Building Type
Airport Terminal & Aviation Facility Roofing with scope notes, photos, and next steps.
An airport never closes, so a roof project on one cannot run like a normal commercial job. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport moves tens of millions of passengers a year across four terminals as a major hub for Spirit and JetBlue and a heavy Southwest operation, and it has stayed under near-constant terminal expansion and improvement. Every access point, every material lift, every crew deployment on a property like that has to be coordinated with airport facilities, the FAA Part 139 safety program, and in places TSA security. We build that coordination into the scope before a contract is signed, not after a crew shows up at a gate they cannot get through. Add the cargo, FBO, and rental-car infrastructure clustered around FLL, plus the reliever traffic across Broward, and South Florida's aviation market generates steady demand for roofs that can take both a working airfield and a hurricane.
Aviation roofs carry loads ordinary buildings do not
Terminal and airside roofs face exposures a comparable logistics building never sees. Airside membranes have to handle jet blast, which means adhesion and ballast specifications well beyond standard commercial. Sitting a few miles off the Atlantic, these roofs also take the full force of South Florida's wind, so attachment design has to meet Broward's hurricane code with no compromise. The HVAC on a terminal is denser and heavier than typical commercial, producing more curbed penetrations and more flashing touchpoints to maintain. And terminal roofs are vast, flat, low-slope expanses where ponding tolerance is effectively zero, which makes drainage design the part of the job we will not shortcut. On large terminal re-roofs we generally specify TPO or PVC single-ply over a tapered insulation system that builds in slope and clears standing water.
The whole campus needs the same discipline
The buildings around the terminal, cargo facilities, the rental-car center, FBO hangars, aircraft maintenance shops, and airport-campus hotels, each bring their own challenges, but the airport-coordination requirement never goes away. Badging and security access apply at every part of an airport campus, and our crews treat that as a baseline, planned for in advance rather than discovered on site. High-bay hangars are a building type of their own: large clear-span structures, often pre-engineered metal, where wind uplift and seam geometry drive the roof specification. For new high-bay aviation buildings and hangars, standing-seam metal is frequently the right call, and we spec and install those systems across the Fort Lauderdale market.
Scheduling on a live airfield
We work with the airport facilities department and the Part 139 coordinator to develop a phased work plan that airport operations approves. Material deliveries, crane lifts, and any work near airside areas are scheduled in approved windows and coordinated with the FAA NOTAM process where required. Our preconstruction survey documents every penetration, curb height, and mechanical clearance before we build the work plan, and oversized equipment curbs and complex through-penetrations get individually engineered flashing rather than a stock detail. We do not mobilize crew to airside work without confirmed authorization, and the badging and credentialing timeline is factored into the bid rather than treated as a favor.
Keeping water out of a passenger building that never empties
A terminal roof sits over ticketing halls, security checkpoints, baggage systems, concessions, and gate areas that hold thousands of people at any hour, and a single leak in the wrong place can shut down a checkpoint lane or a baggage carousel and ripple into flight delays. That raises the stakes on daily dry-in well past what a normal commercial job demands. We phase the work in modest sections, keep each section watertight at the end of every shift, and protect the interior below with the assumption that we cannot relocate the people underneath us. On the broad low-slope terminal decks, drainage is the difference between a roof that lasts and one that ponds, so we build slope with tapered insulation, lay out primary drains and overflow scuppers to the actual roof areas, and clear standing water that would otherwise sit as dead load on a long flat span through every storm season.
Built for the airfield environment and the South Florida storm
Aviation roofs in Broward take two punishments at once. Day to day they sit in an environment of jet blast, constant vibration, and heavy mechanical traffic, and a few times a year they face the full wind of a coastal hurricane zone. We specify membrane adhesion or ballast for the airside blast exposure and set the attachment, parapet detailing, and edge metal to the hurricane code, because a terminal or hangar roof has to survive both the routine and the extreme. On high-bay hangars and pre-engineered metal structures the uplift and thermal movement are different again, and the standing-seam systems and clip spacing we specify for those buildings are sized to how they actually move and load, not borrowed from a flat-roof detail.
Other airports serving the Fort Lauderdale region:
- Miami International Airport (MIA) — major international hub roughly 30 miles south
- Palm Beach International Airport (PBI) — commercial airport roughly 45 miles north
- North Perry Airport — Broward County general-aviation reliever in Pembroke Pines
Airport & Aviation Roofing Questions
How do you schedule work at an operational airport like Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International?
We develop a phased work plan with the airport facilities department and the FAA Part 139 coordinator, approved by airport operations. Material deliveries, crane lifts, and any airside work happen in approved windows and are coordinated with the FAA NOTAM process where required. It is a standard part of our project setup, not an exception.
What roof systems are standard for large-span airport terminal roofs?
Most terminal re-roofing here uses a TPO or PVC single-ply membrane over a tapered insulation system that improves drainage and addresses ponding on these large flat decks. For new high-bay aviation structures and hangars, standing-seam metal is often specified. The final spec follows a walk of the roof with your facilities engineer to confirm deck type and load capacity.
How do you deal with the density of HVAC and mechanical penetrations on terminals?
Terminal HVAC density is far higher than standard commercial. Our preconstruction survey documents every penetration, curb height, and mechanical clearance before we build the work plan, and flashing for oversized curbs and complex through-penetrations is engineered individually rather than using stock details.
Can you work on airside structures near active aprons and runways?
Yes, with appropriate badging and in full coordination with airfield operations. Airside work requires more pre-planning and crew credentialing, which we factor into the bid timeline. We do not mobilize crew without confirmed airside authorization, and jet-blast exposure is accounted for in the membrane and ballast specification.
Do you handle hangar roofing for FBOs and general aviation?
Yes. General-aviation hangar roofing, from a single-bay private hangar to a multi-unit FBO complex, is a regular part of our mix. High-bay hangars with wide-flange steel or pre-engineered building systems have specific uplift and thermal-movement characteristics, and we specify and install for them across the Fort Lauderdale market.