BEFORE RECOATING YOUR ROOF, MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THE FACTS.
It is extremely important to you as a building owner that you research roof coatings before making a decision. You should research online, check brochures from multiple companies, talk to a contractor you have used before and trust. If you don’t have a trusted contractor, talk to several of them, not just one. A roof coating is a big decision, and if you make the wrong one it could be irreparable and lead to roof tear off before all is said and done. Don’t make that mistake, do your research beforehand.
Roof Coatings Aren’t Right in Every Situation
You need to make sure you perform enough research that you know the facts about the various roof coatings available to you, but also that you know the facts of restoration coatings as a whole. If you don’t know about restoration coatings as a whole, how can you know if they are right or wrong for your building? Perhaps your building isn’t structurally sound, and will fail in a few years with or without a roof coating. If this is the case, you are probably wasting money installing a roof coating over your existing roof. Perhaps your building already has a roof coating; you better make sure you learn which roof coatings, if any, will adhere to the old coating. It may be that none do, and you need to remove the roof. Keep in mind that during this step, your goal is simply to learn, to research, and to find out what exactly your building has, needs, and should have added to it.
When a Roof Coating is the Right Answer
With the above paragraph in mind, roof coatings are often a great choice for your roof. Many times, roof coatings are an inexpensive solution to roofing problems. If your roof is allowing water to leak into your building or not controlling the climate in your building as it should, roof coatings can stop that leak, improve insulation, and reflect the sun to keep your building cooler. They can provide all of these solutions to your problems for less time, money, and headache than tearing out and replacing your existing roof. So, if your building is structurally sound and you expect it to remain intact for at least a 15 more years, roof coatings should work for you. If you have performed adhesion tests and the roof coating you are interested adheres to your roof, roof coatings should work for you. If you don’t need a roofing system to add strength to your building, but simply improve weather resistance, roof coatings should work for you. If any of these three items aren’t true, i.e. you performed adhesion tests and the coating doesn’t stick, you should reconsider roof coatings for your building.
Benefits of Roof Coatings
We have analyzed the benefits of silicone roof coatings on our blog several times before, but this post is only concerned with roof coatings in general, be they acrylic, silicone, aluminum, or any other type of coating. There are benefits of roof coatings that transcend the individual types and are achieved in the installation of any roof coating. These are benefits that make roof coatings as a whole appealing, not just one type.
Easy Application
While some are easier than others, all roof coatings are easier to apply than tearing off a roof and reinstalling a new one, or installing a roof over-top of an old one. Whether it’s spraying, rolling, or painting the coating on, it is much easier than a non-coating application.
Reflectivity
Nearly every roof coating available today provides reflective properties to the building it is applied to. These reflective properties reduce wasted energy consumption by the building, as well as the urban heat island effect which can distort weather patterns near buildings where it occurs. Reflectivity helps the environment and also saves money for the building owner.
Seamless Membrane
When roof coatings are applied, there are no seams from where one roll stops and the next one started. They are in liquid form, or close to it, when applied, and that means they bond to the roof as well as to themselves, forming an extremely watertight, monolithic system. This means fewer leaks in your roof because seams are no longer an issue.
Conclusion
Roof coatings are a fantastic roofing system. They are low-cost, easy to install, and provide very tangible benefits and savings to the building owners that install them. However, they are not right in every situation, and can become a waste of money and the source of many headaches if they are installed when they shouldn’t be. If you are considering a roof coating, be sure that you know your roofing system, the coating you are considering, and how they will interact with one another before making a decision.
