There’s plenty of good reasons to build a rooftop deck, from increasing the value of your building, to lowering heat island effect and keeping energy costs low. But how do you construct a safe and cost-effective rooftop deck that appeals to your building’s occupants? At Archatrak, we’ve been building elevated rooftop decks for nearly ten years. Here are some tips on how to build a beautiful, yet low-maintenance rooftop deck for commercial applications.
Pedestal Support Systems:
Pedestal support systems vastly expand options for building rooftop decks as well as simplifying site preparation, delivery of materials and construction. When constructing elevated decks, porcelain pavers are placed over fixed or adjustable height pedestals supports, which creates a “floating” deck system. Floating roof deck systems provide are easy to install and cost-effective way to build an elevated deck surface over a sloping or uneven substrate, especially when constructing decks over duct work, service pipes or electrical cabling.
Using pedestal supports to create a floating roof deck system has a number of advantages over more conventional construction methods, such as wood bearers. Pedestal supports allow more design flexibility and a wider choice of materials, including porcelain pavers and structural wood tiles. With pedestal support systems, porcelain pavers can be easily lifted as required for maintenance to electrical wiring, ducts, service pipes or for inspection of the waterproof membrane.
Adjustable pedestal supports can be used to support all types of structural unit pavers – porcelain pavers and planks, structural wood tiles, concrete pavers, wood and composite wood planks – for a simple to build, perfectly level, rooftop flooring solution.
Porcelain Pavers
In the past, concrete pavers have been popular in the construction of elevated decks because of their comparatively low cost. Today, structural porcelain pavers have become the preferred choice due to their technical advantages over concrete pavers, including stain/ mold resistance, frost resistance, and lighter weight. The lightweight of porcelain pavers saves on transportation and installation costs and also provides an extra benefit where weight-loading on a rooftop may be an issue. Additionally, Archatrak offers an exceptionally wide range of color and style options to harmonize with any rooftop environment.
In certain locations, wind uplift mitigation and break through protection may need to be implemented. Archatrak offers several solutions for both wind uplift and break through protection for roof deck applications. We also offer a snow melt system that can be installed under just a few roof pavers or an entire deck, on either new installations or retrofitted to existing elevated roof decks.
Questions on how to create an elevated rooftop deck? Get help from an expert by calling 866.206.8316 or emailing solutions@archatrak.com.