National Coatings Blog

Exterior durability is crucial when choosing a high performance elastomeric roof coating. Below is are two questions you should research before selecting a roof coating system for you building to guarantee excellent protection and long-lasting durability.

What kind of UV protection will the coating provide?
Go to the Cool Roof Rating Councils (CRRC) website to determine how reflective the elastomeric roof coating is based on initial and aged solar reflectance and thermal emittance values. The greater the number is for each of the values, the better! (Check out NCC’s roof coatings and systems that are listed with the CRRC.)

Highly reflective coatings are able to reflect a majority of the sun’s UV rays away from the building, back into the atmosphere, allowing the building to absorb only a very small percentage of the sun’s heat. When you choose a roof coating with excellent UV protection, your roof is safeguarded against its biggest enemy – ultraviolet rays aka the sun’s heat. Protection against UV rays allows your roofs lifespan to last longer, remain flexible for longer without becoming embrittled, and will lower roof maintenance costs.

Does it Protect Against Foot Traffic
Your roof needs to be accessed from time to time to perform routine maintenance checks, unclog drains, work on rooftop equipment (such as solar panels or HVAC equipment), and more. It is essential to choose an elastomeric roof coating that can withstand normal foot traffic while accessing these locations. There is an AcryShield A550 elastomeric roof coating that provides additional protection against foot traffic and physical abuse. A coating such as the A550 would be good to use directly around roof hatches and equipment that will be accessed regularly to ensure proper protection and durability.

The AcryShield elastomeric roof coating line offers excellent durability, UV resistance, and substrate protection from degradation from sunlight. These roof coatings even provide enhanced longevity and brightness (for maximum reflectivity) with superior dirt pick up resistance (allows the coating to remain white and reflect greater) and protection against biological attack such as algae and mold.

For more information on National Coatings elastomeric roof coatings and systems, download our free brochure.

1. Weatherproofing
   All commercial roofing systems need to provide your building with resistance and durability to the effects of harsh weather conditions – primarily rain. After several years of exposure to the sun’s heat, the roof slowly breaks-down and loses its weatherproofing capabilities. Its flexibility begins to fail, and the roof starts to crack and split, eventually leading to leaks in your roof. To maintain proper weatherproofing for virtually any low-slope commercial roofing substrate, it is recommended that a roof coating restoration or maintenance system be installed. These commercial roofing systems are spray applied directly over your existing roof providing fully renewed, weatherproofing and waterproofing to your existing roof without adding a new roof substrate or investing in a costly and timely roof tear-off.  These systems are liquid applied, creating a monolithic, seamless membrane across your rooftop - filling any cracks, holes and voids that could cause leaks.

2. Reinforcement
   Reinforcement is necessary for strength and durability to any commercial roofing systems. Using the AcryPly Roof Restoration system, a full layer of 100% polyester stitch-bonded fabric is embedded into the roof coating system to cover the entire roof field. This provides outstanding physical strength, unique elongation, and long-term durability to the roof structure. If your building only requires minimal reinforcement, the AcryShield Roof Management System (ARM) provides these same benefits in localized, problem areas only. Both these systems are installed without any business closures and with very minimal disruption to your building as there are no harsh odors or fumes (many of our products even contain ZERO VOC’s), and no loud noises as there is no drilling, hammering or seam-welding involved.

3. Surface Protection
   Excellent protection to the surface of your roof is necessary for weatherproofing and reinforcement. The surface of your roof takes the brunt of all the harsh weather conditions. The sun’s UV rays/heat is the leading cause of roof degradation. It is vital to have a highly reflective roof surface to reflect the UV rays away from the building, protecting the surface of the roof from premature degradation and failures (aka leaks).  The high reflectivity protects the surface of the roof allowing the roof to remain flexible and durable to withstand the different temperature fluctuations throughout the day and different seasons.  The AcryPly and ARM commercial roofing systems provide high reflectively to your roof. You can learn how reflective a roof coating truly is by viewing test results and ratings on the Cool Roof Rating Council’s (CRRC) website. The CRRC provides accurate and unbiased initial and 3-year ratings for solar reflectance, thermal emittance, and solar reflectance index. Take a look at the AcryShield reflectivity ratings used in the AcryPly and ARM system. Reflectivity not only protects your roof surface, it lengthens the roofs’ lifespan, and it increases energy efficiency by allowing the air temperature inside the building to remain cooler. The greater ability the coating has to reflect the sun’s heat away from the building, the less heat the building is able to absorbing. This allows your building to remain cooler for longer with less air conditioning usage.
   
   Another important factor to surface protection is foot-traffic protection. A durable roof coating such as the AcryShield A550 is ideal for areas that experience high traffic, such as roof hatches, HVAC equipment, drains and other equipment on top of the roof. Walkway pads are also recommended for even more protection against foot traffic and physical abuse. 

For more information on one of our commercial roofing systems, download our FREE Product Brochure. Our systems can restore your existing roof to new without the cost and time of a new roof substrate or tear-off project.  To learn more, contact a Professional Roofing Expert – no obligation, we are here to help!