Removing gravel from an industrial roof by hand is brutal, slow, and expensive — an inch of stone weighs four to five pounds per square foot, so even a modest 20,000 square foot roof carries 40 to 50 tons of rock. We remove it with industrial vacuum equipment: faster, gentler on the membrane, and priced as one total number that includes hauling and disposal.
Chicagoland has one of the largest stocks of aging flat-roofed industrial and commercial buildings in the country, and a large share of them still carry gravel-surfaced built-up roofs or stone-ballasted membrane systems. Every one of those roofs eventually needs the stone off — to re-roof, to restore with a coating system, or to install solar. And every one of those projects runs into the same bottleneck: very few companies in the metro do vacuum removal, and the ones that do are often booked out for weeks.
We offer gravel and ballast removal both as the first stage of our own commercial roofing projects and as a standalone service — including for other roofing and solar contractors who need removal capacity to keep their own schedules moving. Because we're a licensed roofing contractor and not just a vacuum service, the removal and the roof work that follows can sit under one contract with one company responsible for the whole sequence.
Re-roofing a gravel BUR — the gravel must come off before tear-off or re-cover; no new system installs over loose stone
Coating restoration — silicone and other coating systems need a clean, bare substrate to bond to
Rooftop solar — ballasted roofs need stone removed or staged before racking and panels go down
Leak investigation and repair — you cannot find or fix a membrane problem buried under stone
Structural load reduction — taking 40+ tons off an aging deck ahead of equipment additions or code work
Gravel-surfaced built-up roofing (BUR) — pea gravel embedded in the flood coat of asphalt; the classic Chicagoland industrial roof
Ballasted EPDM — loose river rock holding down a rubber membrane; removable and often re-usable as ballast
IRMA / protected membrane roofs — stone over insulation over membrane; the stone and insulation both come up
Pavers and walkway stone — removed and staged or hauled as the project requires
We look at the roof — square footage, stone type and depth, building height, where the vacuum unit can stage, and where the hose runs go. You get one total project price covering removal, hauling, and disposal. If rooftop HVAC intakes, occupied tenants, or dock traffic need working around, that planning happens here, not on removal day.
The vacuum unit sets up at grade in a parking area or drive lane. Hose runs go up the building face to the roof. Perimeter safety and fall protection go up for the roof crew, and ground-level paths near the unit are coned off. A typical setup takes a morning, and the building stays open — this is not a tenant-disruption event.
Crew on the roof work the hose head across the field, sweeping stone into the intake while the unit at grade collects it. Embedded pea gravel typically comes off at 10,000–15,000 square feet per day; heavier river-rock ballast runs 6,000–8,000. As the field clears we inspect the exposed membrane and document anything the stone was hiding — open seams, splits, ponding patterns — so the next stage of the project starts from real information.
The stone is hauled off site and disposed of as clean, recyclable aggregate — it is inert material, not landfill waste, which keeps disposal reasonable even at 40+ tons per roof. If ballast is staying on site for re-use after solar or repair work, it is staged and returned instead. Either way, disposal is in the quoted price, not a surprise at the end.
If we're doing the removal ahead of our own re-roof or coating project, the roofing crew follows immediately — no schedule handoff between companies, no waiting on a second contractor. If the removal is for your project — your tear-off, your solar install — you get a clean, swept deck and photo documentation of the field condition, on the date we committed to.
For decades this work was done with shovels, wheelbarrows, and debris chutes — slow, dangerous, and hard on the roof. A crew shoveling gravel is dragging steel edges across a membrane all day and running loaded barrows over it; the removal itself causes some of the damage the project was meant to fix. And the labor economics are grim: moving 40 tons of stone by hand across a roof and down a chute is days of punishing work that industrial vacuum equipment does in hours.
The vacuum approach inverts all of it. The heavy equipment stays on the ground. The stone travels through a sealed hose instead of open air, which controls dust. Nothing scrapes or point-loads the membrane, which matters enormously on ballasted systems where the membrane underneath is staying in service. And the production rate — up to 15,000 square feet a day — means a removal that once consumed a week of hard labor is done inside a day or two, and the rest of the project starts on schedule.
The honest limitation is capacity, not method: Chicagoland has far more gravel roofs reaching end-of-life than it has vacuum capacity to serve them, which is why lead times at the few companies doing this work stretch to weeks in season. Booking the removal early — at the same time the re-roof or solar project is scheduled, not after — is the single best way to protect a project timeline.
If you own or manage a commercial or industrial building with a gravel or ballasted roof, the removal is usually the first line of a bigger decision: re-roof, restore, or add solar. Because we're a roofing contractor first, we can price the removal as part of the whole project — one contract, one schedule, one company responsible from the first stone off to the finished roof — and tell you honestly what the exposed field looks like before the next dollar is committed. Removal-only work is welcome too: some owners simply need the stone off for an inspection, an appraisal, or another contractor's project.
If you're a contractor with a tear-off or a solar install stalled behind a vacuum-service waitlist, we take that work directly. You get a committed date, a swept deck, photo documentation of the field condition, and disposal handled — so your crew, your crane, and your material drop can be scheduled with confidence. We're a roofing company ourselves; we understand exactly what it costs you when the removal date slips a week. Subcontract and direct-bill arrangements both work.
Total project cost depends on roof size, the type and depth of stone, and site access. For orientation, in the Chicagoland market vacuum removal on smaller commercial roofs around 10,000 to 15,000 square feet typically prices in the $6,000 to $16,000 range, and larger roofs in the 20,000 to 40,000 square foot range typically price in the $12,000 to $40,000 range — including removal, hauling, and disposal. Pea gravel embedded in a built-up roof removes faster than loose river-rock ballast, which is heavier and slower per square foot. Congested sites, taller buildings, and long hose runs add cost. We quote a total project price after seeing the roof — never a blind rate — and the quote includes disposal, which is a real line item: an inch of stone weighs four to five pounds per square foot, so a 20,000 square foot roof carries 40 to 50 tons of rock.
Three common reasons. First, re-roofing: when a gravel-surfaced built-up roof reaches end of life, the gravel has to come off before the roof can be torn off or re-covered — you cannot install a new membrane over loose stone. Second, restoration: silicone and other coating systems require a clean, bare substrate, so a coating project on a gravel BUR starts with removing the gravel. Third, solar: ballasted roofs being fitted with rooftop solar need the stone removed or relocated before racking goes down. In all three cases the removal is not optional — it is the first step of the project, and it is often the step that determines the schedule, because vacuum capacity in Chicagoland is limited and lead times can run weeks.
A trailer-mounted industrial vacuum sits at grade — in a parking lot or drive lane — and pulls stone off the roof through reinforced hoses that can run hundreds of feet. Crew on the roof work the hose head across the surface, sweeping and directing stone into the intake. Done properly, vacuum removal is significantly gentler on the roof than shoveling and wheelbarrowing, which is how this work was done for decades: there are no shovel edges cutting into the membrane, no barrow wheels point-loading it, and no chutes or debris drops. On ballasted EPDM systems, where the membrane underneath is intended to stay in service, that matters — the vacuum lifts the stone without disturbing the membrane beneath. We inspect the field as the stone comes up and document any pre-existing damage we uncover, which owners appreciate because buried membrane problems are otherwise invisible until they leak.
It is hauled off site and disposed of, and disposal is included in our project price. Roof gravel and ballast stone are clean, inert materials — not hazardous waste — so they are accepted as recyclable aggregate or clean fill rather than landfill waste. That keeps disposal costs reasonable even though the tonnage is substantial. On some ballasted-roof projects the stone is not disposed of at all: if a ballasted membrane is staying in service and the project is temporary — solar installation, membrane repair, drainage work — the ballast can be staged on site and returned to the roof when the work is done.
Yes, and it is a legitimate question to ask any contractor doing this work. Dried roof gravel carries fine dust, and stone dust can contain crystalline silica, which OSHA regulates under its respirable silica standard. Modern industrial vacuum units are built for this — the airflow runs through filtration designed to capture fine particulate rather than exhausting it over the neighborhood, and the closed hose-to-tank path means the stone is never dropped, chuted, or dumped in open air the way manual removal does it. Crews work with appropriate protection, and we schedule around wind and building air intakes on sensitive sites. If your building has rooftop HVAC intakes, tell us — sequencing the removal path around intakes is a normal part of planning the job.
Production depends on the stone. Embedded pea gravel on a built-up roof typically comes off at roughly 10,000 to 15,000 square feet per crew-day; loose river-rock ballast is heavier and runs closer to 6,000 to 8,000 square feet per day. So a typical 20,000 square foot pea-gravel roof is one to two working days, and a large ballasted roof might be a full week. On scheduling: vacuum capacity across Chicagoland is genuinely tight — the handful of companies that do this work often book out weeks, which stalls re-roofing and solar projects waiting on them. That capacity shortage is a large part of why we offer the service. If you have a tear-off or solar install waiting on gravel removal, call us with the address and square footage and we will give you a real date.
Yes — and that is the strongest reason to call a roofing contractor rather than a standalone vacuum service. Leaders Roofing holds an Illinois Unlimited Roofing License (#104.010248), which means the removal, the tear-off, the new roof system, and the flashing details can all sit under one contract, one schedule, and one point of responsibility. When the vacuum work and the roofing work are separate companies, the schedule risk lives in the handoff: if the vac crew slips a week, your roofing crew — and any crane, dumpster, or material delivery — slips with them. One contractor owning the whole sequence removes that risk. We also work the other direction: if you are a roofing or solar contractor who needs removal capacity for your own project, we take that work directly.
Send us the address and approximate square footage and we'll come back with a total project price and a real date — whether the removal feeds our roofing work or yours.