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Tri-sodium phosphate is the best cleaner for acrylic elastomeric roof coatings.  We use a garden sprayer and spray this over the roof before pressure washing.  This will give the TSP a moment to soak into the roof coating.  Many Tucson roof coating contractors skip this step.  We cannot tell you that the roof coating will not adhere if it is not cleaned with TSP, but we can say it is a better practice to use it on every roof.

 

Using high pressure water loosens the dirt and is the best practice for cleaning your roof before it is coated.  Pressure washing in conjunction with using TSP is the best practice for preparing coated roofs.

Before coating a flat roof or an elastomeric coated roof, it is necessary to allow the roof to dry.  In Southern Arizona, roofs dry very quickly, so the drying process may only take a couple of hours, however, sometimes it can take a day or so.  The key to knowing how long is knowing what shape the roof was in when we pressure washed and knowing what the weather is like. Our professionals at Desert Sky Roofing are trained to know if a roof is properly dried before they apply the first coat.

White coated or tan coated roofs often crack. This is because the expansion and contraction of materials causes a breakdown in the coating.  Wherever a crack exists that penetrates the roof paper, corners, crickets, scuppers, or walls there is a need for a polyester patch. Polyester (tietex) patching is the #1 fix for these type of roof issues. These are applied by layering a polyester patch between two coats of elastomeric crack and joint filler like Tucson Rubberized Coatings 501-W-P product) or elastomeric top coating like Tucson Rubberized Coatings 7000 product).  Once this patch dries it will become part of your roof system.  The number of patches varies from roof to roof but it is not unusual for a roof to have 15-20 patches.

(Santa Fe style roofs). Eighty-five to ninety percent of all roof leaks in elastomeric roof systems comes from scuppers. Scuppers are the drains that remove the water from the inside walls (parapets) of Santa Fe style roofs.  The area where the scupper meets the roof system often cracks due to movement in the home.  This causes an opening into walls which usually allows water to drain into your home.  The least pinhole can become a huge leak.  At Desert Sky Roofing we believe in being proactive. If needed, we will scrape the old material out of the scupper and reinforce the scupper with either polyester fabric or at a minimum crack and joint filler before coating the roof.  This will do much toward preventing future problems.

Penetrations are the holes or vents that penetrate through the wood decking and stick out on top of your roof. These areas are prone to cracking because of the movement of materials from heating and cooling.  We will put crack and joint around these areas before we coat the roof to help prevent leaking.

(Mostly ranch style homes). Many coated roofs have a pitched roofline that ends with a drip edge.  These drip edges move very frequently and end up with tiny cracks on the top edges. These cracks allow water to penetrate around the facia boards which leads to premature rotting of the wood.  We will fill these cracks with roof coating or crack and joint filler and will sometimes recommend using polyester fabric patching around the edges.

After all the patching and reinforcement of critical areas, we will then start coating the roof. We follow the manufacturer’s recommendations and coat the roof according to their standards.  Not all coatings are the same, and not all will last the same. We use Tucson Rubberized Coatings 7000 product because we believe it to be the best acrylic elastomeric coating on the market.  They recommend the coating be applied between 100-120sqft per gallon of material. This means if you have 1200sqft of coverage area, we will be applying between 10-12 gallons of material per coat. When we apply the coat we also follow the “crisscross” recommendation.  We do this by laying down the initial roller pattern in one direction and flattening it out in the opposite direction.  This ensures the coating is evenly and appropriately applied.

In many cases the coating is dry enough to walk on withing two hours or less. This doesn’t mean the coating is cured, but it is ready for the second coat, if one is going to be applied.  A good rule of thumb is that if the coating doesn’t stick to your shoes or pull up when standing on it, it has dried enough to apply the second coat.  Sometimes we must wait a full day, sometimes we only need to wait a few hours before applying the second coat.  Of note, you will NEVER see our company pressure washing and applying two coats in the same day.  We feel this is calling it too close for necessary dry times.

Just before we coat the roof the second time we will check to see if more patches are needed. Most all the patching will be complete, however, sometimes we will find some areas that need additional patching or that we believe should be further addressed before applying the second coat.

If needed and agreed upon, we prefer to apply anti-ponding material after the roof has been sealed with the first coat. Some anti-ponding products are porous and can allow water through. That is why it is important to seal the roof first so there is very little chance of water making it into the house. The ponding material will be sealed when the second coat of elastomeric is applied.

Assuming the roof is getting a second coat of elastomeric, after the first coating is dry we will apply a second coat also using the crisscross pattern.

Most roof companies simply collect their money and forget about your roof.  We will return to do a quality inspection and check all the work that we have completed after the materials have had a chance to cure.  At Desert Sky Roofing we want to create a long-term relationship with our clients so ensuring our work was top-notch is extremely important to us!

At Desert Sky Roofing we offer a free inspection just before the warranty expires. If our clients call us before their warranty expires, we gladly show up and do a thorough inspection of the entire roof perform touch ups as needed.