Hot BUR Installation Question

Talking in theory here.

When the flood coat of hot is poured for the gravel install, "if" a glaze coat was installed, both are now melted and allows some of the gravel to come in direct contact with the membrane, even if only in some areas, right?

So then if hail dislodges some gravel, moisture can now enter the membrane, right?

If you reply, please don't include this text... Will explain later.

Asphalt is a adhesive not a sealer, however many roofers use hot to plug up baby holes, when appling hot the gravel is applied at the rate of 40% embed in the hot, many pieces do not touch the membrane and are mixed in the flood coat, where the hot is peeling or breaking off from the substrate means a couple of things, the flood coat may have been applied on a wet deck or the gravel was wet whe applied usually the hot asphalt will adhere to the membrane and not break away without tearing the membrane, moisture plays a big thing when applying hot asphalt roofing, in cases where spotting occurs we usually spud the area in question repair any damaged membrane then start the flood coat and embed the gravel. It much easier when you have the proper power tools we have large and small spudders mainly all of the rotary style which eliminate that spud bar or hammer.

We are in the NE states. I can't think of anytime we had hail hard enough to damage a Pitch & Slag roof. We have repaired meny a bullet hole. That's the only thing that's ever penatrated one of our roofs. We just replaced a Pitch & Slag roof I installed last week. It was 22yrs. old and still not leaking.

Roofguy Said: Talking in theory here.

We always flood moped the Coal Tar Pitch while applying the gravel. worked away from the seams, top down. We used slag, the smaller the better. Yes sometimes the slag gets loose. We always installed gravel stops at the drains, to prevent loose stone from going down the drains. We would also spider web wind swept areas, double hot over stone. this would slow the bare spots from occuring.

No, you were clear and I understood that. I'm just speaking to the unknown person(s) endorsing a) spudding/regravel and/or b) using a purely re-gravel price as a benchmark number.

egg Said: Yeah, if something has to be done and youre willing to pull out all the stops to do it... but seriously, if you had to worry about thousands of local fractures, most of them not even immediately apparent, its game over. Ive spudded and repaired a lot of hot roofs in all variety of conditions, but if you cant clearly define what has to be worked on youre wasting your time. If you were going to do a righteous spud, not a sweep down of loose rock but a spud clean to membrane, I would never, and I mean never re-gravel without adding some sheets first. That should be what is used to generate the benchmark number you are talking about. By the time you get clean to membrane, the hard part is done. Why waste all that on a flood coat.

I probably wasn't clear. I wasn't suggesting studding this roof. Just hypothesizing. I'm an inventer at heart, always seeking a better mousetrap.

We would never spud for an emulsion roof... Defeats the purpose.

I have done my share of studding and would avoid it religiously. My brother and I once hand spudded a 9000 sq ft roof in hot San Antonio...never again.

Yeah, if something has to be done and you're willing to pull out all the stops to do it... but seriously, if you had to worry about thousands of local fractures, most of them not even immediately apparent, it's game over. I've spudded and repaired a lot of hot roofs in all variety of conditions, but if you can't clearly define what has to be worked on you're wasting your time. If you were going to do a righteous spud, not a sweep down of loose rock but a spud clean to membrane, I would never, and I mean never re-gravel without adding some sheets first. That should be what is used to generate the benchmark number you are talking about. By the time you get clean to membrane, the hard part is done. Why waste all that on a flood coat.

egg Said: ...sure hope Im not the poor SOB that gets to spud a re-flood looking for them...

Youve got that right. A green flood coat is not going to get spudded. Maybe in the early morning if you used a water chisel. Not wouldnt that be radical. Cant even imagine it.

Always wondered about chilling the roof with crushed dry ice spread with a fertilizer spreader...then spud the area.

"...sure hope I'm not the poor SOB that get's to spud a re-flood looking for them...

You've got that right. A green flood coat is not going to get spudded. Maybe in the early morning if you used a water chisel. Not wouldn't that be radical. Can't even imagine it.

agreed here as well. Its a starting point to create further invetigation and possibly turning it into a new roof. Emul,poly and glas or anything else. You know as well as I that these adjustors are advocates for the Ins.co. and you can't hurt a gravel roof. Right! Not!

Agreed, a sweep & flood is a gimmick. We simply use it as a formula for helping the adjuster pay the correct amount because it is in Xactimate. Our customer will add his own funds to install our emulsion system with poly and chopped glass.

If it hit hard enough to drive the gravel into the membrane, a re-flood won't save it for long.

Is it a one ply BUR?

Unless the bare spot is directly over a holiday or void, there is what 75, 100 lbs of asphalt still doing it's job, yeah? A 40 lb flood w/gravel isn't any more of a waterproofing agent than an aluminum coating.

After 2" hail, a few rocks knocked loose are the least of my worries. Shatters, delaminations, sure hope I'm not the poor SOB that get's to spud a re-flood looking for them.

Thanks Rockydog. I went thru Haag's Low Slope Hail class years ago. Mainly because I kept finding myself in arbitrations with Haag's Tim Marsall. ;)

Makes sense to me Roofguy. Never installed a hot in my life, but I've been around it and understand how it works. Also, I am Haag Certified Inspector(yippee) and have pulled a half dozen inspections and have had the same conclusions. 2 seperate occassions we found the hail to push the gravel into and rip the membrane. Only once did I hear the that the insurance company didn't pay

Complicating matters is it is a staff adjuster, and insured has cancelled policy after hail, so carrier has less motivation to pay.