The importance of a word: The difference between roof coatings and roof coating systems

As the coating sector continues to grow in popularity, this podcast featuring Western Colloid experts is a great way to refresh yourself on the basics.

It might only be a one-word difference, but roof coatings and roof coating systems actually refer to quite different things. As the popularity of roof restoration using coatings continues to grow, it’s a good idea to refresh your knowledge so that you can answer any and all questions that building owners, architects or consultants have for you. In the Understanding Roof Restoration Podcast, Greg Hlavaty, Hal Leland and their expert team at Western Colloid offer a great crash course in the basics of roof restoration and the coatings world. In the first episode of the series, they tackle understanding the difference between calling something a roof coating and a roof coating system.

While it might seem like a roof coating and a roof coating system are the same thing with only one extra word in the latter, they are actually quite different. Greg explained, “Coatings have always been around as a repair of a roof, go up, repair a roof, Band-Aid it and then, put a coating on it to stabilize it for a while. But, the founder of our company took that to a new level, which was actually, restore it to as good as new condition, with adding strength back, adding elongation back.” He went on, “That's the difference — when you put a repair and a coating on, you've extended the life by reflective means and by shedding a little bit of the water and the weather, but you haven't really  added back strength, tensile strength, the elongation, the resistance to foot traffic and all the wear and tear that a roof really comes under. A good restoration system will do that.”

Often within the industry and among building owners, coatings are generalized into this one category and that flattens this difference. However, separate from just a roof coating, a major difference with a roof coating system is that it tests higher with FM approved fire ratings. Hal shared, “One of the great things about asphalt emulsion is that it doesn't burn. So, that's given the basis for a lot of our testing. We do a lot of testing at ICC-ES. We test at UL, we test at Miami-Dade... We've probably spent just over a million dollars there in testing. It's a big deal and it's what has helped us really grow our systems and our assemblies.”

Testing backs up that a roof coating system is more than a coating, it is membrane system — roof coating systems are a long lasting and lightweight roof repair solution. “They're still a maintenance and repair, but they have the testing, to give the confidence that a sophisticated building owner or architect or consultant need to put in their file when they're working on a project,” said Greg. “It gives contractors and building owners a lot of confidence...We're changing that perception by saying ‘Let's keep it in place and modernize it and weatherize it.’”

Read the transcript, Listen to the full podcast or Watch the conversation for more insight on the benefits of a roof coating system over a roof coating and to learn more about roof restoration from the professionals.