"Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice."
Michigan's industrial legacy left it with an enormous inventory of large-footprint roofs, from auto plants and suppliers to the warehouse districts of Detroit and Grand Rapids, and a striking share of that stock is decades old. Restoration is often the only sensible path for these buildings, renewing serviceable roofs at a fraction of what tear-off would cost over active manufacturing floors.
Lake-effect snow buries the western and northern parts of the state in heavy loads, and freeze-thaw cycling is severe statewide through long winters. Ice damming attacks eaves and drainage on any roof that lets meltwater refreeze. Summers are warm and humid with thunderstorms and occasional hail, so roofs get no true off-season from moisture. The annual temperature swing drives hard thermal cycling in both membrane and metal stock.
Legacy built-up and modified bitumen roofs blanket the older industrial base in Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw, with EPDM the common covering on commercial buildings statewide. Metal roofing serves the agricultural west side and northern light industry, and newer distribution stock around Detroit and Grand Rapids runs to TPO.
Conklin and Mule-Hide both have strong Great Lakes distribution and contractor bases, with GAF widely stocked and Progressive Materials silicone increasingly common among Michigan restoration contractors.
Before anything else, saturated insulation is the trap: infrared or core moisture surveys should precede any coating over Michigan's older flat roofs. Where the substrate is sound, silicone handles ponding and humidity, while SEBS keeps metal roofs sealed through subzero snaps. Urethane base coats make sense on hail-exposed southern counties.
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