If you own a commercial building or residence with a flat roof, you know keeping that roof in top shape is one of the most important things you can do for your building. Your building’s roof helps insulate, ventilate, and protect, but unlike pitched roofs flat roofs don’t have gravity to scoot things along.
Flat roofs need extra help keeping the elements out of your building and one of the best ways to bring a leaky flat roof back to life is with an elastomeric roof coating. Let’s find out more about elastomeric roof coatings including what they are and the best elastomeric roof coating for your roof.
What is an Elastomeric Roof Coating?
Elastomeric roof coatings are liquid-based coatings that are sprayed onto existing commercial and flat roofing systems. Elastomeric roof coatings provide extra insulation, and protection from the elements, and can be installed at a fraction of the cost of a full replacement.
When Do You Need an Elastomeric Roof Coating?
Elastomeric roof coatings are ideal for flat roofs that have fallen into disrepair but don’t need to be fully replaced. Instead of dealing with the pain and time of a full tear-off and replacement, you can install the roof coating directly over the existing roof. A roofing expert can inspect your roof and help determine if it’s a good candidate for a roof coating.
Types of Elastomeric Roof Coatings
The three major types of elastomeric roof coatings are acrylic, silicone, and urethane.
Acrylic Roof Coatings Pros and Cons
Acrylic roof coatings are affordable and easy to apply but aren’t as strong or resistant to water ponding compared to silicone. If you have a small budget but need to do something for your roof an acrylic coating can help.
Silicone Roof Coating Pros and Cons
Silicone roof coatings are the most popular thanks to a combination of cost, strength, and resistance to ponding. Silicone roof coatings are a great way to add extra reinforcement and insulation without the mess and cost of a full replacement. Silicone coatings excel at fighting leaks from ponding water.
Urethane Roof Coating
Urethane-based roof coatings are strong but aren’t a great match for medium to large roof coatings and aren’t as tough against ponding water as silicone. Urethane’s cost and weight make it suitable to small repairs but not total coatings.
Which Elastomeric Roof Coating is Best for Colorado?
When all factors are considered the best elastomeric roof coating for Colorado is a silicone roof coating. Silicone roof coatings cost more than acrylic coatings but are the superior product for the unique environmental needs of Colorado.
Benefits of an Elastomeric Silicone Roof Coating
- Get More Out of Your Roof – An elastomeric roof coating can add 10 to 20 years to your roof’s lifespan.
- Low Cost – Silicone roof coatings are more expensive than lower-quality coatings but still nowhere near the cost of a replacement. You can save up to 60% by choosing a coating over a replacement.
- No Mess – Silicone roof coatings are applied over the existing roofing so no tear-off is involved. No tear-off means no big mess or dust for your building’s visitors and no forced closings.
- In and Out – Even large roof coatings don’t take more than 1-2 days compared to the potential weeks of a roof replacement.
- Other Benefits – Coatings keep your roof watertight by sealing tiny cracks and damage. By sealing all the tiny cracks your building will be more efficient at keeping its own conditioned air or heat.
- Reflective – Roof coatings have reflective properties that direct solar energy away from your building leading to lower utility bills.
More Resources on Elastomeric Roof Coatings
If you have more questions about roof coatings or if you think your building is a good candidate, call Roofcorp today. We’ll put our years of knowledge and experience together to inspect your roof, help determine if it needs a coating, and help you choose the right product. Don’t wait while your building loses energy and runs your costs up – call Roofcorp now.
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