# Increasing life span of EPDM roof



## workahallick

I am a property manager and I have a 170,000 +- sq ft building with an EPDM roof.

It is Omnova Genflex installed in 2002.

It is still in good shape but I fear that in the future it will dry out and start cracking like an old rubber tire. I would like that day to be as far as possible in the future.

I was wondering if there is a sure fire way to coat it with something that will preserve it and maybe make it a lighter color that will reduce the heat load in the summer.

I am skeptical of manufacturers claims. I would prefer advice from people familiar with EPDM roof maintenance.

There is an area in one corner that is low and has a puddle there most of the time. I haven't decided what to do about it but I was thinking of a roof drain.

Thanks to Google satellite images, here is the roof:



Any suggestions?


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## 1985gt

I am shocked I have not had to many property managers proactive about their roofs!

EPDM will not dry out and crack like a tire per say. It will weather away and become thinner over the life span. 

How long of a warranty do you have? I ask this because using anything other then the manufactures coating will void the warranty so that limits your options. 

The low spot will need to be taken care of in some way. I would not want any standing water on the coating. 24 hours max the less the better.

Now you have to find a company who will coat this building for you. As you will also get a warranty with the coating. The key here is preparation of the EPDM surface. There will be 9 years of the chalky build up that needs to be removed. 

A coating should give you another 5-10 years of roof life and as you said will lower your heat load in the summer. I would search around to find the best contractor you can find. not the cheapest. If the prep is not done correctly then it will be a total waste of money no matter how good of a product you put on.


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## workahallick

It had a 10 year guarantee but I can't find the installer.

I see the coating costs over $200 per bucket and each bucket coats about 200 sq ft so I am looking at at least $17000 for the coating alone unless a pro can buy it for less in bulk.

I don't trust the manufacturers claims. They are saying it can last 40 to 50 years.

I guess the best thing to do is wait until it shows signs of age. Right now I can still see some white powder [unlees that is the chalky buildup you mentioned] and markings on the surface like a new innertube.


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## Grumpy

FWIW I am a GenFlex certified roofing contractor and I have never seen a 50 year specification from any EPDM manufacturer. I beelive the longst EPDM spec from Genflex may be only 20 years, while others have 30 year specs. I don't think I've ever seen a 40 year EPDM spec. 

The epdm material will sit in a land fill when our kids are being burried. Yes the membrane will weather away past a point of useful life, however that's goign to be 20-30 years after installation. The failure point of an EPDM roof is primarily the seams and penetrations. 

We do a couple jobs each year where we "restore the seams and penetrations" on an EPDM roofing system. I will then issue a warranty of my own on the job. Many manufacturers will also issue a warranty on a seam restoration.

We have done out seam restorations with elastomeric, but also with EPDM cover tape and flashing membrane. Quite honestly I prefer epdm restorations with epdm material. However this does nothing to revitalize the field of the roof. One thing you must be aware of, once you coat the roof, the new roof is the coating, the EPDM is just the substrate. Any future repairs will have to be performed with material compatible with the elastomeric. As for the low spot, the water will destroy an acrylic elastomeric, when ever there is a puddle area and we are coating a roof, at least that area will be treated with urethane or SEBS elastomeric. I personally dislike acrylic elastomeric and almost always opt for the SEBS. 


You say you were issued a 10 year warranty on the job. There are 3 basic warraties/guarantees on a commercial roof. 1) the material defect warranty. 2) the roofing contractors workmanship warranty/guarantee. 3) a manufacturer total system warranty sometimes called a No Dollar Limit (NDL). 

I bring this up because you may have been issued a NDL, in which case the manufacturer is on the hook. Then again you may have been issued a material defect warranty in which case would have nothing to do with leaks. 


My advice, contact the manufacturer and see what kind of warranty you have.


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## 1985gt

Yeah first step is to find out if you have a manufacture warranty or contractor warranty. If its a contractor warranty you can do what ever you please if the contractor is no longer around.

As far as a white build up I would assume you are talking about the talcum power that is on the 20' wide folded sheets. The caulk build up in talking about is black crawl around on your knee's in jeans, you will see what I mean. Im just kidding don't do this as it will never wash out of clothes. rub your fingers on it, if they turn black that is what im talking about.

40-50 years in never going to happen.

30 year max for EPDM
GAF TPO has a 35 year.

Some PVC's have "lifetime" 

I would assume you have a 10 year total system warranty. What paper do you have that has the warranty on it? It will say what type of warranty it is and you can also call Genflex if your not sure.


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## workahallick

The warranty is on a fancy printed card with Genflex in one corner and Omniflex in the other. It says 10 year membrane only for commercial buildings.

Then there is another workmanship guarantee but the contractor has moved and I can't find a company with that name. Any way, it don't leak.

The roof does have some dirt on it that washes off easily. It is not like smut that is hard to wash off. So I assume the white powdery look is from when it was new. You can still see some markings on it. If so, it has a long way to go before it wears out.



1985gt said:


> Yeah first step is to find out if you have a manufacture warranty or contractor warranty. If its a contractor warranty you can do what ever you please if the contractor is no longer around.
> 
> As far as a white build up I would assume you are talking about the talcum power that is on the 20' wide folded sheets. The caulk build up in talking about is black crawl around on your knee's in jeans, you will see what I mean. Im just kidding don't do this as it will never wash out of clothes. rub your fingers on it, if they turn black that is what im talking about.
> 
> 40-50 years in never going to happen.
> 
> 30 year max for EPDM
> GAF TPO has a 35 year.
> 
> Some PVC's have "lifetime"
> 
> I would assume you have a 10 year total system warranty. What paper do you have that has the warranty on it? It will say what type of warranty it is and you can also call Genflex if your not sure.


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## 1985gt

OK so they only cover the membrane its self. No details/seams anything else. This warranty wont cover much and basically is void for walking on the roof. So Coat it if you want. you have what a year left anyway?


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## Grumpy

Membrane only is membrane only. You do not have a "no leak" guarantee from genflex. 

Realistically you should have all your roofs on some sort of maintenance program. The EPDM material will last up to 30 years, but the roof details should be inspected periodically. I usually recommend twice annually, if nothing else we ensure the drainage is open and not blocked. I have seen blocked drains and blocked gutters turn roofs into swimming pools. 

Realistically speaking though, it becomes of more and more importance after the roof has aged 10 years. Any roof should never be considered maintenance free. Seams will begin to fail, penetrations will begin to fail, and there may be some non warranted damage as well. This can be animal damage, bullet holes (from people firing straight up into the air), hail damage, parts falling off air planes, rocks and satellites crashing into the atmosphere... Sounds odd? But all of this stuff can and does happen. 

Although it is recommended you have a competant roofing contractor perform this inspection, it's not a must. You or your maintenance staff if properly trained can do it yourselves. Make sure to document each inspection and repair. This documentation is actually a requirement of some manufacturer extended NDL warranties, so it's a good habit to get into.


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## 03demax

I am a warranty trained Conklin Roofing Systems applicator. I would recomend doing an adhesion test first. If it passes, most likely it will, we can move forward with the EPDM Coating System. We start out power washing with our special soap called WACII, then apply Tac Coat over the roof area, apply base coat and Spunflex, a stretchy reinforcing mesh, to all of the field applied seams, then apply Rapid Roof III top coat at 2 gallons per 100 sq/ft. Where are you located???


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## 03demax

We would need to determine the proper action to take on the ponding areas.


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## 1985gt

No way I wanted to do the job. I would use Top Coat products if it were me.


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## Grumpy

03demax said:


> I am a warranty trained Conklin Roofing Systems applicator. I would recomend doing an adhesion test first. If it passes, most likely it will, we can move forward with the EPDM Coating System. We start out power washing with our special soap called WACII, then apply Tac Coat over the roof area, apply base coat and Spunflex, a stretchy reinforcing mesh, to all of the field applied seams, then apply Rapid Roof III top coat at 2 gallons per 100 sq/ft. Where are you located???


 
All of this is usually un-necessary on an EPDM roof. The seams and the penetrations are often the problem areas so coating the whole roof is usually a waste of money on an EPDM roof.


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## 1985gt

Not if the seams and penetrations are done correctly. Plus I think th poster wanted a "cool" roof.


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## mindfield

I have only done a few EPDM roofs but what I have seen is that weather is mostly to blame for seem and penatration failure. It was recomended to me by a Carlisle rep to refurbish the seems and penatrations then balast the roof with river rock... provided the structural integrity of the building will support it.


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## 1985gt

mindfield said:


> I have only done a few EPDM roofs but what I have seen is that weather is mostly to blame for seem and penatration failure. It was recomended to me by a Carlisle rep to refurbish the seems and penatrations then balast the roof with river rock... provided the structural integrity of the building will support it.



What? refurbish the seems and put gravel on it? Was it a ballast roof to begin with? This makes no sense.


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## RooferJim

coating in my opinion is avery bad idea. It makes it impossible to do a proper repair in the future. I only would repair EPDM with EPDM. keep it simple stupid


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## 1985gt

But they are talking about increasing the life span not repairs. Once the roof is coated you repair it with the coating not EPDM.


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## Grumpy

1985gt said:


> But they are talking about increasing the life span not repairs. Once the roof is coated you repair it with the coating not EPDM.


 This is word for word what I have told Jim in the past, but he doesn't seem to accept it.  


But unless they want a "cool roof" I do agree with Jim to repair epdm with epdm. That's why we stopped using elastomeric on the seam restoration and opted for cover tape. Plus it is actually one less step to use self adhering cover tape vs a fabric faced butyl tape and coating. The coating adds a step. If you are using polyester reinforcement with mastic on the seams well that may work too, but I think the cover tape moves much much quicker.

Unless the membrane is weathered down to the scrim, and we know non-reinforced epdm has no scrim, then coating doesn;t have much benefit (other than a cool roof). I do not specificy elastomeric on single ply membranes anymore, only on asphalt based roofing systems like mod bit and bur.


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## RooferJim

I don't accept it because its BS. Coating an EPDM roof will in my opinion decrease its life by making future maintanance and repair impossible to do properly.

RooferJim
www.jbennetteroofing.com


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## 1985gt

RooferJim said:


> I don't accept it because its BS. Coating an EPDM roof will in my opinion decrease its life by making future maintanance and repair impossible to do properly.
> 
> RooferJim
> www.jbennetteroofing.com


Simple Repair EPDM with EPDM, Coating with that coating material unless its aluma coating then first the repairs would need to be done in other asphalt products then coated in aluma coating.

It wont decrease the life span in any sense it will how ever protect the original membrane from naturally breaking down. Its not impossible to repair correctly. Next time you pass on doing these types of repairs we will be glad to handle them for you.


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## RooferJim

I would rather talk them out of the "glorified paint job" and deal with the situation as a roofer should. I really only recomend using coatings for metal roofs, a case could possibly be made for some problematic single ply like older TPO or Hypalon where it will weather down to the scrim. With EPDM the membrane itself is almost never an issue.


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## 03demax

the Conklin Roofing System I wrote about earlier is way more than a "glorifed paint job". The Rapid Roof III coating system has been in use for 30 years with 1/4 of 1% failure rating. I understand why all the negative opinions about coatings, but Conklin has set awesome products!!


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## 1985gt

rooferjim said:


> I would rather talk them out of the "glorified paint job" and deal with the situation as a roofer should. I really only recomend using coatings for metal roofs, a case could possibly be made for some problematic single ply like older TPO or Hypalon where it will weather down to the scrim. With EPDM the membrane itself is almost never an issue.


I do agree with this. I only recall coating one EPDM roof since I have been doing it. I am not a fan. It does not hold up to ponding water that is often seen on older EPDM roofs. The option is there though. Around here we dont have people calling in wanting roofs coated to reflect the sun. They wait till is way past due for a reroof then they may put on a TPO. 



03demax said:


> the Conklin Roofing System I wrote about earlier is way more than a "glorifed paint job". The Rapid Roof III coating system has been in use for 30 years with 1/4 of 1% failure rating. I understand why all the negative opinions about coatings, but Conklin has set awesome products!!


Coatings have gotten a bad name because people expect them to work miracles. On a good sloped metal roof they are great. On any areas of ponding water they should not be placed. I believe Top Coat has a 24 hour ponding water rule. Generally Top Coat is what we use now, We use to use conklin a number of years ago but I believe something happened between the rep and the owner and the relationship was severed. We do not generally use a whole bunch of coating either so I doubt Conklin is hurt about it.

Coating just are not a Fix all as people treat them. They have their place but they should never be though of as a miracle in a bucket.


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## Tom Gravenstrter

*Re-Coating*

There will always be people out there that cannot progress in roofing with out personal experience!
Some people still live by hot asphalt.
Quality products and systems don't just show up, they prove themselves over time.


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## 1985gt

Nothing wrong with a good old BUR. :thumbup:


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## AK Beard

Acrylic and urethane coatings exclude ponding water, silicone and epoxies do not. Check out WDG Silicones or Gaco Western's S-20. Both are 96% solids silicone coatings, no solvents coatings, which allow them to be built up thick in problem areas without solvent entrapment. This can cause bubbling, failure to cure, non-adhesion,etc. They are moisture cure, which means a light dew or rain won't wash them during cure, which is not long anyway. The are not sacrificial coatings, such as acrylics and urethanes which chalk and wear out over time. It will gather dust, but two years later you take a rag and water and wash off a spot and it is as shiny as the day you coated it. They are a mineral based coating and as such has excellent UV properties.


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