Built-Up (Tar & Gravel) Roofing in Toronto & the GTA

If your building has a tar and gravel roof, it's probably been up there a long time — built-up roofing was the default flat roof on Toronto apartment blocks, schools and older commercial buildings for most of a century. Multiple plies of felt mopped in hot bitumen under a flood coat and gravel makes a thick, tough, forgiving roof, and plenty of them have quietly outlasted the buildings' furnaces twice over.

The trouble with BUR roofing is late life. The gravel hides the surface, so problems announce themselves as interior leaks rather than visible damage, and finding the breach under stone takes patience. Gravel migrates off high spots, bare bitumen alligators in the sun, and freeze-thaw opens splits at the flashings first. Full hot-asphalt replacement is rare now — fewer kettles, fewer crews — so the practical question is usually what system replaces it.

We quote gravel roof repair honestly: an old BUR with one split or a tired wall flashing often has serviceable years left, and a targeted repair is the right money. When the roof is done — wet insulation, splits across the field — we quote replacement with modern two-ply modified bitumen, which is the natural successor and installs without the hot kettle. Either way you get a straight read, not a scare.

• Assessment of the BUR surface, flashings and drainage, including moisture checks where soft spots suggest wet insulation
• Gravel pull-back and repairs at splits, blisters and ridges, then re-flood and re-surfacing of the repaired area
• Rebuilt flashings at parapets, walls and stacks — the usual first failure points on tar and gravel roofs
• Drain clearing, re-sealing and metal repairs at scuppers and edges
• Full tear-off of the built-up roof where replacement is warranted, including gravel and wet insulation
• Deck repairs uncovered during tear-off, priced as a stated allowance
• Replacement system installation, typically two-ply modified bitumen with new insulation above the deck
• Heavy-material disposal — gravel and asphalt tear-off is tonnage, and it's handled properly

• Repair versus replacement — the biggest fork in the road, and the assessment should earn its answer
• Tear-off weight: gravel and multiple bitumen plies mean serious bins and disposal cost
• How much of the insulation below is wet, which only fully reveals itself once the roof is opened
• Flashing and parapet condition, since masonry parapets on older buildings often need work at the same time
• Roof size and access; BUR buildings tend to be larger, and staging a mid-rise differs from a plaza
• The replacement system and insulation upgrade chosen — code-minimum insulation now is more than the roof originally had
• Whether rooftop equipment has to be lifted or re-curbed during the work

Every home is different, so we don’t publish flat prices — the quote is free and based on your actual job.