Campus Roofing for Ann Arbor's University and College Buildings
The University of Michigan puts more roof area under one institutional umbrella than almost anything else in this market, and it does it with three very different campuses stitched together by shuttle routes and steam tunnels. Central Campus mixes century-old masonry buildings with mid-century flat-roofed additions bolted onto the back of them. North Campus is younger, denser with research and engineering buildings, and carries a different mechanical load on every roof. We treat each campus, and often each building, as its own roofing problem rather than applying one spec across the whole institution.
A Campus Built in Layers
Walk from the Diag out toward North Campus and the roof stock changes completely. Central Campus buildings often started as steep-slope structures with slate, tile, or standing seam, then picked up flat-roofed wings and additions as programs grew. Those transition points, where a pitched original roof meets a low-slope addition, are where we find the most persistent leaks: step flashing against parapet walls that was never detailed for the new membrane, or a coping cap that was reused instead of replaced. North Campus buildings, by contrast, were mostly built low-slope from the start, with large membrane fields over engineering labs, the Duderstadt Center, and Pierpont Commons-area buildings.
Because the building types vary so much, we don't assume a system before we've walked the roof. A research building with a heavy mechanical penthouse may call for a fully adhered TPO or PVC field with reinforced flashing at every curb. A smaller academic building with light rooftop equipment might be a strong candidate for EPDM or a silicone recover over sound existing substrate. The decision follows the building, not a standard package.
Working Around the Academic Calendar
A university does not close for a roofing project. Finals week, move-in weekend, commencement, and the start of fall term all carry hard deadlines that a construction schedule has to respect, and disrupting a classroom building or a residence hall dining area during the semester creates problems well beyond the roof. We sequence tear-off and dry-in in phases small enough to close out completely before a rain event, and we build the calendar backward from the dates the university actually cares about: no open roof sections during move-in week, no crane staging blocking a commencement route, no noise disruption during finals in an adjacent building.
Summer break is the obvious window for larger reroofing projects, but even then, summer session classes, camps, and conference housing keep parts of campus occupied. We coordinate laydown areas, crane placement, and material staging with campus planning and facilities well before the first tear-off cut, because access on a dense campus is often the hardest part of the job, harder than the membrane work itself.
Research Buildings Carry Their Own Load
Lab and research buildings on North Campus and around the Medical Campus carry rooftop equipment most office buildings never see: fume exhaust stacks, dedicated makeup-air units, chilled water piping runs, and backup generator enclosures. Every one of those is a penetration through the membrane, and every one is a place where fastening patterns and flashing detail matter more than the field membrane itself. We build curb flashing and pitch pockets to handle vibration and thermal movement from equipment that runs continuously, and we plan walkway pad placement around service routes technicians actually use, not around a generic layout.
- Fume exhaust and lab makeup-air curb flashing built for continuous vibration
- Reinforced membrane fields under crane-set mechanical equipment
- Coping and parapet transitions where historic masonry meets a flat addition
- Snow retention detailing on long roof runs feeding pedestrian walkways below
- Walkway pads routed to match actual technician service paths
- Drainage sized for large, unbroken North Campus roof fields
Historic Buildings Need a Different Approach
The oldest Central Campus buildings were never designed with a low-slope membrane in mind, and retrofitting one onto a masonry parapet built for a pitched roof takes a different eye than a standard commercial reroof. Coping caps, cornice details, and stone parapet walls all move differently than a modern curtain wall, and counterflashing has to be set into the masonry correctly or it fails within a few winters. We treat these transitions as their own scope, not an afterthought tacked onto the membrane bid, because a good field membrane behind bad wall flashing still leaks.
Where a historic roof section allows it, we look at silicone coating and recover options over sound built-up or modified bitumen substrate rather than a full tear-off, which limits disruption to a building that's often still fully occupied with classrooms and offices during the work.
Freeze-Thaw and Snow on Flat Institutional Roofs
Southeast Michigan winters put every flat campus roof through repeated freeze-thaw cycling, and on a building with dozens of penetrations, that cycling finds the weakest seam eventually. Snow load on long, unbroken roof runs across North Campus buildings needs drainage sized to actually clear meltwater during a January thaw, not only during a summer downpour, and we look hard at drain placement and secondary overflow scuppers before recommending any system. Ice damming at parapet walls and rooftop unit curbs is the most common winter failure point we see across the university's building stock, and it's almost always a fastening or flashing detail, not a membrane defect.
Questions Facilities Teams Ask
How do you schedule around an active academic calendar?
We build the construction schedule around the dates the university treats as fixed, finals, move-in, commencement, and phase the work into sections small enough to fully close out before weather turns, rather than leaving an open roof over an occupied building.
Can you work on historic buildings without full tear-off?
Often, yes. Where the existing built-up or modified bitumen substrate is sound, a silicone recover can extend the roof's life with far less disruption than a full replacement, though masonry parapet and coping details still need to be addressed correctly.
How do you handle roofs over active research equipment?
We build curb flashing and pitch pockets to tolerate continuous vibration from fume exhaust and makeup-air equipment, and we coordinate any shutdown windows directly with the lab's facilities contact rather than guessing at timing.
What membrane systems do you use on university buildings?
It depends on the building's mechanical load and use. Heavier equipment loads point toward fully adhered TPO or PVC with reinforced flashing; lighter-load academic buildings are often good candidates for EPDM or a coated recover system.
Do you coordinate directly with campus planning and facilities?
Yes. Laydown areas, crane staging, and access routes on a dense campus get worked out with facilities and campus planning before any tear-off begins, since access is usually the harder logistics problem on a campus this size.