Keeping Ann Arbor's Labs, Clinics and Offices Dry
Commercial Roofing Contractor Serving Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor’s commercial roofs sit on research parks, medical office buildings, high-bay flex space and two- to four-story downtown blocks along Main and State Streets. Swisher Commercial tracks more than 10.8 million square feet of office and flex space in the Ann Arbor area. Shain Roofing installs, repairs and maintains commercial roofing in Ann Arbor for the owners and facility managers who run these buildings.
Our shop is on Brookfield Street in Livonia, a straight run down M-14 from Ann Arbor. Our own crews handle every job, with no subcontractors. We work on EPDM rubber, TPO and PVC, modified bitumen, built-up, metal and coating systems, and we answer emergency leak calls 24/7.
What Ann Arbor's Commercial Roofs Are Up Against
Ann Arbor is a university, research and medical market more than an industrial one. The University of Michigan owns 9.2 percent of all land in the city and 42 of the 191 downtown acres. It employs roughly 30,000 people here, about 12,000 of them at the medical center. Swisher Commercial’s year-end 2023 report counted 299 office and flex buildings totaling 11,090,105 square feet across Washtenaw County. Office space was 8,461,571 square feet at 15.2 percent vacant, and flex space 2,628,534 square feet at 12.7 percent vacant.
Swisher defines flex as high-bay buildings that often combine office, high-tech, research and warehouse uses. WEMU reported that office and flex vacancy dipped from 14.6 percent in 2023 to 14.3 percent in 2024. Swisher’s 2025 year-end commentary found the South Office Area at vacancy levels not seen since the Great Recession. Downtown, East and West office improved, and medical office showed encouraging absorption. Swisher also notes that vacant flex buildings heavy in lab and R&D infrastructure stay empty longer, while shop and warehouse flex leases faster.
For a roof, that mix means a wide range of conditions. A 1961 research park building or a 1985 office campus means a large membrane, rows of rooftop units, exhaust penetrations and interior drains. Downtown, fifteen local historic districts hold 19th and early 20th-century buildings whose roofs are small, crowded and hard to reach. A flex building that sat vacant often comes back with clogged drains, open seams and flashing repairs that were put off.
Where We Work in Ann Arbor
Commercial roofing in Ann Arbor runs from the downtown D1 and D2 blocks to research campuses on the north side and flex parks along I-94. Swisher’s largest submarket is the South area, with 115 office and flex buildings and 5,119,201 square feet. We work across all of them and into Pittsfield, Scio and Ann Arbor Townships.
- Downtown Office Area: 67 buildings and 1,683,755 square feet in the D1 and D2 zones, mostly two- to four-story structures along Main and State Streets.
- North Campus Research Complex: 28 buildings and 2.2 million square feet on 174 acres at 1600 Huron Parkway, the former Pfizer campus U-M bought in 2009.
- Plymouth Road corridor and Ann Arbor Township: 33 office buildings totaling 2,153,908 square feet on the north side of the city.
- Ann Arbor Research Park: nearly 210 acres in Pittsfield Township at S. State, Ellsworth and I-94, with 27 buildings dating to 1961 and six still used for research.
- Domino’s Farms Office Park: built in 1985 at US-23 and M-14, more than 50 tenants and the half-mile Prairie House with overhanging copper roofs.
- Avis Farms South: office park at State and Textile Roads with lots for Class A office buildings up to 250,000 square feet.
- Scio Commerce Center on Jackson Road: 124,800 square feet in seven light-industrial buildings on 10 acres, under a mile from I-94, in Swisher’s West Flex Area.
Built for Ann Arbor Winters
Ann Arbor averages 61.4 inches of snow a year, based on 1991 to 2020 records at the University of Michigan North Campus station. January brings 18.3 inches and February 15.3 inches. January highs average 32°F and lows 16°F under the 1991 to 2020 NOAA normals, so roofs freeze and thaw all winter. Annual precipitation runs 37.56 inches. For design, the state table in Michigan Administrative Code R 408.30515, Table R301.2(5), lists the City of Ann Arbor ground snow load at 20 pounds per square foot. The same table lists the rest of Washtenaw County at 25.
On a low-slope roof, that weather shows up at drains and edges first. Snow that melts on a mild afternoon refreezes at night, and ice in a seam or flashing lap opens it wider each cycle. Water that cannot reach a drain ponds, adds weight and finds the weakest spot in the membrane. Drifted snow piles against rooftop units and parapets, and an older deck carries that load unevenly. A maintenance program clears drains before winter, checks seams and flashings each spring and fall, and documents problems while they are small. Proper detailing at curbs, penetrations and edges does the rest.
Roof Systems We Install in Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor’s building mix calls for more than one roof system. A lab building with dozens of exhaust penetrations, a medical office suite that cannot tolerate odors, a downtown storefront on a 19th-century deck and a warehouse flex box each need a different answer. Shain Roofing installs, repairs and maintains six commercial systems and fabricates its own sheet metal in house.
EPDM Rubber Roofing
EPDM rubber is a proven membrane for flex and warehouse buildings along South Industrial and Jackson Road, where a large, simple roof needs quick repairs and a long watertight life.
TPO and PVC Roofing
White TPO and PVC membranes reflect summer heat over air-conditioned office and medical space, and their heat-welded seams hold up through Washtenaw County freeze-thaw cycles.
Modified Bitumen Roofing
Modified bitumen suits research and office buildings with heavy foot traffic, exhaust stacks and many penetrations, where a multi-ply system tolerates wear that a single-ply membrane may not.
Built-Up Roofing (BUR)
Built-up roofing served office and research parks for decades, and many owners of older buildings still have it. We repair and restore existing BUR roofs and replace them when the plies are done.
Metal Roof Systems
Standing-seam metal fits schools, clinics and low-rise office buildings that want a long-lived sloped roof. Our in-house sheet metal shop fabricates the flashings, copings and gutters.
Roof Coating Systems
Fluid-applied coatings extend the life of a sound EPDM, modified bitumen or metal roof without a tear-off, a practical option for a partly vacant flex building waiting on a tenant.
Permits and Codes for Ann Arbor Roof Work
Building permits in Ann Arbor are issued by the City of Ann Arbor Planning and Development Department through Building, Rental and Inspection Services at 301 E. Huron St. Applications go through the city’s STREAM online portal. The city enforces the 2021 Michigan Building Code, effective May 1, 2025. Under the 2025 fee schedule, a commercial or industrial permit runs $100 plus $10 per $1,000 of construction cost. Plan examination adds 20 percent of the permit fee.
Permits for commercial roof work in Ann Arbor run through Building, Rental and Inspection Services. Shain Roofing handles the permit paperwork and schedules the inspections as part of the job. The approvals come back with the project file, so the roof is documented from application to final sign-off.
Shain Roofing is Proud to be:
A Certified TREMCO Contractor
A Certified FIRESTONE Contractor
A Member of the NRCA (National Roofing Contractors Association)
Roofs of Every Size, From Research Campuses to Storefronts
The scale of Ann Arbor’s buildings runs wide. U-M Health opened the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion in November 2025, a 690,000 square foot, 12-story, 264-bed hospital. The North Campus Research Complex holds 28 buildings and 2.2 million square feet. Toyota’s Technical Center in York Township announced a $47.7 million battery test facility in 2023. Briarwood Mall covers 980,224 square feet of leasable area and is redeveloping its former Sears site with Harvest Market, apartments and a 325-stall parking structure. Ann Arbor Public Schools’ 2019 bond has funded 107,313 square feet of new roofs and 97,787 square feet of roof repairs. The same crews handle a 10,000 square foot plaza and a distribution center.
Why Ann Arbor Building Owners Hire Shain Roofing
Shain Roofing is family owned and operated, with more than 140 years of combined experience across the team. We do not use subcontractors. The crew on a lab roof on Plymouth Road or a storefront on Main Street is on our payroll and answers to us. We are a certified TREMCO contractor, a certified FIRESTONE contractor and a member of the National Roofing Contractors Association.
We fabricate our own sheet metal in house, so copings and edge metal for a downtown historic building or a research park roof fit right the first time. Our services cover installation and replacement, repairs, restoration, maintenance programs, inspections and 24/7 emergency leak repair. From our Livonia headquarters on Brookfield Street we serve Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw and Genesee counties. Ann Arbor is a straight run down M-14.
Get an Ann Arbor Roof Assessment
If your Ann Arbor building has a leak, ponding water or a roof with no maintenance record, we can help. Our team will inspect the roof, document what we find and lay out repair, restoration and replacement options in plain terms. Call Shain Roofing at (734) 524-0155 to request a free estimate.
Hear from our valued clients
Local data sources: Swisher Commercial 2023 Year-End Realty Report (via Ann Arbor DDA); WEMU, Ann Arbor commercial vacancy rate dips (January 2025); Swisher Commercial, What the Data Tells Us (2025 year-end commentary); Current Results, Ann Arbor snowfall averages (U-M North Campus station); Current Results, Ann Arbor temperatures by month (NOAA normals); Michigan Administrative Code R 408.30515, ground snow load table; City of Ann Arbor Building, Rental and Inspection Services, permits; City of Ann Arbor 2025 building fee schedule. Figures are as published by those sources and are provided for context; every roof is assessed on site.