Hello. I have a new construction home and have some concerns about my flat roof areas with parapet walls and coping. My first issue was the coping was sloped away from roof and streaking down the side of house. But upon further review I’m concerned about how the epdm was done and I can see plans were not followed. It does not appear to go up very far on the wall. There have been no big signs of water damage but of course don’t want to wait for that to happen. See photos. My plans are confusing as they show slope in for some areas and slope away for others.
Hello,
I am a retired commercial roof consultant.
Whenever I produce a detail for a coping installation I make sure it's clear that the coping should slope back toward the roof. This is considered a best practice in the roofing industry.
There should also be a waterproof membrane across the top of the wall (under the coping) as a secondary line of defense in case the coping joints fail for some reason.
Typically I would have the EPDM membrane run up the wall and across the top of the wall to act as this secondary membrane.
You should be concerned that the EPDM is not installed per your detail and the coping is not sloped toward the roof.
- RRC
