From Patched Mod-Bit to a Modern EPDM System — A North Providence, RI Triple-Decker Flat Roof Replacement

Like most Pinnacle roofing projects, the work was completed in a single day — minimizing disruption for the homeowner.

Pinnacle makes every roof affordable with monthly financing options to make your home project affordable with low monthly payments, including 0% interest for 18 months.

Triple-deckers live under flat roofs, and flat roofs fail by degrees — a patch here, a blocked drain there, until water wins. On this North Providence triple-decker, Pinnacle Roofing & Skylights removed the outdated modified bitumen roof entirely and installed a modern EPDM rubber membrane system, clearing previously blocked drains and repointing the chimney along the way.

Scope of Work

The crew tore off the old mod-bit down to a sound substrate, then installed the EPDM system — large synthetic-rubber sheets bonded into a continuous, watertight field. During the work we found and cleared drains that had been blocked for years, restoring the roof’s designed drainage, and repointed the chimney so the last remaining leak path was closed with the same mobilization. See our commercial roofing page for how we approach low-slope systems.

What We Installed (And Why)

EPDM is the workhorse of low-slope roofing: a synthetic rubber membrane, installed in large sheets with few seams, that shrugs off UV, ozone, and the freeze-thaw cycling that shreds asphalt-based flat roofs. On a residential triple-decker it brings commercial-grade protection to a building that works commercially hard — three households under one membrane.

Drainage is half of every flat-roof story. Clearing the blocked drains returned this roof to shedding water the way it was designed to, instead of ponding it — and ponding is what ages a flat roof fastest.

Project Photo Gallery

The EPDM field going down — large seamless sheets, fully adhered.

The chimney repointed and capped — every leak source addressed at once.

The old mod-bit roof: patches on patches, drains long blocked.

Good To Know: How do you know when a flat roof is done being patched?

Three signs: patches are being patched, water ponds for days after rain, and stains keep migrating to new ceilings below. Each patch on an old mod-bit roof bonds worse than the last, and blocked drains hide beneath standing water that adds real weight to the structure. When the failure is systemic — surface, seams, and drainage together — a membrane replacement costs less over ten years than the patch treadmill, and EPDM’s continuous sheet removes the seams that started the trouble.

Why This Approach Works

Everything that leaked got one coordinated answer: new continuous membrane, functioning drains, sound chimney masonry. Flat-roof problems are interconnected — solving them piecemeal is how the patch cycle starts again.

Why Pinnacle

Pinnacle Roofing & Skylights is Firestone Building Envelope Certified for commercial roofing systems, and holds RI Commercial Roofing License #261. Licensed for commercial work across Rhode Island (RI Commercial License #261), we bring the same systems to triple-deckers that we install on office buildings. With more than 100 five-star Google reviews and an A+ BBB rating, our track record speaks for itself.

North Providence, RI

North Providence’s streets are stacked with the triple-deckers that built the Blackstone Valley workforce — practical buildings that ask for practical roofs. Flat-roof craft is its own trade, and it is one we practice daily. See our North Providence roofing page for more on how we serve this community.