I looked at a mobile home roof today that has a few leaks.
It is a rubber roof that was installed five years ago.
A couple of years later, the owner paid someone else to coat the rubber roof with that aluminum coating stuff. She swears she checked with a roofing company and they told her to have that done.
It is hard to tell, maybe the second guy just skipped large sections, but it seems that the aluminum coating is completely gone from large sections of the roof, while most of the roof is still coated and the coating seems to be well adhered.
I told her it is a crap shoot, since I have no way of knowing how the products I would be using to stop the leak will interact with the aluminum coating.
I think whoever told her to coat it with aluminum had their head up their
. Am I right?
Any thoughts on product compatibility??
Thanks,
Rich Beckman
Another day, another tool.
Replies
IIRC a primer is required here...
read about the application but don't remember the brand... remember it saying that it was a yearly recoat thing...
so it must done though I find it difficult to belive..
time fer Piff to step in... wouldn't ya say??
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming
WOW!!! What a Ride!
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Edited 4/7/2005 1:55 am ET by IMERC
Aluminium roof coating is designed for hot tar and modified torch down applications not for EPDM .
Find the leaks and use a tire/tube buffing solution to clean the area . Use selfvulcanizing cement and a tire/tube patch of the proper size . follow the directions on the containers. Then you can coat it if you must.
Gaaaah, I'm drawing a blank.... but I know there is a product which is compatible with EPDM. Maybe acrylic-based or silicon or ... hmm... I can remember it seemed really expensive.
But as someone else suggested, I would just try to patch the bad spots. Most 'coatings' are only going to be temporary fixes. If she paid for a EPDM roof, I assume she was trying to avoid the yearly coating.
jt8
Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. -- Ann Landers
I recently coated my EPDM roof with something that looks like rubber paint. I got it from my roofing supplier. Says right on the can "for EPDM". I wouldn't put anything else on the roof. It cost around $150.00 for a 5 gal bucket and took two buckets to cover 900 sq. ft. with one coat. She probably painted that aluminum on there because the rubber got so hot. If I touched the rubber on my roof before I painted I'd burn my hand on a sunny day. Now it's cool to the touch. Made an incredible difference in the temperature of the top floor. And my house has R34 insulation. Trailers have something like R6, R10?
"Trailers have something like R6, R10?"I'm not sure what trailers have, but the EPDM "installer" didn't help any since he glued the rubber directly to the metal! On the "tip out" he used the fiberboard base, but over the main trailer he simply glued to the metal.Rich BeckmanAnother day, another tool.
Edited 4/7/2005 11:49 am ET by Rich Beckman
IMO, she is going to need a new roof. up to this point, everybody did wrong.I don't know if I would use EPDM on a mobile AL roof to begin with, but would be studying or consulting with the manuf rep first. I don't know of a spec for adhering to AL flexable roofing base. Maybe OK, Maybe bnot, but My first guess is that an anchored edge system might be better, but then it could be a sail in high winds calling for the old used tire ballaast system then she had it coated with a product that is definitely NOT OK for EPDM . The rubber membrane is not very tolerant of several kinds of solvents and high VOC materials. The installation brochures and specs are very clear on compatability issues for installation, but after the installer is gone...???My guess is that when she called to ask, she was not clear that this was an EPDM roof and they were responding to or only heard the mobile home part of the description if they said OK. Sounds like the coating has deteriorated teh membrane and allowed leakage, or movement in the AL has worn into it. I vote for the formeer. White EPDM is available if the reason she had it coated is for the tmeperature control. But I would not apply it over the current situation for fear that the coating, being incompatable, will deteriorate the new material again. Stripping it to the metal is the first point of installation. That will let you assess the base
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
"My guess is that when she called to ask, she was not clear that this was an EPDM roof and they were responding to or only heard the mobile home part of the description if they said OK."Ahh. Excellent point. I can't believe that didn't occur to me.As for the rest of your post, thank-you for confirming what I was pretty much thinking anyway.I tried to strongly suggest that a new roof was the real answer, but I was trying to not be too brutal about it (maybe I should've been).I gave her a price for dabbing around a bit and told her I couldn't guarantee anything. She had a second person coming out to look at it.She understood that the guy who put the roof on did a crappy job and she felt that the guy who put the aluminum coating on wasn't exactly interested in doing quality work. So this time around she is trying to be careful. But since she probably can't (or won't) afford a new roof.....Rich BeckmanAnother day, another tool.
Affordability - that's the problem with anything concerning mobiles.which all means that if you price it right for you, it will be wrong for herso she will do two or three patch jobs before doing it right, which means there will be other repairs by then that she can't affford....another thought i just had - All these mobiles I have worked on haad terri9ble soil stack flashings. There is a possibility that at the joint there is where the leak is occouring. If a hack just caulked the EPDM there instead of layiong in a new jack and sealing it with neoprene flashing material...
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
" All these mobiles I have worked on haad terrible soil stack flashings."Great call! That spot is particularly bad. And probably the one leak that I'm reasonably sure I can fix!The vent pipe does not even clear the top of the jack. The openning into the roof is easily visible.Of course, there is little indication inside that much is leaking at that point.The other problem I noticed with the various vents is that they are all very low. Put down insulation board prior to the rubber and there is no room to work with (I wonder if that is why the original guy left the insul board off). I told her that the first thing I would do if reroofing would be to remove all the vents and reinstall them with longer pipes to raise them up so there is room to work with.Rich BeckmanAnother day, another tool.
Rich, was this an elderly person? Seems like the quack-fix-it guys are really going after the old folks.
EPDM'ing an entire single-wide mobile home roof was probably a multi-thousand $ price tag. Add to that the inherent poor roof structure of many mobile home roofs and having a non-pro up there can really cost ya.
I haven't done one of these, but I've seen a few applications similar to it:
http://www.mobilehomerepair.com/article7.htm
Which allows you to put a light colored roof on. And in theory, if you're using the panels with 50 year guarentees, the roof should be good to go for quite a while. But there is still the matter of sealing around roof penetrations, which will probably send someone up there every few years.jt8
Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. -- Ann Landers
Good point most aluminum coatings are for asphalt and torch down and could contain petro products that are rubber roofs worse enemy next to asphalt
don't know if I would use EPDM on a mobile AL roof to begin
Why not? Besides being a black membrane, but it can be coated with the right coating. You can adhere direct to smooth clean, metal.
How many mobiles do you see with smooth clean metal?
Most have already been coated with the AL paint or coating material.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
this is true
From the Firestone Building Products website... click on the AcryliTop PC-100 and the AcryliTop PC-100 Base Coat for EPDM.
http://manual.fsbp.com/TIS/techinf_coatings.htm
You may have issues with adhesion between the Aluminum coating and the EPDM coating. Check with local EPDM suppliers, they will have similar products.
Extend the vents and "snow-roof" it ???
The person you offend today, may have been your best friend tomorrow
It is easy to be friends with someone you always agree with.
Eek...
I live in the Pelham area. Alabama. Turns out that the aluminum coating is badly effected by immense shade or tree cover. My family and i purchased a trailer and moved to a park. the house was shaded most of meveryday by the trees in that surrounding forest. after a while i guess the moisture combined with the slightly acidic leaves began to eat holes in the roof. ive never seen anything like it before. i think that the biggest issue was the fact that the trailer wasnt new so obviously the roof wasnt either. im glqad we noticed it one day while working in the yard. ofcourse the damage was already done but the small space between the ceiling and roof was beginning to grow mold because of the plastic coated gypsum board the water was running off the ceiling and downunder the floor.
SPAM LINK REMOVED
anyways, im rambling. I think that this could be a big issue and id recommend you get someone out there to see what the problem is fast. otherwise you could be looking at thousands in damage.
love sarah
A wrong choice of roof coating can be even worse than no roof maintenance at all. Aluminum roof coating is not designed to use on RV EPDM or rubber roofs. Instead you should opt for a roof coating compatible to use on rubber EPDM rubber roofs e.g. (RV Liquid Roof). Liquid RV Roof can be applied to any original EPDM rubber roofing system or EPDM roofs that are coated with a 3rd party roof coating.