Commercial roof inspections, replacements, and maintenance for the Five Points South mixed-use corridor - restaurant and retail buildings, the Highlands area, and the Cahaba Road commercial strip near UAB. Roof visits in this area are coordinated around building hours, access points, tenant needs, parking, and weather exposure.
Building Types and Roof Conditions in Five Points South
1920s and 1930s masonry commercial buildings: The blocks immediately around the Five Points fountain — including the Highlands Bar and Grill block and the buildings along 20th Street South — are masonry construction with parapet walls, minimal slope, and original roof systems that have been recovered multiple times. The honest scope on these buildings starts with a core pull to understand what is actually under the surface before we specify anything. We have found tar-and-gravel under two layers of modified bitumen under a TPO recover on buildings in this district.
1950s to 1970s commercial strip buildings: The Cahaba Road commercial corridor and the 11th Avenue South strip running toward UAB are predominantly single-story masonry and concrete block from the postwar commercial buildout. Most of these roofs are running original or first-recover modified bitumen systems that are 20 to 35 years old. The failure mode is ponding water — the original drains were undersized for current Alabama storm-event drainage requirements, and 30 years of debris accumulation has made the drainage situation worse.
Adaptive reuse and renovation projects: The restaurant and hospitality buildings that opened along the Five Points South corridor in the 2015 to 2024 window are often renovated versions of older structures. The renovating contractor typically installed new TPO or modified bitumen at the time of renovation — but the quality of those installations varies, and the manufacturer warranty documentation from a renovation project is often incomplete. We inspect these buildings against the original installation documentation and identify gaps before the warranty lapses.
UAB edge buildings: The commercial buildings between Five Points South and the UAB campus proper — along 9th Avenue South and the blocks approaching the UAB Administration Building — are in a mixed commercial-institutional zone. Some of these buildings are owned by UAB Health or managed by university-adjacent organizations that require the same compliance coordination as UAB's main campus facilities.
Restaurant and Food-Service Roof Maintenance
Food-service buildings in the Five Points South corridor create a specific maintenance demand that general commercial roofing does not address. Kitchen exhaust from restaurants and bars deposits grease on the membrane and into the drain system at every exhaust termination. TPO and EPDM membranes are damaged by sustained grease contact — the plasticizer migration and UV degradation accelerate, and the grease contamination creates a zone around each exhaust cap that is not cleanable in the field once it is embedded in the membrane surface.
The solution is not reactive cleaning — it is proactive management: exhaust penetrations sealed with manufacturer-spec collars and grease-rated boots, a documented inspection on a semi-annual schedule (more frequent for high-volume kitchens), and a drain cleaning protocol that keeps grease out of the drain stack below the roof surface. We include a grease management plan in every maintenance contract for Five Points South food-service buildings.
Fire hazard at exhaust penetrations is the other dimension. Grease accumulation in the horizontal ductwork between the exhaust fan and the roof penetration can ignite. Our inspection protocol includes a visual inspection of the rooftop portion of all exhaust ductwork for grease buildup and documents what we observe. We do not do duct cleaning — that is a separate scope — but we flag conditions that constitute a fire risk.
Frequently asked questions
How do you handle roof work on an active restaurant in Five Points South?
We schedule production around service hours. For dinner-service restaurants, we run roofing production 7 AM to 2 PM and clear the roof before evening prep begins. Odor-sensitive work — adhesive application, modified bitumen torch work — is scheduled for early morning with advance notice to the tenant so kitchen ventilation can be adjusted. We deliver a pre-construction schedule to building management and the tenant before mobilization.
How often do restaurants in Five Points South need their roofs inspected?
Semi-annual inspection minimum for any food-service building — one inspection aligned to post-winter-storm-season (April) and one aligned to post-hurricane-season (November). High-volume kitchens with heavy exhaust output should be on quarterly inspection for the exhaust penetration zones specifically. Most manufacturers require documented annual inspection to maintain the NDL warranty; we recommend going beyond that minimum for food-service occupancies.
What is the typical roof system on the older Five Points South buildings?
The pre-1940 masonry buildings typically have multiple layers of built-up roofing or modified bitumen under whatever was most recently installed. The first step on any of these buildings is core pulls — we pull representative cores in five to ten locations to document what is under the surface before we specify a scope. That scan determines whether recovery is viable or whether the existing system has to come off.
Do you work on buildings along the UAB campus edge?
Yes. Buildings in the UAB corridor — including those managed by UAB Health or the University of Alabama System — may require coordination with UAB Facilities Management. We have done this work on the UAB campus and know the hot-work permit requirements and ICRA protocols that UAB-adjacent buildings follow.
