CityCentre Convention Center: 40,000 SF of Mod Bit in the Middle of a Busy District

The challenge

This roof sits surrounded on every side by occupied high-rise buildings, structured parking and pedestrian traffic. One thing worked in our favor: the lower parking lot gave us usable space to stage material and equipment close to the building, which is rare in a district this dense.

Noise was the harder constraint. Debris comes off a roof like this in 70-pound buckets, and that is not a quiet operation next to occupied towers and a venue running events, so the loud portions of the work had to be scheduled around what was happening below and around us.

The building is also an event venue. Its whole business is people being inside it on a schedule. And the deck was crowded — mechanical units, curbs and equipment supports across the full field, each one a penetration through the membrane.

What we did

We restored the existing modified bitumen roof in place with a fluid-applied system, which kept both the debris volume and the staging footprint down to something this district could absorb.

The work on a roof like this is in the details. Every curb, every unit, every support and every drain gets flashed into the system so the finished roof is one continuous surface with equipment sitting on it — rather than a field membrane with dozens of separate patches around dozens of separate penetrations.

Modified bitumen is a good substrate for this. What it loses with age is its granular surface — the granules that shield the asphalt below from UV wear away long before the membrane loses its structural integrity. Restoring it gives the owner the remaining life of the existing system plus a new reflective weathering surface over the top of it.

Why it matters

Less debris, no crane picks, no closures. For a venue in the middle of CityCentre, the logistics were as much of the value as the roof.

The reflective finish also helps a building that is working hard to condition a large open event space in Houston heat, with a lot of rooftop equipment doing that work.

One note on upkeep: a reflective roof only keeps saving energy while it stays clean. A white surface in Houston picks up dirt, so plan on washing the roof every four to five years to hold it at maximum reflectivity and efficiency.

Have a roof like this one?

Harvest restores commercial roofs across the Houston area — fluid-applied roofing and waterproofing over metal, single ply, modified bitumen and gravel-surfaced built-up systems. If your roof is aging and you want to know what it actually needs, we will come look at it.

Harvest · (281) 259-7099 · office@teamhis.com · harvestroofs.com