Commercial Roofing in Texas

Commercial roofing in Texas is shaped by an energy code that Oklahoma has not caught up to. Under 34 Texas Administrative Code § 19.53, the statewide commercial energy code has been the 2015 International Energy Conservation Code since November 1, 2016, with ASHRAE 90.1-2013 as an alternate compliance path. Oklahoma's statewide commercial baseline remains the 2006 IECC. That roughly decade-wide gap changes what can legally go on a Texas low-slope roof, and it is the first thing we scope against.

We work commercial roofs across the DFW metro and beyond — assessment, repair, recover and full replacement — with the same documentation discipline we bring to storm claims.

The 2015 IECC sets a cool-roof requirement in § C402.3 for low-slope roofs directly above conditioned space in Climate Zones 1 through 3. Dallas–Fort Worth sits in Climate Zone 3A, so it applies here. The roof surface must meet either a three-year-aged solar reflectance of at least 0.55 together with a three-year-aged thermal emittance of at least 0.75, or a three-year-aged Solar Reflectance Index of at least 64. Above-deck insulation in Climate Zones 2 and 3 is prescriptively R-25ci. Two cautions we raise on every bid: the code carries exceptions that can change the answer for a specific roof, and Dallas and Fort Worth have each moved on locally adopted codes newer than the state floor — so the statewide numbers are a minimum, not automatically the number your jurisdiction will enforce. We verify against the authority having jurisdiction before specifying.

The code regulates surface performance, not membrane chemistry, which is why the specification conversation usually collapses to how a system finishes. White TPO generally meets the reflectance and emittance thresholds off the shelf, which is why it dominates new Texas low-slope work. Modified bitumen generally does not comply on its own — it needs a reflective cap sheet or a qualifying coating to get there. Spray polyurethane foam complies when it is finished with a qualifying reflective coating; bare foam is not the compliant surface and was never meant to be left exposed. EPDM in black is a hard sell against a Climate Zone 3 cool-roof requirement. None of this makes one system universally right: deck condition, existing assembly, drainage, rooftop traffic and how long you intend to hold the building matter more than brand.

A recover over a sound existing assembly is meaningfully cheaper than a tear-off and can be the right answer when the deck is dry and the existing system is within its allowable number of layers. It is the wrong answer over saturated insulation, because you are paying to permanently bury a wet assembly that will keep degrading and will take the new membrane with it. We core-sample and use moisture survey findings to make that call on evidence rather than on which option we would rather sell. On the operating side, the reflectance requirement exists precisely because a dark low-slope roof in a market averaging 20 days a year at or above 100°F drives real cooling load — the energy math is part of the lifecycle case, not a throwaway line.

If your roof has serviceable years left and the problem is three flashing details and a clogged drain, the honest scope is repairs and a maintenance plan, not a capital project. If your building is mid-sale or mid-refinance, the timing of a roof project can matter as much as the roof. And if the damage is storm-related, the documentation sequence matters: photograph and report before anyone alters the evidence. We are a licensed general contractor, not a public adjuster, and Texas law prohibits us from adjusting a claim on a property we are also contracting — so what we produce is a thorough scope and photographic record you and your carrier can work from.