DON’T LET YOUR ROOFING SEASON BE CUT SHORT
When it comes to traditional roofing systems, your window of operation is pretty small. Spring is a bad time because rainstorms popup on most days, and you can’t have a building opened up when the rain comes. Summer is a great time for you, but if you’re doing work on a school building you can only work during summer break (which in many districts is disappearing). Fall is usually pretty good weather for roofing. Winter presents a problem because you can’t tear off the roof of a building when it’s 10 degrees outside or when snow is approaching.
So if you use traditional roofing methods, when are you supposed to do your work? That’s a good question, and one we like to side-step altogether. Rather than worrying about the temperature, tearing the roof off, are the kids in school, is snow coming, etc., we ask one question – Is it raining in the next hour? Silicone roof coatings bypass all of the weather pitfalls associated with traditional roofing and make your life as a commercial roofing contractor easier and simpler. These benefits all sum up to one primary benefit for roofing contractors – extending your roofing season. Let’s take a more detailed look at how.
Avoiding Roofing Problems with Rain
Rain can shut down just about anything humans do – when it rains, we drive slower, we cancel sporting events, and we get out of the pool. Roofing is no different. When it’s raining, you shouldn’t be working. The difference with silicone roof coatings is that, while you can’t install them while it’s raining, you can install them up to an hour before it rains. You can also install them as soon as the sun comes out and dries the roof or you dry it manually. If you have to tear the roof off to install a different system, you need time to get it covered. And if it isn’t covered well, now you’ve got a real problem. With silicone, your install time is more flexible, and there’s no risk of flooding the inside of the building.
Avoiding Roofing Problems with Snow
The problem with snow and roofing is more of a problem with cold weather than the snow itself. Snow isn’t much different from rain – you shouldn’t do much roofing when it’s snowing, and you don’t want snow inside the building. But the real issue is that when snow is threatening, the ambient temperature is almost always very low. You shouldn’t tear off the roof of a building with occupants or sensitive equipment in that type of weather. So what do you do if you’re using traditional roofing systems? Wait until next year. However, with a silicone roof coating, you don’t have to tear the roof off. Simply wrap the drums of material with drum warmers and you’re good to spray as long as the temperature is above 35-40 degrees. Below that we typically don’t recommend using silicone.
Avoiding Roofing Problems with Tear-off
We’ve already touched on tear-off above, but just to drive the point home, it’s not required with a silicone roof coating. With a silicone roof coating, you might have to remove 1,000 square feet of roof on a 100,000 square foot roof. Even with that already small amount of tear-off, you will rarely have to tear down to the deck. You can almost always complete a silicone roof coating restoration without exposing the building to the elements. This protects sensitive equipment and documents, prevents disruptions and delays, and allows for faster project completion.
Conclusion
Extending your roofing season is a wonderful side-effect of using silicone roof coatings. Aside from the savings you can provide your customers, the increase in jobs completed, and the ease of use, silicone extends your roofing season and keeps your crews busy longer. Contact us today to talk pricing and logistics. We can also help you outfit your crews with the best available spray equipment setups.
