Fats, oils and grease, from the hood exhaust fan on top of restaurants and other commercial cooking operations, collect on the roof and form pools. Pools of grease can lead to a long list of problems. Grease containment helps prevent grease from pooling by collecting and containing it.

How does grease containment prevent accidents?

Slips and falls are the most frequent injury to food service staff. Grease on a roof can create a huge slipping hazard for staff and maintenance professionals. This is a significant safety hazard and creates a liability. Grease containment can prevent a slippery roof and accidents associated with pooling grease.

How does grease containment help ensure a long-lasting roof?

Grease pooling can be harmful to almost any type of roof. It can cause roof material deterioration, leaks, health code violations, insect infestation, runoff water pollution, fires, and employee safety concerns. Grease sitting on a rooftop can cause the roof material to become soft and spongy. Seam adhesives may also lose some of their bonding strength and cause seams to burst, leading to a roof failure. The best way to prevent roof damage is to prevent grease from ever touching the roof.

Many grease containment systems involve a large bin made of leak proof material, some also contain filters that absorb and trap grease for easier maintenance and disposal. These systems ensure that little to no grease escapes to deteriorate the roof material and can help achieve EPA health code compliance.

What difference does an off the roof system make?

On the roof systems can be dangerous because they trap a hidden pool of grease directly on the roof material. This pool of grease saturates the roof membrane and creates optimum conditions for roof deterioration. They also may need to be dismantled for inspection.

However, off the roof systems like the Roof Guardian sit two inches off of the roof and allow access underneath. This allows for full inspection of the entire roof without any dismantling of the containment system. Even though 2 inches may not seem like much it gives plenty of clearance to visually inspect the roof underneath the containment system and does not trap grease against the roof. These two inches of visual clearance could be the difference between zero maintenance and an expense of thousands of dollars to replace a roof membrane.

What impact do health codes have on wastewater?

Restaurant fats, oils and grease cause a significant amount of wastewater. Wastewater from restaurants and other commercial food service facilities is different from residential wastewater. Restaurant wastewater typically has higher levels of fats, oils and grease. There is also a much larger amount of it produced daily.

A problem occurs when fats, oils and grease liquefy at the high water temperatures used to wash dishes, because they later solidify in sewer lines. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has created national regulatory standards for wastewater. These health codes limit the amount of wastewater coming from each restaurant or other commercial cooking operations. The EPA has many regulations that vary by region to lessen the amount of pollutants that are emitted in order to help preserve our environment. Grease containment can aid in increasing EPA health code compliance by keeping grease off the roof.