Roof Coating: Reduce Commercial Roofing Energy Costs & Increase Lifespan
Roof Coating using GacoRoof products avoids costly flat roof replacements.
50 Year Material Warranty, for all restoration projects.
No Day-to-Day Business Interruptions during construction.
No More Worrying about "Ponding Water" Standing Water Resistant Coatings
TPO Roofing, known as an energy star rated eco-friendly flat roofing option.
EPDM Roofing Systems are an economical install without disturbing day to day business.
PVC Roofing is popular for being heat reflective, lightweight, & eco-friendly
See an overview of our commercial roofing service options and comparisons.
Modified Bitumen is the classic standard in flat roofing, but has recently fallen in popularity.
See an overview of our industrial roofing service options and comparisons.
What is a Flat Roof Coating?
Rather than replacing an entire flat roof, many companies and residences opt to instead go with a coating job. A roof coating adds an extra layer of protection onto your existing roof structure in order to add more years to your roof’s life.
In recent years, this technique has become very popular for extending the life of a commercial roofing system because roof coatings expand and retract with the other roofing materials used as the weather conditions change. What that means for you is that the coating isn’t “broken” when natural heating and cooling causes expansion and contraction during different seasons.
Reflective roof coatings can offer huge energy saving benefits too, making them environmentally friendly and excellent to help reduce your carbon footprint.
Flat Roof Coating Benefits
More Roof Coating Benefits
1. Non-Destructive Install: Less Debris During Build Out
Most roofing projects come with the issue of debris. The old material has to be removed before the new roof can be put in place, often leaving a trail behind it, which can be bothersome during working hours for your building or home. However, with roof coating because the removal process is minimal, the level of debris is very small compared to traditional roof repair methods. That means that you have less interference during construction affecting your day to day operations.
This is a huge benefit to you because it doesn’t require the closure of business while construction is happening because there isn’t a major disruption preventing normal business, saving you on shut down costs. Complete re-roof projects usually require work that creates noise (because of the type of equipment that must be used), with intensive odors as the roof is being melded together. Due to those factors, we recommend a coating job when a full re-roofing is not necessary because you walk away with the extended roof life span, without the hassle to business operation.
2. Cost Effective
Because roof coatings are applied directly to your existing roof, rather than replacing the core materials, the install time is sped up - often times 2-3x faster and the system installation is much less labor intensive versus new roof construction. Because we’re primarily working to restore the roof, tear off isn’t done, leading to little or no waste removal, saving you on landfill fees.
That’s a three times installation saving: less labor, less time and little or no removal fees.
3. Sustainable
Roof coatings are renewable and can be reapplied every 10 years to continually lengthen your roof’s life. Each new coating renews the reflectiveness of the surface and it’s durability to keep up its waterproofing ability while continually saving you on material cost and eliminating landfill fill ups.
4. Cooler Roof, Cooler Building
Extremely reflective silicone roof coatings can significantly decrease the temperature of your roof by 50-60 degrees. This means the conditions in your building will be much more comfortable in the summer and there will be far less strain on your air conditioning systems. This also makes roof repairs during the hottest summer days possible.
5. Lower Electric Bills
Because your roof is reflecting all that sunlight and collecting so much less heat during the day, the overall temperature of your building is going to massively decrease during those hot summer months. This in turn will significantly reduce your energy bills and any installed HVAC systems will have less strain and less usage.
6. Your Roof’s Effective Life is Increased
On average, a good roof coating job done by a certified roof coating contractor will extend the life of your roof by 10 years - and in many cases many more years than that! Down the line, with proper maintenance and care, you can have the roof recoated to further extend the lifetime and avoid costly full-on replacements. Because many coatings have reflective properties, the overall temperature of your roof is reduced, slowing the aging effects of heat and UV.
7. Fast & Simple Installation
Flat roof coatings are generally applied either as a spray or with a roller. This makes application on even the largest commercial buildings very fast and straightforward. Instead of requiring a full installation crew, a small 2-3 man crew of roof coating contractors is usually sufficient to finish a full commercial sized building. This means less mess, hassle and interruptions. The coatings usually start to dry in 2-8 hours and will be fully cured within 24 hours, so you will start to see the benefits very quickly with an absolute minimum inconvenience to you, your business and your clients.
Ponding Water No Longer a Problem With Our Preferred Roof Coating Product
The classic risk behind applying roof coatings is that no flat roof has a perfect slope. Not having a perfect slope means that at some point in most installs there’s an area of the roof that dips a little bit and collects water after rain storms, rather than simply draining the water off the edge of the roof as intended.
Uneven slopes can be caused by any number of things: improper installation, natural weathering effects (such as snowfall build up weakening certain areas of the roof before others) and simple aging.
Normally, the water that builds up in these dips is called “ponding water” because the water sits there on your roof like a pond. This problem eventually causes damage and leaks in your roof, which is usually what leads to having to have your roof repaired or replaced to begin with.
However, using GacoRoof products, every roof coating project is able to permanently withstand ponding water. The GacoRoof does not soften, bubble or degrade even if it’s permanently under ponding water and Gaco backs this up with a 50 year limited material warranty.
Additionally, the GacoRoof keeps it’s flexibility (which makes sure the coating expands and contracts naturally with your roof) despite regular snow packing, while most other coatings eventually become brittle and degrade.
Learn about how Spray Polyurethane Foam can help extend your roof's lifespan
What about Roof Primer?
Roof primer is usually used in order to make an optimal and even application of coating - in layman's terms to make the coating stick properly to the roof.
We primarily use GacoRoof for our coatings. That means that on most flat roof surfaces, the need for priming can be eliminated because their product is designed to properly stick to a surface without taking this extra time consuming step.
For roofs that have aged asphalt or black tar, then priming will still be necessary because of the unique nature of these materials. All our coatings are tested 24 hours after application in order to guarantee that the new roof coating is properly adhered (sticks to) the surface.
Roof Coating Over Metal
Very frequently metal roofs do not reach their full lifespan because the property owner gets tired of throwing money into constant repairs that just don't work. A Silicone Roof Coating Restoration (RCR) is considered to be the repair to end all repairs.
By simply applying a thin layer of silicone directly to the metal roof's surface, you can eliminate leaks for up to 20 years or more. The silicone roof coating fully seals all seams, joints, fasteners and penetrations, effectively eliminating the risk of leaks at all the common weak points of a metal roof.
Metal Roofing Issues
- Seams often lead to leaks
- Fasteners can become loose and backout, allowing heat loss and leaks
- A metal roof will expand and contract with our extreme New York temperature swings
- Rust leads to roof failure
- Flashing will eventually deteriorate, causing leaks
Silicone Roof Coating Restoration Solutions
- 100% seamless, fills in all your roof's existing seams making leaks impossible
- Completely surrounds your roof's fasteners
- Elastic properties of silicone roof coatings mean they expand and contract with your roof, ensuring no gaps will form
- Stops corrosion and prevents future rusting
- Silicone is a self-flashing material
Roof Waterproofing: The Step-by-Step Process
A roof that isn’t waterproof isn’t doing its job! When you hire Infinite Roofing to restore your old roof and extend its life, these are the four steps taken to eliminate leaks.
- The first step in waterproofing is cleaning off the old roof “substrate.” Because roof coatings have to bind to your old roof in order to prevent leaks, we first have to clean the top surface in order to get a uniform surface and expose any problems that need special attention during coating.
- When necessary, the second step is priming. When using GacoRoof coatings, priming is only necessary when the roof surface is aged asphalt or black tar. Other coating products will usually require priming in order to get the coating to stick to the surface properly. During priming, we have to make sure that the roof surface is dry, so air blowers or torches might be used in order to guarantee a dry surface before priming.
- Detail work treatment. Certain areas of your roof require special attention and are often overlooked: areas like corners on the inside and outside, “wall to floor” corners, metal flashing “terminations” and any feature that goes through the roof like: pipes, drains and vents.
- The final step is application of the roof coating. For every application we do when restoring an old roof, two coatings are put in place to guarantee the longest shelf life of your restoration project.
Flat Roof Maintenance: Keeping Your Newly Restored Roof Leak Free
“What do I need to do to maintain my roof?” and “how do I make my new roof last longer?” are common questions our clients have after a roof restoration project. The best answer to this is through regular inspection and paying attention to the weather.
Inspect the roof semi-annually (once every 6 months) and after major storms hit the area (which includes high wind “events”). Early detection of any damage that occurs as a result of storms allows for quick insurance claims, and prevents problems from prematurely leading to needing an expensive replacement.
In the event of damage due to storms, in a lot of cases some additional coating applications can be put in to fix the problem, especially if it was a newer restoration project.
Infinite Roofing & Construction
25 Walker Way, Ste 2A
Colonie, NY 12205
(office) 518-444-ROOF
(mobile) 518-221-1003
(email) info@infiniteroofingny.com
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