1. Article Body
Restaurant roofs are small by commercial standards and expensive per square foot. The area is not what drives the number.
Costs vary by market and building, so this explains the structure rather than quoting figures.
What drives the price
Membrane specification. PVC typically costs more than TPO per square foot and is frequently the correct specification because of grease exposure. That premium is real but it is not the largest line.
Grease contaminated substrate. Where grease has penetrated the existing assembly, contaminated material has to be removed rather than covered. This is the line that most often surprises owners and it cannot be quantified until the roof is open.
Equipment handling. Makeup air units, condensers, exhaust fans and the grease duct all need detaching and resetting, or working around. Restaurants carry a high equipment density for their size.
Curb work. Curbs too low to flash properly need raising. On an older restaurant this is common.
Drainage correction. Tapered insulation to remove ponding, and relocating condensate terminations.
Deck condition, discoverable only at tear off, and often worse under a chronically wet area.
The operating premium
Most restaurants cannot close, and the ones that can lose revenue for every closed day.
That means overnight work, phased work, or work in restricted dayparts. Each reduces productive hours, extends the schedule and raises the price.
Working above a kitchen raises food safety questions. Expect requirements around protection of food preparation areas, and expect the health authority or a franchise operator to have a view.
Access is usually poor. Restaurants sit in tight sites with customer parking, drive throughs and delivery bays, and staging a crane or dumpster displaces revenue generating space.
Where owners underspend
Reusing curbs that should be raised.
Declining to relocate condensate lines, which recreates the wet area on a new roof.
Skipping walkway pads, which is a small number that protects a large one.
Keeping a grease containment arrangement that failed on the last roof.
Where owners overspend
Replacing a roof whose only real problem is a contained grease zone that could be repaired and re detailed.
Specifying a premium system while leaving the equipment and condensate arrangements unchanged, which reproduces the same failure on a better membrane.
Comparing bids
Insist on a common written scope covering membrane type and thickness, grease contaminated substrate removal with a unit rate, equipment detach and reset, curb modifications, drainage correction, condensate relocation, walkway pads, phasing and hours, and protection of the kitchen below.
A bid well below the others on a restaurant is usually missing the grease remediation allowance or the equipment handling.
