When it comes to repairs on your commercial building, your roof is going to be one of the costliest. Problems like leaks can start small and turn into major problems before you even see the first signs of water damage. A roof coating can be a great way to prepare your roof for withstanding the elements and for protecting you from costly repairs in the future.

What Is A Roof Coating?

A roof coating is essentially an elastic cover that is painted onto the existing roof of your building. It works to provide a watertight seal and protects the materials that make up your roof. Coatings can be made from a variety of different materials and can be adhered to any roofing surface other than gravel. The most common types are:

• Silicone
• Polyurethane
• Asphalt
• Acryclic

Different coatings work for various types of roofs. When you contact our roof coating contractors, they’ll be able to assess your existing roof and recommend the right coating material for you. Depending on the type of coating material, the coating can last anywhere between 10 to 20 years.

How Is A Coating Applied To My Roof?

If you’re considering getting a coating on your commercial building, you’ll want to know how the whole process works. When you call Shepard Contractors, we provide all our customers with the same information about our processes for installation. Here’s a quick summary of how the installation process goes.

Survey Roof

The first step in our process is to have our commercial painting contractor come out to your Tampa FL building location. They’ll assess the current roof type and evaluate your goals for the coating. You’ll get a recommendation for the best type of coating material that will fit your needs.

Inspect Roof

Next, our commercial painting contractor will walk around every square foot of your roof and notate any potential issues. Things like loosened fasteners, rusted metals, and crushed insulation are all problems that will need to be addressed before the coating is applied. This is to ensure that the coating properly adheres to your roofing substrate.

Prepare Roof

This is the stage where our commercial roof painting firm will address the previously identified roofing issues prior to the coating installation. As part of the preparation process, the roof will need to be clean of all dirt and debris. After removing the loose debris from your commercial roof, our firm will thoroughly wash the surface to ensure it’s clean.

Primer Roof

Before the coating is applied, we’ll put down a roof primer. This is simply to cover up existing gaps, cracks, and seams in your roof. This works to ensure that when the coating goes on, it properly adheres to all surfaces to create a watertight seal.

Paint Roof

The final step in the process is actually applying the coating onto the roof. We’ll use a variety of spraying, brushing, and rolling to get the coating to adhere to all sections of your commercial roof. Depending on the coating material that you choose to use, multiple coating applications may be required.

As you can see, applying a coating to your roof is about 90 percent prep work and 10 percent painting. This is our secret to ensuring that the coating will be long-lasting. We stand by all our product applications with a satisfaction guarantee because we want you to be happy and proud of your new coating.

Why Should I Have A Coating Put On My Roof?

So, you know what these coatings are and how they’re applied to your roof. However, you’re probably wondering whether or not a coating is worth the investment cost. Here are a few good reasons you should really consider having a coating applied to your commercial roof.

Watertight Seal

When our commercial roof painting firm applies a coating to your roof, it creates a watertight seal. This ensures that water doesn’t get into any gaps, cracks, or seals. This will save you thousands of dollars as you’ll never have to worry about roof leaks happening at your facility. Plus, that means no downtime during roof repairs.

Protects Your Roof

There are many different roofing materials that can be used in commercial construction. Some of the most popular include metal, foam, and asphalt. Each of these materials comes with its own estimated lifespan. The lifespan estimate is based on the fact that the roofing materials will be in regular contact with the elements.

When you have a coating installed on your roof, it’s painted over your existing roofing materials. This covers them up from being in direct contact with the elements, like water and UV rays. Therefore, this works to extend the regular lifespan of your existing building materials. This translates to fewer costs associated with roof repairs and replacement in the future.

Lower Energy Costs

The coating application that is applied to your roof has emissive properties. This means that it’s constructed to emit light from its surface. In the case of light for your roof, it comes from the sun. The coating reflects the UV rays from the sun, which allows it to keep your roof cooler than it would be without the coating material on it.

When your roof is cooler, it will keep your overall building cooler. In those hot summer months, you’ll be thankful for your coating as it will help to reduce the energy costs required from your air conditioning system. The coating is a long-term investment that can save you lots of money on energy consumption throughout the future.

Better Energy Star Rating

It’s very popular for cities across Florida to be required to have their commercial building meet a specified minimum Energy Star rating. This system is in place to do its part to increase the energy efficiency of local businesses. When you have a coating installed for your roof, it makes your building have a higher Energy Star rating. This is not only important to meet local ordinance standards for energy-efficiency, but it works to improve the resale value of your commercial building.

Enhance Aesthetics

There’s nothing cooler than seeing an aesthetic improvement to your commercial building. A coating can revive even the shabbiest buildings to make them appear more modern. Most of our coating materials are done in a traditional white color.

This provides a clean and sleek look that also works to reflect UV rays to keep your building cool. However, we do offer other color varieties if you would like to have a more unique look. Keep in mind that the color of the material coating is going to highly affect the coating’s ability to reflect the sunlight. Sticking with lighter colors like red and yellow are better options than darker ones.

Why Use Us For Your Coating Needs?

Shepard Contractors has been a roof painting expert for over 50 years. We specialize in the commercial industry, which has given us much experience in working with challenging roofing environments. We have an in-depth knowledge of coating materials and utilize the newest equipment to ensure a perfect application. Our business is licensed and insured, so you can have peace of mind when you hire us. Having a coating applied is an easy process that can provide so many great benefits to your business. Give us a call today so we can get started on your coating soon.