INSTALLING A NEW ROOF? SKIP THE SILICONE COATING.
One of the greatest benefits our silicone coatings provide to our customers is the fact that your existing roof can remain in place and you can still install our coating. There is no tear off of the old system required. You can have a contractor go in and apply the silicone coating directly over top of your existing roof and you get what is essentially a new roof with up to a 20 year warranty. However, installing a silicone coating is not always the right choice for your roof. For example, if you are installing a new roof, the silicone coating isn’t quite as advantageous. Let’s look at why:
No Tear Off Savings
During a roof restoration, we save building owners money by allowing them to skip the tear off stage, which is time consuming, expensive, and a headache. However, during new construction, there was never any tear off to begin with. The new roof has to be installed no matter what – because our material must be applied to a roof surface, it can’t be a standalone roof – and no tear off is required. This means a silicone roof coating won’t save you nearly as much money as it does on a restoration project.
Leak Protection Isn’t as Important
Another key difference between new construction and roof restoration is the condition of the roof. When you install a new roof, surprise, it’s new, and it isn’t leaking much. However, older roofs tend to have more leaks, which our silicone coating can prevent. So the leak protection is still provided by a new coating on a new roof, but the new roof doesn’t really need that protection yet.
Reflectivity Remains
However, while a silicone coating may not be quite as advantageous to new construction as it is for restoration work, it still provides the building owner with a roof system that is highly reflective and can reduce their energy bills by up to 30%. This is one reason silicone coatings are sometimes installed on roofs that aren’t necessarily avoiding tear off or seeking leak protection – they simply want to capitalize on the energy savings.
Conclusion
A roof going on a new construction project doesn’t have nearly the same amount of need for a silicone coating as an older roof, and therefore the benefits aren’t quite as strong. However, a silicone coating can still provide future protection and reflectivity for any roof, so it still provides some good value, just not as much value as it may provide to an older roof.