Why can you not just look at the roof?

On a membrane roof the hail damage is mostly under the surface. The stone flexes the membrane and the energy crushes the insulation below, and the reinforcement inside the sheet can fracture without splitting through. The top surface is the layer the hail did least to, so a walk over describes the wrong thing.

What is a core cut and why does it matter?

A small disc cut through the roof assembly so the layers can be seen and photographed. It confirms the build up and the condition of the insulation at the point it is taken, which is the one thing no survey from the surface can do. It samples a point rather than the roof, so cores are read together with the moisture survey and the roof history. It is also a deliberate hole in your roof, which is why the warranty position is settled before any core is taken and every opening is closed by a documented method the warranty accepts.

Will a survey affect my membrane warranty?

It can, which is exactly why it is the first question rather than an afterthought. Warranties vary, and they commonly deal with who may work on the roof, what an alteration or a penetration requires, and whether the manufacturer has to be notified. Those answers are in your own warranty document, and we go through it with you before anything is cut.

Why does the infrared survey have to be at night?

Wet insulation holds heat longer than dry insulation, so the contrast between the two develops once the roof surface has cooled after sunset. The ASTM standard practice for infrared roof moisture surveys is a night time method for that reason. Cloud, wind and a wet or dirty surface can all make a given night unworkable, so it is worth knowing before a date is agreed that the survey may have to move.

What does a commercial hail repair cost in Baton Rouge?

It follows the assembly, the area the cores show is actually affected, and what has to be done to make the repair meet code. This page quotes no square foot rate on purpose, because a rate quoted before the cores are read is a guess wearing a number. The parish permit fee is set on the declared value of the work and is itemised separately.

Does a commercial hail repair need a permit here?

Roof construction and reroofing are permitted and inspected under La. R.S. 37:3737(I), and East Baton Rouge issues it, unless the address sits in St. George, Baker, Zachary or Central. Whether a particular repair scope is caught depends on what is being done, so we confirm the position with the parish rather than assuming it.

What should I do before anyone comes out?

Find the roof warranty document and the original roof specification if you have them, and note the date of the storm. Avoid any sweeping, clearing or permanent patching that is not necessary: on an aggregate roof in particular, clearing the surface changes the evidence, and a patched impact is a question that can no longer be answered. If water is coming into the building, that comes first. Make it safe, and photograph the area before, during and after whatever gets done.

Will you deal with my insurer?

We will give you and your insurer the factual findings: the survey, the marked plan, the core photographs and a priced scope. What we will not do is interpret your policy, advise you on cover or adjust the claim on your behalf, because Louisiana law restricts a roofing contractor from doing those things. A contractor offering to handle the claim for you is offering something they should not.

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Commercial Hail Damage Repair in Baton Rouge, LA

Big Easy Roofing surveys and repairs hail damaged commercial roofs across Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish. On a membrane roof the hail damage is usually not the part you can see, which is why this page is about how the extent gets established rather than about what the surface looks like.

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Service

City

Cores and infraredHow extent is established

East Baton RougePermits the work

Set on valuationHow the fee works

After sunsetThe infrared window

Baton Rouge commercial hail damage at a glance

Hail on a membrane roof does its damage to the insulation and the reinforcement under the surface, so a walk over establishes very little. Extent is established by cutting cores and mapping moisture, and both of those have consequences worth settling before anybody starts.

How extent is established

Cores and moisture mapping

A core shows the build up and the condition of the insulation at the point it is taken. A moisture survey identifies the areas reading consistently with retained moisture, which cores then confirm. Neither is visible from the surface, and neither on its own settles what caused it. Call Big Easy Roofing on (504) 800-8196.

Who permits the work

East Baton Rouge Parish

Roof construction and reroofing on a commercial building are permitted and inspected through Permits and Inspections, or by St. George, Baker, Zachary or Central if the address sits there. Whether a limited repair is caught depends on the scope, so we confirm it rather than assume it.

Which code applies

IBC Chapter 15

A commercial building is not a dwelling, so the roofing provisions that apply are those of the International Building Code rather than the residential code. That matters on a repair because it decides what the replacement assembly has to achieve.

How the fee is set

On valuation

The parish sets the permit fee from the declared value of the work rather than from a roofing rate, so the fee follows the scope. We itemise it separately on the quote rather than absorbing it into a square foot price.

The infrared window

After sunset

Wet insulation holds heat longer than dry insulation, so the contrast develops once the roof surface has cooled. The ASTM standard practice for this survey is a night time method, and whether a given night works depends on cloud, wind and surface conditions.

The part that gets left out

A core is a penetration

Cutting a core means cutting through a membrane that is often still under warranty. The warranty position is settled first, and every opening is closed by a documented, compatible repair that satisfies whatever that warranty requires. A survey that skips both is not free, it is deferred.

On a shingle roof hail leaves a mark you can find, count and photograph. On many membrane assemblies it does not. The stone strikes the surface, the membrane flexes, and the energy goes into the insulation underneath, which crushes. The membrane can look almost untouched while the board below it has lost its compressive strength, and the reinforcement inside the sheet can be fractured without splitting through. Profiled and standing seam metal is the exception, because there the surface does tell you something.

That is why a commercial hail assessment is a different job from a residential one rather than a bigger version of it. What is being looked for is under the surface, so the survey has to go under the surface: cores to see the layers, and moisture mapping to find where water has already travelled. A report built from a walk over and a set of photographs of the top surface describes the one layer the hail did least to.

What hail does to each commercial assembly

Hail behaves differently on each of these, and how severely depends on the stone size, the age and thickness of the covering and what sits under it. The column that matters is the third one, because on several of these the surface can read as sound while the assembly underneath has taken the impact.

Assembly	What hail can do to it	What a walk over shows	How extent is established
Single ply, TPO or PVC	Fracture the reinforcement, or crush the insulation below, and sometimes puncture	Sometimes very little	Cores read with a moisture survey
EPDM	Bruise or cut the sheet, and crush the board under it	Sometimes a visible bruise, sometimes nothing	Cores read with a moisture survey
Modified bitumen	Displace granules and fracture the cap sheet	Granule loss, which is real evidence but not the extent	Cores at the impacts
Built up with aggregate	Drive aggregate into the bitumen, though the aggregate can also absorb the impact	Little until the aggregate is swept back	Aggregate cleared, then cores
Standing seam or profiled metal	Dent the pans, and in some cases affect the fixings	The dents, which is the one assembly the surface does tell you about	Measured against the panel manufacturer criteria

No work prices are quoted on this page. A commercial hail repair is priced from the assembly, the area actually affected and what the cores find, and the parish fee is set on the declared value of the work. Call (504) 800-8196 and we will survey it and price the scope that comes out of the survey.

Code, permit and the warranty on the membrane

Three things have to line up before a commercial hail repair starts, and the third one is the one that gets discovered too late. The building code decides the assembly, the parish decides the permit, and the membrane manufacturer decides who may touch the roof.

The code that applies

IBC Chapter 15

Louisiana Act 239 of 2025 introduced the requirement, now carried at La. R.S. 37:3737(I), requiring parishes that issue construction permits to permit and inspect roof construction and reroofing. A commercial building sits under the International Building Code rather than the residential one, so that is where the roofing provisions come from.

How the parish charges for it

On declared value

East Baton Rouge sets the fee from the value of the work rather than from a roofing rate. A hail repair scope that grows after the cores are read moves the declared value, so the fee is confirmed against the final scope rather than the first estimate.

Before any core is cut

Check the warranty

A core cut is a deliberate hole in a membrane that may still be under a manufacturer warranty. Who is authorised to cut it, what closing it properly requires and whether the manufacturer has to be notified vary between warranties, and the answers are in your own warranty document. They get read before the knife comes out.

What we will not do

Interpret your policy

Louisiana law restricts a roofing contractor from interpreting cover or adjusting a claim for the insured. We survey the roof, describe what we find and price the work, and those findings are yours to give anybody. What they mean for a claim is a question for your insurer and your own adviser.

What a commercial hail survey report should contain

The location of every core on a marked plan, a photograph of each core face showing the layers, the moisture survey output with the method and the conditions it was taken in, and a statement of what was patched and to which manufacturer detail.

It should also say plainly what it did NOT establish. A survey that reads as though it found everything is less useful than one that names the areas it could not reach and the questions still open, because the second one tells you what to do next.

Why a free surface inspection is worth what it costs

A walk over and a set of photographs of the top surface is quick and usually free, and on several of the assemblies above it describes the layer that can show the least. It is not dishonest and it is not worthless. It is just not an extent survey.

The moment it matters is when somebody has to agree how much of the roof is affected. A marked plan, core photographs and a moisture map answer that with evidence. A set of surface photographs leaves it open to argument, and an open question on a commercial roof is rarely resolved in favour of the building owner.

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What happens next on a Baton Rouge flat roof

Crushed insulation does not announce itself, and this climate is unusually good at turning it into something worse before anybody notices it has happened. Three things decide how long a hail damaged commercial roof has before the damage stops being a roofing question and becomes a building one.

Water finds the crushed area and stays there

Insulation that has lost compressive strength under an impact sits slightly lower than the board around it, and on a low slope roof that is where water collects. The membrane over a low spot works harder than the membrane anywhere else on the roof.

That is why a moisture survey is worth more than a photograph of the surface. It shows where the assembly reads wet now, which is a different and more useful question than what the top of the roof looks like. What put the water there is then argued from the cores, the roof history and the surface evidence together.

Heat drives a bruise toward a split

A membrane with fractured reinforcement is still watertight until it is not. Daily heat cycling works on it, and a bruise that would sit quietly in a temperate climate has more movement to survive here.

The practical consequence is that a decision to defer is a decision with a clock on it. That is a reason to establish the extent while it can still be attributed to the storm, not a reason to panic.

Wet insulation is a thermal problem before it is a leak

Insulation that has taken water stops doing the job it was bought for long before anything appears on a ceiling. The building gets more expensive to run while the roof still looks like it is working.

For an owner or a facilities manager that is the argument for surveying properly: the loss has already started, it is simply not visible from inside yet.

Big Easy Roofing Process

Three steps, and the first one is paperwork rather than roofing, because it decides who is allowed to cut into your membrane at all.

A roofer taking a core sample through a single ply membrane roof

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Settle the warranty position first

What membrane is on the building, whether it is still under a manufacturer warranty, who that warranty permits to work on it, and what it requires when an opening is closed. That is established before anything is cut, and it is written down.

Survey after sunset, then core

The moisture survey once the roof surface has cooled, so wet insulation reads against dry, then cores taken at the anomalies and at control points away from them. Each core is photographed at its face and closed by a method the warranty accepts.

Write the scope from what the cores found

The affected area marked on a plan, the assembly documented layer by layer, the repair scope written against it, and the parish permit taken out on the declared value. Call (504) 800-8196 to arrange the survey.

Everything else we do in Baton Rouge

The rest of the Big Easy Roofing services available in Baton Rouge, each with its own page and written scope. Residential hail is a different job with a different method and has its own page, and routine commercial survey work sits under roof inspections.

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