(214) 807-0414Request an assessmentRestoration guide
A coating is a fluid-applied membrane, not paint. On the right roof it is a legitimate way to buy years without a tear-off and without disrupting the building. On the wrong roof it is the most expensive way to delay a decision, because the next contractor has to remove the coating before they can price what is underneath it.
In short
It renews the surface and the details of a membrane that is weathered but sound and dry. It restores UV protection and re-seals seams and penetrations. It adds no structure, corrects no drainage, and dries out nothing beneath it.
01
Acrylic, silicone and urethane behave differently against ponding water, foot traffic and the membrane below. Silicone tolerates standing water and holds dirt. Acrylic needs to dry and drain. Urethane takes traffic. The wrong chemistry on the wrong substrate shows up as adhesion loss rather than as a leak, which means it is discovered late.
02
A coating is a maintained surface with a recoat interval, not a permanent answer. Applied thickness, coverage rate, drainage and rooftop traffic decide when the next coat is due. A restoration proposal that never mentions recoating has quietly become a replacement plan with a delay built into it.
03
Multiple existing layers, widespread wet insulation, a deck that has moved, drainage that does not work, or a membrane at the end of its life. None of these are restoration candidates. The test is whether the problem lives at the surface. If it lives below the surface, a coating is a new lid on an old problem.
Questions
Not structurally, and often not in the building's capital records either. It is maintenance performed on an existing assembly. How it is treated in a capital plan is worth settling with your accountant before the work is scheduled rather than after it.
Coating manufacturers do issue system warranties, and they are typically conditional: a qualifying substrate, a specified preparation, a verified application rate and scheduled inspection afterwards. Read what maintains the warranty before deciding what it is worth.
Not reliably, and using one for that reason is how coatings acquired their reputation. A coating renews a surface. An active leak is a specific opening in a specific place, and it has to be located and repaired before anything goes over it. Coating a roof with an unresolved leak in it puts the entry point out of sight without necessarily closing it, and makes finding the thing afterwards harder than it was before.
Usually, and it takes coordination. Settle two things early: odour and rooftop air intakes. Some chemistries carry solvent and some do not, and any unit drawing air off the roof will pull whatever is being applied into the space below unless the sequence is planned around it. Add the weather window, since most coatings need a dry period after application. Ask for a phasing plan naming which areas are worked on which days and what happens to the intakes.
By arithmetic and by measurement, both agreed in advance. Material delivered, divided by the area covered, gives the actual coverage rate, and the delivery tickets support it. Wet film gauge readings taken during application record the thickness at the only moment it can be recorded. Where a manufacturer system warranty is involved they will usually require that evidence themselves. Without it, applied thickness is a claim rather than a fact.
Assessment request
Short, routing-only questions. Nothing here asks you to diagnose the roof yourself.