7,000 Sq Ft New Foam Roof & 4 Custom Skylights — PBF Manufacturing, Phoenix
An aging silver-coated cap-sheet roof on a 7,000 square foot Phoenix warehouse had run out of runway. PBF Manufacturing tore off the failing membrane, installed a brand-new spray polyurethane foam roof system across the entire roof, and dropped in 4 new custom-framed skylights — replacing the old fiberglass panels that had yellowed and cracked with a modern, watertight daylighting layout.
The ChallengeAn aging cap-sheet roof and 4 leaking skylights on a Phoenix warehouse
PBF Manufacturing operates a 7,000 square foot warehouse building in Phoenix — the kind of older, character-heavy commercial building that makes up a huge portion of the Phoenix industrial and manufacturing corridor. The roof was an aged silver-coated cap-sheet / modified bitumen system that had aluminum-coated its way through years of Arizona sun until the coating had thinned, the seams had started to open, and the field of the roof was patched and re-patched from a decade of monsoon repairs.
The bigger problem was the skylights. The original fiberglass daylighting panels had yellowed, cracked, and started to weep water at the curbs during every monsoon storm. Fiberglass skylight panels have a real lifespan in Phoenix — the UV load hammers them, and once they start to craze and crack, no amount of caulk fixes the underlying issue. The building's ownership was tired of patching the same skylights every August.
PBF made the smart call: instead of one more round of surface repairs on a tired roof, they'd invest in a proper new foam roof system, and they'd redo the skylights right — 4 brand-new custom-framed units, laid out in two neat rows of two down the length of the warehouse to maximize the daylight in the workspace below.
Two side notes on the site: the warehouse sits between a taller adjacent building with its own parapet and a public street, so all staging had to happen from the street-side alley and the small pad at the front of the building. And this being Phoenix, the entire scope had to be sequenced around monsoon season — you can't leave a torn-off roof open when the afternoon storms roll in.
What We FoundBefore: worn cap-sheet, cracked fiberglass skylights, tired penetrations
The ScopeNew spray polyurethane foam roof plus 4 custom skylights
Unlike a recoat — which keeps the existing substrate and just adds a new topcoat — this was a full new foam roof system. The old cap-sheet came off. The deck was prepped and inspected. Fresh spray polyurethane foam was installed across the entire 7,000 sq ft, tapered to positive drainage, and then locked in with a full elastomeric coating stack. And 4 new custom-framed skylights replaced the old fiberglass panels in a proper two-row-of-two layout.
Project scope of work
- Full tear-off of the existing cap-sheet / modified bitumen system down to the structural deck, with debris hauled off site the same day
- Deck inspection and prep — every square foot of the substrate walked and inspected before any new foam was sprayed
- Removal of the 4 old fiberglass skylight panels and evaluation of the existing curbs for reuse or replacement
- 4 new custom-framed skylights installed — laid out in two neat rows of two down the length of the warehouse to maximize interior daylight over the work floor
- Full new spray polyurethane foam roof system across the entire 7,000 sq ft — tapered to positive drainage, sprayed to a uniform mil thickness, seamless and monolithic from parapet to parapet
- Full elastomeric coating stack over the fresh foam — base coat sealed and primed, top coat built the protective film thickness that gives the system its UV protection and its bright reflective white color
- Penetration detailing: every vent stack, exhaust penetration, and skylight curb primed and sealed with mastic and reinforcing fabric before final coat
- Parapet and edge metal: transitions treated with elastomeric mastic and reinforcing fabric where the new foam terminated at existing brick parapets
- Monsoon sequencing: the tear-off and new foam install were sequenced to avoid ever leaving the building exposed to a monsoon storm — every day ended with the roof in a watertight condition
- Final walkthrough with the owner and photo documentation before warranty was issued
The ResultA brand-new, seamless, monolithic foam roof with modern daylighting
The finished roof is a full step change from what we started with. The old cap-sheet, the seams, the patches, and the yellowed fiberglass panels are gone. In their place is a bright, uniform, seamless spray polyurethane foam roof with 4 modern custom-framed skylights laid out clean down the length of the warehouse. Every penetration sealed. Every parapet transition watertight. And the whole roof reflects Arizona's summer heat instead of soaking it in — a real cool-roof upgrade for the workspace below.
The ValueWhy a new foam roof beats another round of cap-sheet repairs
PBF Manufacturing had already tried the "just patch it one more time" route for a few monsoons. That approach has a real ceiling in Phoenix. Every year the cap-sheet loses more of its coating, more seams open up, and the skylights craze and leak a little worse. Every repair costs money and every leak costs money — and none of those repairs improves the building's cool-roof performance or fixes the underlying skylight failure mode.
Why new foam is the right call on an older Phoenix warehouse
A new spray polyurethane foam roof is a fully seamless, monolithic system — foam is sprayed as a liquid, expands and cures in place, and forms one continuous membrane from parapet to parapet with no seams or fasteners to leak. On a 7,000 sq ft warehouse in Phoenix, a properly installed new foam roof gets you: (a) a watertight roof that eliminates the annual leak-repair line item, (b) tapered drainage baked into the foam itself so ponding water stops being a problem, (c) a bright white reflective surface that meaningfully reduces cooling load on the building below, and (d) a 20 to 30 year service life with periodic recoat maintenance. On the skylights specifically, upgrading the 4 old fiberglass panels to modern custom-framed units eliminates the failure mode that had been generating the annual monsoon leaks — a fix that doesn't happen with any amount of caulk on the old panels.
About the PropertyAn older Phoenix warehouse in the manufacturing corridor
The PBF Manufacturing warehouse is a 7,000 sq ft building — one of the older brick-and-block warehouse buildings that fill out Phoenix's central manufacturing corridors. Buildings like this one have real character and real bones, but they typically ship with a couple of stubborn roof problems: an older cap-sheet or built-up membrane that has been recoated a few too many times, and skylight panels that were state-of-the-art in the 90s and are now the single biggest leak source on the whole building. The right move on a building like this is usually a full new foam roof plus a modern skylight upgrade — exactly what PBF invested in here.
If you own or manage an older warehouse or industrial building in Phoenix, Tempe, Mesa, or anywhere else in the Valley and you're getting tired of monsoon patch-and-pray on a cap-sheet or built-up roof, we'd be glad to fly it with a drone and give you a straight answer on whether it's a recoat, a re-cover, or a full new foam roof. See our industrial & warehouse roofing services →