Cutting a code-compliant roof access through a live building

The building had no safe, permanent way onto the roof to service rooftop equipment. The fix wasn't a catalog part: it meant cutting a new penetration through the roof, reinforcing the structure around it and the RTU, and tying in interior and exterior access, all on a working building with a general contractor watching the schedule.

We ran it as a full design-build: pulled the permits, engineered the shop drawings, and reported to the GC throughout. In the shop we fabricated the structural-steel reinforcement frame, then in the field we cut the roof penetration, set and welded the reinforcement around the opening and RTU, installed the hatch, hung an internal steel ship's ladder, and bolted an external aluminum caged ladder to the building for permanent roof access.

A finished, flashed roof hatch sealed into the standing-seam roof, with code-compliant access from both inside and outside the building, engineered, permitted, and handed back to the GC complete.