Matching the coating to the climate: Why weather matters in roof restoration

CCS Influencer Johnny Walker says that regional weather patterns, seasonal conditions and cure-time requirements should guide coating selection to avoid installation issues and deliver long-lasting roof restoration results.

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Johnny Walker of ICP APOC. You can read the interview below, listen to the podcast or watch the recording.

Emma: Hi everyone, I'm Emma Richardson. I'm here with CoatingsCoffeeShop.com and our Coatings Influencer Johnny Walker of ICP APOC. Johnny, how are you?

Johnny Walker: I'm wonderful. Having a beautiful day. How about you, Emma?

Emma: Same here. Well we're chatting about our September topic today, which is installation challenges when it comes to weather and climate and what ponding considerations and design responses might be involved there. What what would you like to share?

Johnny Walker: Yeah, well, when we're looking at a restoration, or any roofing project, we always have to keep weather considerations in there. We have lots of different polymer families, whether they be acrylics, asphaltics or silicones, or even some of the more high ends, urethanes, BMAs, more expensive products. They all have weather requirements, certain amount of cure time, open time and those things. Some of them can't get wet for 24 to 48 hours, some of them can get rained on within 45 minutes for high-end silicone. That's great weather resistance.

The other thing you can think about is the time of the year and the freezing issue. Your waterborne products, you're not going to be able to use them if you're going to be dropping below freezing. Basically we look at forty-five degrees and rising and it must stay that way for a minimum of 48 hours so that the roof can actually dry. Those are evaporative products where the water has to come out. And if it freezes on the roof, it'll damage it. We have to think about storage of the product as well. A lot of products, asphaltics, although they work fairly well in cold climates, the colder it is, the stiffer they're going to be. So the more difficult they can be to work with. So those particular products might have to be stored indoor or even what they call tenting or hot boxing on the roof where they're going to keep it warm until it's applied. So we always want to look at those types of things.

And we think of the opportunities that we see here is in the dry seasons, acrylics are going be fantastic. They're great products, they're highly reflective. But when we also think about whether we also think about location, right? Is this a regional climate impact? You know, in Arizona they have monsoons, but they have a very dry climate outside of that. So once the rain's done, the roofs are dry in a very short period of time. Acrylics are fantastic there. They're highly reflective and they work.

Areas like a Florida market, for example, where we say, 'Hey, if the roof is wet for more than 72 hours after the rain stops, that'd be consider pond and water area. Well, in Florida, during the summertime, we may not get 72 hours where we don't get rain, and we're certainly not going to get 72 hours where there isn't a dew drop every night with the high humidity. So those roofs will literally be wet for six months or more. In those situations, using a silicone that can get wet after 45 minutes, can get poured down on for a reasonable amount of time, and you don't have to worry about the dew dropping out overnight. Whereas an acrylic needs four to six hours before the dew drops, 24 to 48 hours before it gets rained on, that's not going work in that market. So when we're trying to figure out what's the right product for that particular restoration, we have to think about the region and the regional climate, and the time of year. Are we in the dry season, are we in the wet season, are we in the monsoon season, are we in the hurricane season? We don't want to leave these roofs open. Everything we do should make it more watertight, but we don't want to put something on there that could potentially wash off quickly and cause more damage to the to the building other than just a simple leak.

Emma: Yeah. I think that paying attention to the details, making sure you're looking at the forecast and picking the right stuff. Awesome. Thank you so much, Johnny. This was really helpful and we will catch you for October.

Johnny Walker: Great. Thank you so much.