Multi-Family & Property Management

Roofs are typically the largest single line on an exterior capital plan, and the difference between a funded reserve and an emergency draw is whether you knew the remaining useful life of each building before it failed. A portfolio walk that ranks every building by condition and remaining life turns roofing from an unpredictable event into a schedule: these four buildings this fiscal year, these six next, these eight held with maintenance.

That ranking is also what lets you make the restoration-versus-replacement call deliberately. On low-slope buildings, a coating restoration on a sound assembly can move a replacement several years down the calendar for a fraction of the capital, but only when the insulation underneath is dry — which is a question answered with core cuts or a scan, not a guess.

Most interior water claims in multi-family do not start as roof failures. They start as a clogged valley, a debris-packed gutter, a cracked pipe boot, a loose HVAC curb flashing, or a satellite mount someone screwed through a membrane. A quarterly maintenance plan catches those while they are a service item.

• Clearing valleys, gutters, downspouts, drains, and scuppers so water leaves the roof where it was designed to.
• Checking penetrations, pipe boots, curb flashings, and sealants at every rooftop unit.
• Inspecting seams and terminations on low-slope buildings and cap and ridge on pitched buildings.
• Documenting each building with dated photographs, so condition is tracked over time rather than remembered.
• Flagging third-party rooftop work — satellite dishes, solar, cable, HVAC service — that damaged the roof since the last visit.

Nobody moves out for a reroof. Work runs one building at a time so the disruption is contained and predictable: material staged off drive lanes and away from resident parking, dumpsters placed where they do not take fire lane or leasing-office frontage, breezeways and stairs kept clear, and magnet sweeps run over parking and walkways at the end of every day.

The scheduling constraints that actually matter are local ones — trash pickup days, school bus times, leasing tour traffic, and any building with a high concentration of night-shift residents. Getting those right is the difference between a reroof residents tolerate and a week of calls to the office.

Residents need to know three things ahead of time: which days their building is being worked, where they need to move their vehicles, and what hours the noise will run. Door hangers and posted notices with enough lead time, plus a reminder the day before, absorbs most of the complaint volume before it reaches your staff. Pet owners in particular need warning, and so does anyone with attic storage or ceiling-mounted fixtures, since tear-off shakes dust loose.

A roof leak that reached a ceiling leaves interior work behind it: drywall, texture, paint, and sometimes flooring or cabinet damage. Aligning that work with the unit-turn schedule means it happens in a vacant unit on a maintenance timeline instead of around a resident on an emergency one. On larger restoration and exterior renovation projects, the same coordination applies to siding, trim, paint, and balcony work.

After a hail or wind event, the sequence is tarp and secure, then document, then repair. Documentation is what protects the asset: photographs of every affected building and slope, damage tied to the storm date, and a scope your carrier can evaluate. Portfolio claims also carry structure a single-family claim does not — deductibles applied per building, coverage terms that vary by policy, and an adjuster who needs someone on the roof with them.

CMAC is a member of the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas and the Fort Worth Apartment Association, and works with owners, asset managers, and property management companies across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Georgia. The company is veteran-owned, GAF Master Elite® certified, a GAF President’s Club award winner, an NRCA member, and rated A+ by the Better Business Bureau.