National Coatings Blog

Size: approximately 23,000 square feet
System: National Coatings AcryPly® Emulsion and Acrylic Roof Restoration System

The building at Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, California contained a failing BUR substrate with extensive repair and failures around many of the seals. It was important to the school to restore the existing roof to a maintainable state without any major disruptions to the existing school in session. 

National Coatings installed the AcryPly Emulsion and Acrylic Roof Restoration System. This system allowed all existing roof deficiencies to be addressed by installing a layer of emulsion and polyester reinforcing fabric to essentially build a new, fully adhered, monolithic roof system over the top of the existing BUR roof. The AcryPly System provided Temple Emanuel Religious School with a non-disruptive roof containing high performance acrylic base and top coats with increased reflectivity in order to reduce their cooling costs.

The application process was successful, causing no disruption to the students inside the building and the owners were very pleased they could restore their existing roof, avoid a tear-off, save a lot of money, and gain a system that will perform for many years to come.  

   Asphaltic roofs with emulsion are excellent at waterproofing your roof membrane. These roofs are applied across thousands of roofs in America and have been proven to be very successful. With all roofs, there comes a time when aging and failures begin to occur, at this time, we recommend apply an asphalt coating system to renew and restore these roofs, allowing you to avoid a costly tear-off.

Asphalt roofing with emulsion can be difficult to adhere to because of its chemical make-up that gives it the ability to resist water; therefore, it is helpful to know a few ways to test how well the asphalt coating will adhere in order to insure proper and complete adhesion. 

1. (For new construction only) Make sure the asphalt emulsion is completely dried. The surface may feel dry but make sure beneath the surface where the asphalt meets the existing roof is dry. This may take a day or two. Other factors to consider are weather conditions. Heavy dew, fog, rain, humidity, etc… will cause the asphalt to dry at a slower rate. If the asphalt doesn’t get proper adhesion to the roof surface, you will have adhesion issues going forward.
2. Many asphalt emulsions contain large amounts of emulsifiers and surfactants. These ingredients have a tendency to come to the surface and cause the rooftop to be soapy and slippery when wet. Test a small area by applying a few drops of water to the roof and rubbing around with your finger. If the water turns black and feels slippery, then you know your roof contains too much residual “soaps” for proper adhesion. A pressure washer is great at removing the soap from the rooftop but you need to make sure to flush all the water off of the roof without allowing it to collect and/or dry in ponded areas as adequate adhesion can not occur with the soap between the asphalt and the coating layers.
3. Once all the soap is rinsed properly off the building, a simple spot test with water drops and your finger (as described above in #2) should be conducted again to ensure the pressure wash removed all the soapy materials. If the test shows soap again, another pressure wash of the entire roof surface is necessary.
4. After the washing is complete and the spot test shows there is no more soap then a final field test is conducted on a dry asphalt surface. Take a piece of 1 inch masking tape about 5 to 6 inches long and press firmly onto the surface. Pull it back at a 180˚ angle. If the tape has satisfactory adhesion, then it will not peel away easily and will not contain dirt, degraded asphalt or other materials that would cause interference with proper adhesion.

When you’ve completed the few steps above and are left with a clean piece of tape that had good adhesion to the asphalt surface, you are ready to apply the asphalt coating system knowing that proper adhesion will be achieved. Get more information on our asphalt coating systems.  These systems can be applied on a new asphalt roof for added protection and energy savings, and on older systems for renewal and roof life extension.

Asphalt roof coatings are excellent for restoring aged or failing asphalt, BUR (Built-up Roofing) or Mod Bit (modified bitumen) roofing substrates. These coatings provide two valuable qualities – avoid a roof replacement and gain an energy efficient roofing system. 

Let’s discuss the first benefit – an asphalt roof coating system allows you to avoid a roof tear-off or roof replacement indefinitely. These asphalt coating systems fully restore your existing roof membrane to a new roof without the cost and time a traditional roof replacement or roof tear-off would take. There are no landfill fees, no additional waste removal stages, and no business closures. The asphalt roof coating system is spray applied directly over your existing roof membrane creating a monolithic, seamless roofing substrate.  With the use of the AcryShield A400 acrylic, elastomeric roof coating, your asphalt roof will benefit from advanced bleed-blocking properties and prevention of early roof degradation. The AcryShield base coats provide excellent waterproofing, superior adhesion, and resistance to ponded water. These systems are renewable allowing you to restore your roof every 10-15 years, avoiding a roof tear-off forever.

Secondly, they save you money by cutting down on your energy usage. The AcryShield topcoats provide industry leading UV protection, longevity and brightness to your roof. Your existing roof is transformed into a brand-new roof membrane that prevents a majority of the heat from the sun from being absorbed into the building. The white roof coating reflects the heat away from the roof lowering the surface temperature of the roof and the inside temperature of the building. This provides a substantial temperature difference from the original black asphaltic surface. After the National Coatings' Cool Roof was installed we definitely noticed a difference in building temperature. It's not a marginal difference, either. It is between 15-20 degrees cooler inside the warehouse and store." - Jerry Moore, Facilities Director at Harbor Freight Tools

These asphalt coating systems can be applied as a roof maintenance system for localized reinforcement and added UV protection to lower energy consumption, or as a newly constructed roof to give your dark asphalt roof a white roof coating for energy savings and also as a roof restoration system to fully restore your aged building providing you with extra insulation and/or structural enhancements with added energy efficiency. To learn more, download our FREE Asphalt Roof Coating System brochure for additional information.