Keeping It ‘Cool’ With Roof Coatings
With more than 20 years of experience in Hawaii’s roofing and solar industry, Surface Shield Roofing’s Shon Gregory has seen the business change as materials and technologies are adapted to the needs and priorities of property owners.
“Our clients are becoming increasingly concerned with rising energy costs,” Gregory said. “Traditional technologies and materials are still in use, but we’re finding that more and more people are looking to advancements in roofing to help defray their costs.”
Because of our state’s dependence on imported oil, energy costs in Hawaii are the highest in the U.S., and the need to reduce the price of cooling a home or business has led to innovations. “The market demands that we work with the latest materials and technologies,” said Gregory, “because our clients want to save on their energy costs over the long term.”
“Cool roofing” is an approach that has a variety of cost and environmental benefits, and the number of home and business owners adopting it is growing rapidly. Because such coatings are applied to existing roofing substrate, demolition that sends waste to a landfill is unnecessary. Buildings using cool roof materials and technologies can save up to 25 percent on energy costs.
Roof coatings are seamless and when installed correctly, can solve roof leaks on almost any type of roof substrate. Field-applied reflective roof coatings can extend the useful life of most roof substrates, keeping the surface cool and providing a level of protection from the sun and weather. Roof coatings can add 25-plus years to the service life of a roof and reduce the amount of discarded roofing materials that end up in landfills.
“Large commercial properties were the first to embrace cool-roofing technologies because of the size of their buildings,” explained Gregory. “But in the past years, we’ve seen a major spike in the number of residential property owners opting to go with roof coating technologies previously used mostly by the commercial sector.”
Surface Shield uses a variety of roof coating products. Here are a few benefits of one of the highly efficient coatings used daily by the team:
• 95 percent solid silicone contains no VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) that will evaporate into the air.
• Silicone coatings are the only non-sacrificial coatings available. Other coating systems will degrade with UV rays from the sun. Silicone does not degrade through exposure to UV rays.
• Silicone coatings are capable of withstanding permanent ponding water with no effect on the product. Because of this, silicone coatings can be used to waterproof water fountains and man-made ponds.
• Silicone coatings will not support mold or mildew growth, nor will they blacken because of mold or mildew.
• Silicone coatings are fast-drying. In tropical climates, silicone is dry enough to walk on in two hours. This means multiple coats can be applied in the same day. Work is completed sooner than with other coatings.
• Silicone will not wash out. Rain, even a minute after application, will not compromise silicone.
For a free estimate or more information, call Surface Shield at 497-2716.
contact // 396-9599
web // www.surfaceshieldroofing.com
