Rooftop Equipment Leaks in Providence, RI

The Leaks That Start at the Equipment, Not the Membrane

Most of the leaks we get called for on commercial roofs are not failures of the membrane out in the open field. They start where something is mounted on the roof or pokes through it: an HVAC unit on a curb, a refrigerant line, a vent stack, an exhaust fan, a gas line, an antenna mast. Every one of those is a hole in an otherwise watertight surface that depends entirely on its flashing and sealant to stay dry. Those details age faster than the membrane around them, they get disturbed every time a technician services the unit, and they are the first place water finds a way in. We repair rooftop equipment leaks on commercial and industrial buildings across the state, and most of the time the membrane itself is fine.

What makes these leaks frustrating for an owner is that the water rarely shows up under the unit. It enters at the curb or penetration, runs under the membrane, and surfaces at a ceiling stain somewhere else entirely. People chase the stain, find nothing wrong overhead, and the leak comes back with the next rain. Tracing it to the actual equipment penetration is half the job.

Where Equipment Leaks Actually Come From

HVAC and RTU Curbs

A rooftop unit sits on a curb, and the membrane flashes up the sides of that curb to seal it. Over time the curb flashing cracks, the termination bar loosens, the sealant at the top dries out and pulls away, or the unit gets replaced and the new one does not match the old curb. Any of those lets water run down behind the flashing and into the deck. On older buildings we frequently find units that have been swapped over the years with the curb detail never properly redone.

Pipe and Conduit Penetrations

Pipe boots and pitch pans seal where lines pass through the roof. Boots split and harden in the cold, and pitch pans dry out and crack as the filler shrinks, opening a direct channel straight down the pipe into the assembly. These are small details that fail quietly and leak steadily.

Condensate and Drainage Failures

An air conditioning unit produces condensate, and that water has to get off the roof. When a condensate line is clogged, disconnected, or dumping onto the membrane instead of into a drain, it creates a constant wet spot that breaks down the surface and ponds against the curb. This is a leak that has nothing to do with rain and runs all cooling season.

Service Traffic Damage

Equipment gets serviced, and the technicians who service it walk the roof, drag tools and parts across the membrane, and set heavy components down on the surface. Dropped tools puncture the membrane, foot traffic wears the same paths to failure, and panels get set down on flashings and crack them. The damage clusters around the equipment because that is where the people are.

Why This Hits Rhode Island Buildings Hard

The climate works against every one of these details. Nor'easters drive rain sideways and under flashing that would shed an ordinary rain with no trouble, finding the weakness at a curb or a pitch pan that looked fine in fair weather. The freeze-thaw cycle is brutal on sealants and rubber boots, expanding and contracting them through hundreds of cycles a winter until they crack and pull loose. Heavy snow load piles drifts against the upwind side of every rooftop unit, and when that snow melts it pools at the curb and is forced under the flashing exactly where the detail is most vulnerable.

The building stock concentrates the problem too. The converted textile mills across Pawtucket, Woonsocket, and West Warwick often carry rooftop HVAC that was added long after the original construction, mounted on curbs cut into roofs that were never designed for them. The large industrial buildings around the Quonset Business Park run dense arrays of rooftop equipment over big decks, which means a high count of penetrations and a lot of service traffic. On the coast, around Newport, Aquidneck Island, and South County, salt-laden air corrodes the fasteners and metal in every curb and termination bar, loosening details that depend on metal to hold.

How We Repair Them

We start by finding the real source, not the symptom. We inspect every curb, penetration, and unit on the roof, look for the entry point that explains the interior stain, and often run a water test or a moisture scan around the equipment to confirm we have the right detail before we seal anything. Then we make the repair correctly:

• Rebuilt curb flashing. Stripping back the failed flashing, resetting the termination bar, and re-flashing the curb with compatible membrane so the unit is sealed properly rather than caulked over.
• New pipe boots and pitch pans. Replacing split boots and failed pitch pans with sound details, and converting troublesome pitch pans to better penetration seals where the situation allows.
• Condensate correction. Reconnecting and rerouting condensate so it discharges into a drain instead of onto the membrane, and clearing the chronic wet spot it created.
• Traffic protection. Adding walkway pads on the service routes to the equipment so the foot traffic that caused the damage does not just cause it again.
• Membrane repair around the unit. Patching punctures and worn areas near the equipment with compatible material so the field around the penetration is sound, not just the penetration itself.

Coordinating Around Live Equipment

The equipment we are working around is usually keeping a building comfortable or a process running, so we coordinate the repair to avoid shutting it down unnecessarily. Where a repair does require a unit to be off or lifted, we schedule it with the building's mechanical contractor and the facility so the disruption is planned, brief, and on terms that work for the people inside.

Statewide Coverage

We repair rooftop equipment leaks on commercial roofs throughout Rhode Island, across all 39 cities and towns. From the mill conversions of the Blackstone Valley to the equipment-heavy industrial roofs at Quonset, from downtown Providence and the hospital district to the coastal buildings of Newport and South County, we cover the entire state. If a unit on your roof is leaking and the membrane around it looks fine, the detail at the equipment is almost always the answer, and that is exactly the work we do.