Commercial roof coatings, restoration and spray foam

Restore, recover or replace — how is that decided?

By what is under the membrane, in this order. First, is the insulation dry? A moisture survey — infrared, capacitance meter, or test cuts where the survey says to — answers that, and it is the question everything else hangs on. Second, is the deck sound and are the fasteners holding? Third, is the membrane still bonded and still coatable, and has this roof already been covered as many times as the code allows? A roof that passes all three is a restoration candidate, and restoring it is the cheaper answer. A roof that fails the first is a replacement — or a replacement of the wet portion and a restoration of the rest.

What does a restoration actually involve?

More preparation than coating. We clean the roof properly, because coatings bond to the surface they are given; we make the repairs — seams, splits, blisters, failed flashings and pitch pockets; we replace saturated insulation where the survey found it; we reinforce every detail, penetration and change of plane with fabric embedded in coating, because that is where the movement is; and only then does the field get its base and top coats at the specified thickness. Anyone who quotes a restoration as a price per square foot for coating alone has quoted you the last twenty per cent of the job.

Silicone or acrylic?

Silicone tolerates standing water, which matters on Central Texas roofs with lazy drainage, and it holds up well to ultraviolet exposure; it is more expensive, it is slippery when wet, and it attracts dirt, so reflectivity falls unless the roof is washed. Acrylic costs less, is easier to work with, re-coats cleanly and holds its brightness better, but it does not want to sit in ponding water and it needs proper cure conditions to go on at all. On a roof that drains well, acrylic is often the sensible economy. On a roof with ponding you cannot fix, silicone is usually the only honest coating answer — and if the ponding is severe, the real answer is foam or drainage correction, not a coating at all.

Is spray polyurethane foam a better option than a coating?

SPF is a different product doing a different job. It is sprayed as a liquid that expands into a closed-cell foam, bonds fully to the substrate, self-flashes every penetration and parapet without a seam anywhere, and adds genuine insulating value to a building that may have had little. Because it is applied at variable thickness it can also be tapered to move water off a roof that has never drained properly — the one thing no coating can do. The price is real: foam needs a dry, sound, well-prepared substrate, tight weather windows for application, and a coating over it that must be maintained and re-coated on schedule, because unprotected foam degrades in ultraviolet light. Foam is the right call where the roof needs insulation or drainage as well as a surface, and the wrong call where it only needs a surface.

What happens if the survey finds wet insulation?

We show you where, on a marked-up roof plan with photographs, and price the removal and replacement of those areas as part of the scope rather than as a change order later. Wet areas are usually a fraction of a roof, and cutting them out is what makes the rest of the restoration legitimate. If the survey finds saturation across most of the field, restoration is off the table and we will say so in plain terms — that is a replacement, and pretending otherwise would cost you the price of a coating and then the price of a roof.

What does a restoration commit you to afterwards?

A schedule. A restored roof is a maintained roof: the coating is inspected, the details are checked, the surface is kept clean so it keeps reflecting, and it is re-coated before it fails rather than after. Manufacturer system warranties on restorations carry exactly those obligations, and a lapsed inspection record is the usual reason a warranty claim is refused.

How our maintenance agreements work

How should we budget for this?

Restoration sits between repair and replacement in cost and moves the replacement out several budget cycles, which is usually the point of doing it. What we can put in front of a finance committee is a scoped price for this roof, the condition evidence behind it, the cost of the re-coat cycle when it comes, and what a replacement would cost instead. We publish no price per square foot here, because the honest number depends on your roof and a band typed from memory is worth nothing in a capital plan.