has to get into the building, find the stairwell, and get through whatever is locked on the way.

The same goes for tenants. Usually the crew is up on the roof and nobody downstairs notices much. But if the way up runs through someone’s space, or the crew needs to see a leak from inside a tenant’s unit, let the specialist know. They’ll pick a time with you that works around it, and you can pass that time along to the tenant.

Common questions

Do I have to be at the building?

Usually not. If the roof is reached from outside, nobody needs to be there. If it isn’t, a code, directions, or someone to open the door is enough.

What if nobody’s there to let the crew in?

If the technician can’t get onto the roof, there’s a trip fee. That’s why the specialist goes over access with you before the visit, so it doesn’t come to that.

What if water is coming in right now?

Book Roof Service and pick up when we call. Getting onto the roof is something we sort out together on that call. While you wait, What photos should I send a roofer about a leak? covers what’s useful to grab.