What are the Benefits of Silicone?

Every roofing system has difference strengths and weaknesses. No roofing system is perfect. But what if there was tool you could use to make your roofing system almost perfect? Well, silicone is that tool. It can make any roofing system better.

Not a Standalone System

Silicone roof coatings are not a standalone system. You will never install a silicone roof on top of your brand new building without first installing another roof beneath it. Silicone has to be applied to another surface. It goes on wet, and therefore something has to hold it up, that something is generally an older roof that needs to perform better.

Silicone will adhere to almost any roof surface at almost any time, but silicone really excels when the roof is older, and possibly starting to show signs of its age. Take an old metal roof that has performed for 15 years but is starting to leak. Apply a silicone roof coating over top of that roof and you now have essentially a brand new metal roof that won’t leak.

Let’s look at some specific benefits of silicone and how it can improve your existing roof.

One of the greatest benefits of silicone roof coatings is that they are extremely energy efficient once installed. They reflect UV rays back into the atmosphere rather than absorbing those rays, so that keeps your building significantly cooler in the summer. Reflectivity isn’t quite as advantageous in the winter when you’d like your building to be heated up by the sun, but most estimates still say a silicone roof coating can save you between 20-25% on your annual energy expenses, even with the winter “loss” included.

Waterproofing

Any good roofing system should be waterproof, and yet many roof systems are extremely prone to leaks and building owners are ok with it. That doesn’t make any sense. That’s why we produce a product that is guaranteed not to leak for up to 20 years. And in the rare event that it does leak, we’ll fix it at our expense. Our roofing systems don’t leak, others do.

Warranty

That leads us to the next benefit of silicone roof coatings: the warranty. Many roof systems offer warranties, but they have many different hoops you have to jump through just to get a refund considered. Many times, building owners don’t even get their money back if the roof fails due to some bureaucratic mess. With our warranty, if the roof leaks after we inspected the substrate and approved it, we’ll fix it.

Seam-free

Seams are the “kryptonite” of many roofing systems out there today. In the middle of a panel, the roof is waterproof because there’s nothing to leak through. However, once you move to a seam, the roof is weak and vulnerable to leaking. If the bond breaks at the seam, or dry rots or cracks even just a little, you’ve now got a leak on your roof. A seam-free system like a silicone roof coating is extremely beneficial to your roof.

Low VOC

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) are chemical compounds that have recently started to stand out as dangerous and unwanted in our products. Many silicone roof coatings can have a high VOC count and still be legal, but maybe not safe. Our VOC count is less than 50 in our high solids silicone roof coating, which is well below the legal standard for any state and is well below any expected risk threshold. Our low VOC formula means your workers are safe while installing, passersby are safe, and the environment is safe.

Easy Installation

Another significant benefit of silicone roof coatings is their easy installation. Depending on the roof size, our coating can be installed in a day with no need to come to the jobsite a second time. This includes cleaning, prepping all features, and installing the coating in a single day. It’s a very easy product to install, which means your building isn’t exposed to the elements, you don’t have extra trucks in your lot and people in your building for very long, and you can prevent leaks faster. On top of saving time, quick installation means you pay less labor, which is often a very large portion of the overall roof bill.

Repairs

Repairing your roof can be difficult, expensive, and time-intensive. Repairing a silicone roof coating is fast, easy, and inexpensive. In most cases, all you need to make proper repairs to your roof is a rag, a tube of caulk, and a razor blade. Most repairs can be made with those three items and take about 10 minutes to complete.

Inspections

A crucial aspect of any roofing system is performing regular inspections, we recommend bi-annually. One of the lesser-known benefits of silicone roof coatings is that they are very easy to inspect. They are a uniform system that allows you to see most imperfections from several feet away, meaning you don’t have to be three inches from a hole or tear to see the hole or tear. This makes your inspections easier, which makes you more likely to do them, which makes you more likely to catch any issues early.

Conclusion

Even after attempting to list all the benefits of silicone roof coatings, we undoubtedly left some off of this list. There are just so many positives surrounding this material, it’s hard to name them all. If you’d like to learn more about any of the benefits mentioned above, give us a call or use the forms online to contact us. Thanks for reading.