Chicago Flat Roofs works with property management companies across Chicagoland, in Cook, DuPage, Will, and Kane counties, on the flat roofs of the commercial, industrial, and multifamily buildings they manage. What we hand you is built for your job, not ours: written, itemized scopes you can attach to an owner report unedited, bids structured for clean side-by-side comparison, core samples up front so change orders stay rare, and one consistent process across every property you manage. TPO, EPDM, and modified bitumen, installations and full replacements only.
You answer to owners. Your paperwork is your credibility.
A property manager never spends their own money. Every roof recommendation you make travels up to an owner, an asset manager, or a board, and it travels as a document. Which means your roofing contractor’s paperwork is your paperwork. A verbal quote and a one-line proposal make you look like you did not do the work. Our deliverable is the opposite: an itemized scope by email covering system options, insulation spec, tear-off versus recover determination with the core sample data attached, schedule, and warranty terms. Managers forward it to ownership as-is. It answers the questions the owner was going to ask you, before they ask.
Bids you can actually compare
When ownership wants three bids, your problem is not getting three numbers. It is getting three numbers that describe the same roof. One bidder prices 60-mil membrane and an insulation “allowance,” another prices 80-mil to code R-value, and the totals are meaningless next to each other. Our bids state the membrane, the thickness, the attachment method, the R-value, and unit pricing for wet material found at tear-off, line by line. Put ours in the tabulation and it defines the columns. If your owner runs a formal process, we respond through it: see our RFP page. And if the scope is honestly not ours, repairs, coatings, a system we do not install, we tell you in one email so you can move on. Wasting a manager’s week is how contractors lose managers.
The change-order problem, and why ours are rare
Nothing burns a property manager like calling the owner mid-project to ask for more money. Most roofing change orders are not bad luck; they are bids that skipped the investigation. The contractor who never cored the roof “discovers” wet insulation at tear-off and prices it at whatever the moment allows. Our process is designed against exactly this. Core samples come before the bid, so moisture is found before it is a surprise. Wet-material replacement carries a stated unit price and an estimated quantity in the original scope. Edge metal, flashings, and drains are line items, not assumptions. When something genuinely unforeseeable turns up, it comes to you in writing with photos, the same day, priced at the unit rates you already have. You are never negotiating on the phone with a crane on the clock.
When the 2 a.m. leak call comes in
Every manager knows the call: water through the ceiling of a tenant space, photos already in your inbox, owner asking what it will cost before you have seen the roof. Two honest things about where we fit. We are an installation and replacement company; we do not run a patch crew, and we will not pretend to. What we do fast is diagnosis in writing: an estimator on the roof within 48 hours, cores if the insulation is suspect, and an emailed report that tells you and your owner whether this is a patchable roof or a roof that has started dying. Because we do not sell repairs, the report has no thumb on the scale in either direction. Managers keep it in the file either way; when the same building leaks again next spring, the recommendation you made is already documented. For the immediate triage steps to give your tenant while water is still coming in, our flat roof leak page lays out the first four moves.
One process across your whole book
Most management firms run buildings scattered across Chicagoland: a flex property near Chicagoland, retail in Lombard, a warehouse off I-55. Using a different roofer in every suburb means a different process, a different paper standard, and a different argument every time. We cover all four counties with the same crews and the same document standard, so your fifth building runs like your first. Managers who bring us multiple properties typically start with assessments across the book: every roof walked, cored, and scored in writing, so you can tell each owner where their building sits and when its roof will realistically need capital. That single move converts you from the manager who reports leaks into the manager who saw them coming. For flat-roof condo and apartment buildings specifically, our condo association page covers the board dynamics.
How to start
Submit the form with the property address and what prompted the look, a leak, a tenant complaint, an owner question, or a reserve item coming due. An estimator is on the roof within 48 hours. You get the itemized scope by email, formatted to forward. No sales calls to you, and, worth saying plainly, none to your owner either. We do not go around managers. You brought us in; the paper trail runs through you. That is how a roofer keeps a management relationship for a decade, and a decade is exactly what we are after.
Get a Written Scope for a Managed Property
On-site roof assessment within 48 hours. Itemized scope by email.
Licensed • Insured • 20+ Years of Commercial Roofing
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I send your proposal directly to my property owner without rewriting it?
That is what it is built for. The scope arrives as a clean itemized document: system options, insulation spec, core sample findings, schedule, and warranty terms, with photos. Managers attach it to owner reports unedited. It is written to answer an owner's likely questions in advance, which shortens your approval cycle and makes the recommendation look as thorough as it actually is.
How do you keep change orders from blowing up a roofing project budget?
By doing the investigation before the bid instead of during the tear-off. Core samples find wet insulation up front, and the original scope carries stated unit pricing plus an estimated quantity for any additional wet material. Edge metal, flashings, and drains are line items from day one. True surprises come to you in writing with photos the same day, priced at rates you already agreed to.
Do you work with management companies across multiple properties?
Yes, and it is the arrangement we like best. Same crews, same document standard, and one process across Cook, DuPage, Will, and Kane counties. Most multi-property relationships start with written assessments across the portfolio, so every owner gets a condition report and you get a realistic capital timeline for each building instead of a string of emergencies.