Roof Talk-101 Metal Roof Restoration

Roof Talk-101   Metal Roof  Restoration

by; Martin Grohman, Director of Sustainability  GAF

Outside of my role as the company’s ‘green guy’, I’m also a commercial property owner.  My building here in Maine has a ribbed metal roof that is about 25 years old.  It’s been a good building with great tenants but there were really starting to be some problems with one particular 100-square section of the roof.  It hadn’t been well maintained, and some of the exposed fasteners, especially in areas where repairs had been done before, were starting to cause problems.  In fact, as we peeled up some of the repairs, we found they actually trapped moisture and caused rust to form.  One of our tenants makes fine furniture, and they were complaining about leaks, and there had been even been some inventory losses.

And with the summer heat, I was running the fans and the air handlers all the time to keep everybody comfortable.  It was clear something needed to be done.  I looked at a few options, including going over the roof with a Z-profile and new metal; filling the flutes and recovering with a single ply membrane; and an engineered roof coating. Topcoat really seemed like the best choice.
One of the things that I really liked was that the Topcoat team was familiar with all of the unusual details of the roof and how to approach them.  The building was added onto in stages, and it created some areas that seemed to leak no matter what we did.  There’s a full line of Topcoat products which are applicable to pretty much every detail on the roof.   Plus the liquid fabric product eliminates the time-consuming application of fabric at horizontal seams, and tubes of sealant are handy for particular problem areas.

Looking at it from the property owner’s point of view, the Topcoat coating is a great choice. From a sustainability point of view, a high solids elastomeric like Topcoat really works too.  It’s a cool, reflective roof that’s already saving me energy costs, and it will keep my tenants more comfortable too (I have to say this effect is really remarkable.  In direct sun, if you put your hand on the coated area, it’s cool – not just ‘not hot’, but cool. 

On the galvanized metal, it’s too hot to leave your hand on comfortably).  So the new roof is not only going to keep my tenants dry, but it’s also keeping them cooler.  And we didn’t waste anything to do it.  We were able to add to the service life of the existing roof using very little new material and disposing of very little old material, so I like it from a sustainability point of view.
I’m pleased the tenants will be a little cooler and more comfortable.  And as the property owner, I’m saving energy, making the asset last longer, restoring and preserving the roof, and keeping the people that pay the bills happy.  This was my first experience with roof restoration, has anyone else tried this?

ROOFTEC-LLC has been installing commercial roofing systems for over 30 years. We have the solutions you are looking for if you desire a new commercial roof or need a re-roof. ROOFTEC-LLC only uses the best products and installation practices to insure you have a worry free commercial roof. For more information visit us at. www.rooftec-llc.com and we also invite you to Like Us on our RoofTec-LLC Facebook Page .