Evansville sits at the crossing of I-64 and I-69, close enough to the Ohio River that freight moving through this region tends to touch a distribution building somewhere near town. Those buildings run around the clock, and a roof project has to fit into that rhythm, not fight it.
Distribution centers price downtime differently than most other building types. A leak over a picking aisle or a conveyor line doesn't just mean water damage, it means a shutdown that ripples into shipping deadlines. Before we talk membrane type or budget on a distribution building, we talk about how the work gets phased so the building keeps operating underneath us.
That usually means breaking a large roof into sections tied to the building's internal layout, working over dock areas and staging zones on a schedule the operations team signs off on, and keeping enough dry-in material on hand that no section sits open overnight if weather turns. We build that phasing plan with the site's shipping manager, not only the facilities contact, because the two often see the building's daily rhythm differently.
Mechanically attached TPO is the system we lean on for distribution center re-roofs because installation moves quickly across a large open field and the membrane doesn't need the cure time that fully adhered systems sometimes do. On buildings where the existing roof still has serviceable insulation, a recover system can cut project time further, as long as the moisture survey comes back clean.
We run infrared moisture scans before quoting any distribution center re-roof. Trapped moisture under an old membrane is common on buildings that have gone through multiple small patch repairs over the years, and finding it before demo starts changes both the price and the schedule in ways nobody wants to discover mid-project.
Larger distribution buildings in this market increasingly carry rooftop solar arrays, refrigeration units for cold-chain space, and dense HVAC layouts to condition office and break areas built into the warehouse shell. Each of those systems adds structured load and penetrations that need to be planned around the roof's drainage, not only bolted on wherever is convenient.
We coordinate directly with electrical and mechanical trades doing rooftop installs so our flashing details match their equipment layout before anything gets set, rather than flashing around equipment after the fact. That coordination meeting is a short one, but skipping it is where most rooftop equipment conflicts on distribution buildings actually start.
Distribution buildings with refrigerated or cold-chain space built into part of the warehouse carry a very different roof assembly requirement over that section than the ambient-temperature portion of the same building. Vapor barrier placement matters more here, since the temperature differential between refrigerated space below and outside air above can drive condensation into the insulation if the assembly isn't built correctly.
We treat the roof over cold-chain space as its own zone on any distribution center project, checking vapor barrier continuity and insulation R-value separately from the ambient warehouse roof next to it, because a leak or condensation problem in that section behaves differently and gets found differently than a standard warehouse leak.
Distribution centers typically run tight trailer staging in the yard around the building, which changes how we plan crane placement, material staging, and dumpster location for a re-roof project. We walk the yard with the facility's logistics team before finalizing a project plan so equipment staging doesn't interfere with trailer movement during active shipping hours.
Overhead crane or lift access near loading dock canopies needs particular care on a distribution building, since the canopy roofline is lower and closer to active truck traffic than the main roof field, and we treat that zone as a distinct access and safety plan.
Yes, on almost every project we phase the work by section so the building stays operational, coordinating directly with your operations team on which zones can go down and when.
We keep enough dry-in material on site to close any open section before a forecasted storm, and we track weather daily during active tear-off, not only at project start.
We can, depending on the building's operating pattern. Loud demo work is often better suited to whatever window the facility runs lightest, even if that's overnight.
Aging penetrations around conveyor bridge supports and HVAC curbs that were flashed adequately at install but never re-sealed as the membrane aged around them.
It depends on the building's original design load. We coordinate with a structural engineer on any solar planning rather than guessing at roof capacity.