Structural reads booked inside a week, crane days scheduled around your building’s service windows · Ferris Quay, Beacon Flats and the rooftop districts between · (555) 019-4783 · roof@skyholddecks.example
The rooftop ledger
Built to the letter, not the brochure
What we do
Three ways to take the roof back
Pedestal terraces — from $46/sq ft
Two-foot porcelain pavers on adjustable pedestals over a protection mat, joints left open at three-sixteenths so the rain finds the roof’s own drains. Dead load under eleven pounds a square foot, which is what most letters in this district will allow — and the terrace comes up whole if the membrane ever needs work.
Timber on steel — from $118/sq ft
Ipe or capped composite on a powder-coated steel joist substructure, isolated from the membrane at every bearing. The steel carries the spans the roof cannot, the boards carry the evening, and the whole assembly is detailed to be lifted in sections when the day comes.
Guards, planters & privacy — from $172/ln ft
Rooftop guards to the 42-inch line the access code asks for, ballasted against uplift rather than bolted through anything, with planter runs heavy enough to stay put in a January gust. The screening that makes the roof feel like a room instead of a ledge.
Between you and the warranty
Everything sits on the mat.
A roof deck that screws into the membrane is a lawsuit with railings. Ours starts with a protection mat, continues through pedestals or isolated bearings, and ends with a dead-load letter from a licensed engineer stating what the terrace weighs and what the roof may carry — filed with your building before the crane is booked, and yours to keep whoever builds the terrace.
The rooftop rate sheet
Pedestal terrace, installedfrom $46/sq ft
2-ft porcelain, engineer’s letter included
Timber-on-steel terracefrom $118/sq ft
ipe or capped composite
Rooftop guard & privacy linefrom $172/ln ft
42-in, ballasted — zero penetrations
Ballasted planter runfrom $1,480
built to the wind-zone calc
Stair & hatch access packagefrom $3,900
code railing, non-slip treads
Ferris Quay · Beacon Flats · 2024–2026
Terraces above the street
Six rooftops from the last two seasons, photographed the evening the crane left. Every one drained through the roof’s original scuppers and every membrane warranty below them survived intact.
How a roof goes up
Letter first, crane second
Nothing reaches your roof until an engineer has said the roof may carry it and the building has the letter in hand. After that the sequence is short — the crane window is usually the only part the city gets a vote on.
The structural read
Roof drawings, the original dead-load budget and a site walk with the building’s engineer. You leave knowing pavers, planks or nothing — and what the letter will say before it is written.
The letter & the plan
A sealed dead-load letter, a drainage plan that keeps every scupper clear, and one fixed price. The building signs off, then you do.
Crane day
Materials lifted in the building’s quiet window, protection mat rolled first, pedestals or steel set to the layout. Most roofs see four days of crew, not four weeks.
The water test
Before handover we flood-test the drains and photograph the flow pattern for the building’s file. Guards, planters, lighting — then the first evening is yours.
Two rooftop contractors told us the membrane would need “a few screws.” Skyhold brought a sealed letter instead, set the whole terrace on pedestals and a mat, and our warranty survived — the board’s engineer said it was the cleanest roof loading he had signed in nineteen years.
The crane came at six, the crew was gone by two, and the roof drained better after the terrace than before it — they found a scupper the last roofing crew had shingled over. Year three and not a single tile has rocked underfoot.
Our co-op had given up on agreeing to anything until the Skyhold presentation: letter, drainage plan, wind calc, one number. The guard line is ballasted and beautiful, and the windstorm in the autumn of ’24 did not move a planter.
The rooftop questions
Asked in every board meeting
The four questions every co-op board and every cautious owner raises before a single pedestal reaches the roof — answered with sealed letters and wind calculations rather than reassurance.
Will a roof deck void our membrane warranty?
Not the way we build. Zero penetrations is the rule — pedestals on a protection mat, ballasted guards, isolated bearings — and the engineer’s letter states the assembly and its dead load so the roofer’s warranty stays theirs to honour. We have never been the reason a membrane claim was denied.
How much weight can a roof actually take?
It varies more than any other number in this trade: some roofs in the district carry a 55-psf budget, some carry 100. The structural read answers it from drawings before we design anything, and it frequently decides between porcelain pavers and a lighter plank system.
What happens at the parapet in a storm?
Guards are engineered to the 105-mph zone and the snow drift that piles against a parapet is computed, not waved at. Ballast weights, planter anchorage and the uplift calc are all in the letter — the building keeps the arithmetic with the lease documents.
Can you work around our building’s rules?
Happily — crane windows, elevator pads, certificate-of-insurance requirements and quiet hours are the ordinary furniture of a rooftop job. We have built over occupied commercial space with the tenant below never losing a morning.
Bring us the drawings.
One structural read, one sealed letter, one fixed number — and a terrace that never costs the roof below it its warranty. Evenings and Saturdays, all season.
Skyhold Roof Decks · Lic. #RD-30417 · engineer’s letter included on every build · roof@skyholddecks.example · 7 Quay Lane, Ferris Quay