Roof coatings in action

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn about when and where a coating can be used to extend the lifespan of a roof. 

In a new Roofing Road Trips®, Megan Ellsworth sat down with Gabe Lane to talk about how coatings can aid in extending the lifespan of a roof. Gabe is a part of CertainTeed’s Commercial Building and Infrastructure group, supporting contractors working with commercial roofing solutions in the field.  

He opened the conversation by explaining why coatings are such a powerful product, sharing, “The biggest positive about coatings is that they eliminate the need to tear off what's there and throw it into a dumpster and getting rid of it at the landfill.” Instead, with a coating, you conduct some repairs on the roof, clean the surface and recoat it. Gabe gave an example, “At CertainTeed, our Smartcoat is a great example of the power of coatings. We can put that down in one pass, whether it's a 10-year warranty, a 15-year warranty or a 20-year warranty thickness, and then you’re good to go. So, not only is it versatile, it's also efficient. You can get done with a coating project a lot quicker than you can get done with any type of tear-off and re-roof.” 

With benefits like this, it can be tempting to default to coating a roof instead of doing a tear off. But a roof coating is not a miracle in a bucket. There will be some roofs you can’t coat. Gabe gave an example, explaining, “I was recently on a 14-year-old roof that was a 45 mil EPDM system. And every flashing that was either facing south or west was tented beyond a 45-degree angle onto the ballasted EPDM roof. That roof, you can’t coat it. The ballasted system makes it absolutely filthy, especially because this roof was on top of a factory, so there was byproduct that was getting off-gassed up onto the roof.”  

So, how do you determine whether a roof can be coated or not? The first thing to establish is the presence of a strong base. To put a coating down, you need something to coat. And if you’re working on a surface like that 14-year-old roof, it’s going to be a lot harder to find something that will perform properly. Gabe shared, “If you want to coat it, then you must find a way of giving yourself something to coat. I’ve seen guys use high-density boards or stainless-steel decking on difficult projects, but there’s not a book or guide on this. The best advice I have is to have conversations. Talk to us and we can help you figure out the details of your unique situation.”  

Listen to the whole episode to learn more about the process of coating a commercial roof.