National Coatings Blog

While EPDM roofing has been a popular choice for low-slope commercial roofing, we recommend a roof coating system because they are seamless and highly reflective.

What is the Advantage of a Seamless Roof?
Seamless roofs provide excellent waterproofing capabilities. Roof coatings are spray applied across your entire roof surface, including difficult areas such as HVAC equipment, pipes, drains and other hard to reach and seal areas. These seamless membranes have no regions that need patching or sealing, creating a very durable, uniform surface that has excellent strength and flexibility.

EPDM roofing systems are applied in one of three ways: ballasted, mechanically attached or full adhered. The EPDM comes in rolls of varying widths that need to be adhered together at the seams. The more seams there are, the larger the risk of error is during installation at these joints. Seams begin failing, ripping and tearing due to improper installation, erosion and membrane shrinkage. Seam failure is also the number one causes of roof deterioration that an EPDM roof experiences because these seams provide an excellent avenue for water to penetrate the roof deck and seep inside the building.

Do I Care about High Reflectivity?
While many jurisdictions require a “cool roof” and many building owners desire one, EPDM’s surface is black providing no reflective capabilities. A highly reflective roof coating system is a great advantage to a building owner and/or tenant because these white roofs provide a cooler ambient air temperature inside the building with less air-conditioning usage. This saves a tremendous amount of energy usage and cost throughout the year. The reflectivity capabilities also provide UV protection against premature aging and damaging to your roof. (See the Harbor Freight Case History for a testimonial on their experience with an AcryShield Cool Roof System.) 

What to if You Currently Have an EPDM Roof?
We have an excellent EPDM roof coating system that can fully restore and renew your EPDM roof into a white, highly reflective, seamless roof without worrying about a costly tear-off or any disruptions to your work environment during installation. Click here to learn more about restoring your EPDM roof!

For more information on our roof coating systems, download our full line brochure or contact a roof coating professional, today 800-423-9557!

An aged EPDM roof substrate can greatly benefit from installing a preventative roof maintenance system.  The AcryShield EPDM Roof Coating System can prolong the life-span of your existing EPDM roof, lower roof maintenance costs, decrease energy usage and costs and these EPDM roof coatings are renewable, indefinitely.

The ease of application and non-intrusive application process for installing one of these systems makes them attractive to both building owners and contractors. With minimal noise disruption – no drilling, nailing or seam-welding necessary, ZERO or ultra-low VOCs, no harmful or strong odors, your company can remain open and conduct business as usual with minor distractions.

Let’s dive into the installation process… 

Examination

Before application begins, all surfaces that will receive the AcryShield EPDM roof coating system need to be clean and smooth – free of moisture, dirt, debris and any other contaminations. All roof penetrations, mechanical equipment, cants, edge metal, and other on-roof items need to be established that they are in place and secure. Drains need to be cleaned and in working order. The surrounding areas, air conditioning systems, and air intake vents in the immediate vicinity of the coating system need to be protected and/or closed from over-spray.

Surface Preparation In order to prepare the surface of the roof and insure it is clean and smooth for proper adhesion of the coating, the following may be necessary - an industrial cleaner, scraping, power brooming, vacuuming or other means to remove the debris. Pressure washing the rooftop prior to application of the EPDM roof coatings significantly removes extra dirt and debris; however, it is important to note areas of defect or leaks should be manually cleaned to avoid causing a larger issue.

After the cleaning stage is completed you will need to seal and reinforce all loose seams and other failing areas specified by the coating manufacturer on the existing EPDM roof system. National Coatings recommends using either butyl seam tape or saturating 10” wide T272 polyester reinforcing fabric in AcryShield A502 base coat. HVAC duct work joints, mechanical equipment, coping seams and other critical junctures should be sealed with AcryFlex, an architectural sealant, and reinforced with polyester fabric or butyl seam tape. Skylights, equipment platforms and all other roof penetrations should be reinforced using 20” wide T272 fabric and AcryShield A502 base coat. The sealants and base coats will need 8 to 24 hours (depending on weather conditions) to dry thoroughly before application begins.

Application
After the entire roof field is cleaned, defects and seams are repaired, and custom reinforcement has been installed, the application process begins. A base coat is installed across the rooftop. The AcryShield A502 base coat is ideal for coating single-ply as it was specifically made to tenaciously adhere to hard to coat surfaces such as EPDM, while eliminating the need for additional primers or etching rinses. After the base coat dries, which takes 8 to 12 hours, a topcoat is applied. The AcryShield A500 topcoat is supreme as it provides longevity, brightness, superior dirt pick-up resistance and protection against biological attach, such as algae and mold. The A500 exceeds all ASTM D6083 requirements and also offers excellent tensile strength, elongation, and wet adhesion.  Once the topcoat dries, roughly another 8 to 12 hours, the EPDM roof coating system is complete and can be exposed to foot traffic.

Contact National Coatings for a detailed installation specification for EPDM Roof Coating Systems for further information on required gallons per square feet, dry mil thickness and other important application requirements.

Using an EPDM roof coating system allows you to fully restore your leaking EPDM roof while avoiding a timely and costly roof tear-off.

EPDM roofs often begin aging or failing because they experience rips and tears along the seams. When installed, EPDM is ballasted, mechanically attached or fully adhered to the roof. Shrinkage occurs to the EPDM as the oils of the substrate dry out, causing the EPDM to become less flexible, less durable and unable to expand and contract as easily with different temperature fluctuations. The shrinkage results in seam failure as the membrane tears away from the adhered substrate - eventually leading to leaks in your building. 

Luckily, this can be easily restored to a brand new roof without business disruptions or closures. The AcryShield EPDM roof coating systems are ideal for proving excellent waterproofing, superior durability and protection, and reduced maintenance costs while extending the life span of the roof.

The EPDM roof coating system typically uses the AcryShield A502 base coat. This base coat was specifically formulated to adhere DIRECTLY to EPDM without the need for additional primers or etching rinses. (For more, download our FREE guide on Restoring EPDM Roofs.) This coating saves installation cost and time as this labor intensive and time consuming stage is removed from the process altogether. Contractor’s benefit from offering a system with less labor and increased profits and building owners benefit from preserving their original roof to new without any landfill fee’s or business disruptions or closures.

The AcryShield EPDM roof coating system can use a range of top coats that provide benefits ranging from ultra-high UV ray protection (AcryShield A590), to extra durable, extra tough for added protection against foot traffic and physical abuse (AcryShield A550), to an industry standard coating with low temperature flexibly, ratings that’s exceed ASTM D6083 requirements and high performance fire retardants (AcryShield A500). The AcryShield topcoat line has an EPDM roof coating to meet the individual needs of your particular roof. After all, these systems are spray-applied directly on top of your existing roofing, creating a seamless, monolithic, custom installed EPDM roof coating system that can be renewed and maintained indefinitely.

For more information on our EPDM roof coating systems – download our FREE Single-Ply Brochure or contact us!

You can also check out our case studies on EDPM roof membranes:

Porsche

National Printing Plate

North Garner Middle School

For more, read our blog – EPDM Roofing…Answers to your Questions!