Roof coatings

There are systems that will work on tar and gravel or BUR. The key is in the preparation and the costs I am seeing quoted here seem very high. Of course that is all a realative term depending on the region you are working in. I would recommend that if you are interested in a coating system. Check with your local supply companies and have them put you in touch with the coating reps. Any good supplier should be able to do this. Make sure you are getting the proper coating for the job ansee if the technical rep for the company will come out on your first job. It is really easy to take a one day training and know the basics, but what roof especially a flat one is basic. A quality job is done in the details and the preparation.

Don't discount the possibilities, you can make these products very profitable for yourself and save building owners money and the hassle and disruption of a complete tear off.

JET Said: Weve got about two million square feet of Stevens TPO that is now showing stress cracks around skylights, etc. Talked to the ER rep and hes sending out some info for us to look at. Now that DOW is out of the single-ply business the Stevens issue is dead which is bad. Im hoping my distributor will step up with some assistance but Im not holding my breath.

JET

I just hate it when my wife does this to me, but I can't resist. It's that Silver Spoon thing.

[size=5]I told ya so.[/size]

:blush: :blink: :silly: :woohoo:

PS, to stay on topic, Conklin is, or at least it used to be, sold like Amway. Network. It's the product a lot of the Amish/Mennonite use around here and you'll see one guy sell it, and another guy put it on if the seller is too busy.

There is a lot to be said in favor of dead level roofs. We installed a number of them which were all successful installations. There is no secret - just use the right specification, which is coal tar applications. Advantages are quickly recognized on large installations, where the HVAC designer can reduce the space volumes appreciably, and the plumbing engineer can now install much smaller rainwater conductors to the mains. Furthermore , water on roof will certainly reduce a/c required. However, structual designer must account for this increased load in his deck design, Basic problem to date is the fact that anything other than pitch is bound to fail.

[quote] Yes usually when coatings fail it is because the roof wasnt prep right, ex. wasnt pressure washed, no less then 3200 lbs. of pressure, use the appropriate cleaner followed by the primer for the type of roof to be coated then address the seams, fasteners, and penetrations, then the top coat. I would not buy anything that cost $100.00 per gallon!! Rapid Roof III runs $166.00 per 5 gal., Benchmark is $178.00 per 5 gal. And yes Conklin is more expensive then some of the others, compare them and you will see way. There is close to 2 billion sq. ft. applied nation wide. Sorry dont mean to spam anyone just inform.

As is sometimes the case, we swim upstream on pressure washing. There is no magic about pressure washing - the purpose is to get the roof clean "enough" for the coating to properly adhere, and to a lesser degree to not have a source of growth/rotting between the systems casused by dirt, etc.

In my experience we are rarely spraying a coating on a roof that doesn't have some existing leaks. Pressure washing over splits and cracks is often injecting water into the roof system and insulation that may be pretty tough to get out. I'm not saying pressure washing is always a bad idea, just that sometimes it is.

Some coatings have better adhesion properties than others. Emulsion has amazing adhesion - we've never had one blow off in 27 million sq ft installed. Secondly, the thinner the coating being applied, the more critical the cleanliness of the roof surface, because thinly-applied coatings tend to peel on a less-than-perfectly clean surface, whereas a 144 dry mil thickness system isn't likely to peel.

Alba Said: SPF develops stress cracks too.especially when applied over steel decks.

IF thats true then I've never seen it, and if it's true then the consequences are far less than the consequences of stress cracks on a single ply which is at worst an immediate leak and at best a potential one (which quickly becomes imminent). The crack in the SPF will take years for a leak to develop and if the re-coat programme was implemented then the effects of the crack will be negated when the re-coat is applied. Never seen SPF applied to a steel deck either. How do you eliminate the "telegraphing"?

SPF develops stress cracks too.especially when applied over steel decks.

Roofer girl Said: JET where are you located? I have some pretty good connections and can probably help you out with some manufacturer reps and info. Feel free to call me 719-250-1961

Near Orlando........drop me an email. (Comseal@aol.com)

JET

JET where are you located? I have some pretty good connections and can probably help you out with some manufacturer reps and info. Feel free to call me 719-250-1961

Already know Randy Patton here ;)

That's what you get for using single ply. Would never happen with CORRECTLY APPLIED SPF. :laugh:

We've got about two million square feet of Stevens TPO that is now showing stress cracks around skylights, etc. Talked to the ER rep and he's sending out some info for us to look at. Now that DOW is out of the single-ply business the Stevens issue is dead which is bad. I'm hoping my distributor will step up with some assistance but I'm not holding my breath.

JET

I have had roofers use coatings with great success and great failure. The trick is to choose the right coating for the job and while there is no "miracle in a can" fix. There are some great uses for coatings to extend the life of a marginal roof. In tough economic times with real estate prices down, it sometimes is impossible to get someone to buy a complete roof, but a good coating job might get a property sold. It can be a real win win for the right coating and the right job.

What Alba said! Like any type of roofing, it is easy to do in the middle of a roof with no penatrations. It is also easy to say that you should spend your money on the quality materials that will do the job. It is very difficult to match the savings and efficiency of making the membrane in the factory though. You take out the varibles that make the mistakes.

My friend is a painting contractor, and basically what we are talking with coatings is just painting. I tried to convey to him that it is just like painting a house. 90% of the battle is in the prep work, and if you do that right, and use the proper quality of materials on the preped surface, and know what you are doing when you appoly it; it is easy.

Prepping a house for paint and prepping a roof for coating is time consuming, and people take short cuts. They always have, and they always will. I don't believe there is any "miracle in a can" and I don't believe that one product will do all applications.

elmo Said: How many roofers out there wish they could find an easier way to make ends meet? Ive been in the roofing industry for 36 years and found myself struggling from year to year. Some years better then others, I got involve with elastromeric roof coatings a couple years ago. I choose to use Conklins coatings because of theyre quality and support that I received while I was getting started. This past year I focused on coating jobs and sighed away from my usual shingling jobs, the end results were great! I was able to make enough money to pay off a lot a bills and still have enough saved to take the winter entirely off. With the competition in the shingling world getting the way it is, it only made sense to advance into a new field of roofing. Conklin has systems to coat over EPDMs, Mod BITs, METAL, Smooth Built up,Concrete, Plywood, OSB, TPOs, PVCs and a sprayed in place foam roofing system. So you can see there is a wide verity of roofs to do. If any one is interested in more information about the coating industry please feel free to e-mail me or call, my phone number is 920-841-2314, My name is Elmer http://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/rcs/users/elmo/

Coating is basically field fabricated rubber membrane. Now manufacturers are trying to say that this membrane fabricated on the field by humans using a roller under less than ideal weather conditions is going to be just as good as the rubber membrane fabricated in the factory under controlled temperature and humidity by the robotic machinery.