Built Up Roofs

A Proven Track Record

Built-Up Roofing is one of the oldest and most reliable ways of installing a new roof. It was first known as composition roofing and started in the 1840’s. Over the years, Built Up Roofing has earned a great reputation with commercial building owners, industrial roof managers, architects, and engineers.

Each ply of a built up hot tar, tar and gravel and tar and cap sheet roof system contains a mat of glass fiber reinforcement. When multiple plies are combined and sandwiched between layers of water resistant asphalt, the result is a dependable roof.

Built Up roofs, a continuous, semi-flexible multi-ply roof membrane, consisting of plies or layers of saturated felts, coated felts, fabrics, or mats between which alternate layers of bitumen are applied. Generally, built-up roof membranes are surfaced with mineral aggregate and bitumen, a liquid-applied coating, or a granule-surfaced cap sheet. The choice to cover with rock or coat with a variety of cool roof product is also available.

Built-up roofing (”B.U.R.”) has long been considered the traditional roofing material in the United States. The multi-ply configuration provides additional layers of protection against moisture penetration along with somewhat of a self-sealing property during warm weather. In a B.U.R., the felts act as reinforcement for the thin layers of waterproofing bitumen (asphalt or coal tar pitch). The system is typically surfaced with aggregate set in a flood coat of bitumen for purposes of ultra violet ray, severe weather, and impact protection.

B.U.R. systems are durable, long lasting, and relatively resistant to construction and post construction traffic. They are appropriate for both new and replacement roofing.