Roof material

[solds88]

[font face="comic sans ms" size="3"]A number of years ago I had a local truck shop spray my truck bed with the Scorpion product. It was suppose to set up in 3 or4 days. A month later I put a plastic 5 gallon bucket of drywall mud in the bed and drove home, and the bucket dug into the coating. I've got Rhino Lining in my current truck, costs more, but no problems.[/font]

[drdave]

My original thought process wasn't for the current camper it was for a camper if it had a rubber roof.

I would think there's a significant risk of causing damage to the roof due to chemical incompatibility, etc.   mostly the same arguements islander made regarding putting it on the Aluminum roof.

[swbc150]

Our shinny aluminum roofs do not reflect the sun instead it heats up the inside even more and during the colder months keeps the trailer colder inside.
I applied the Kool-seal on my Bearcat roof, it did take 3 coats. It is a white paint designed for all types of Trailer Roofs including Aluminum. The Roof now on a hot summer day is completely touchable, has helped the interior to stay cooler. The Kool-seal Reflects the sun rays and I have No Black Steaks on my sides of the Trailer after rains or melting snow/ice.

[mitch]

[quote timestamp="1455493381" author="@tlbones" source="/post/18694/thread"][quote source="/post/18692/thread" author="@mitch" timestamp="1455476202"]My original thought process wasn't for the current camper it was for a camper if it had a rubber roof.[/quote]I would think there's a significant risk of causing damage to the roof due to chemical incompatibility, etc.   mostly the same arguements islander made regarding putting it on the Aluminum roof.


[/quote]My F-150 is one of the aluminum body models and the Bullet liner seems to be fine. I'm no chemical engineer but I suspect the likelihood of damage or adverse chemical interaction between an aluminum roof and a run of the mill roof coating is not very high.  Course the stuff would need to stick.   As far as rubber roof that's probably much more problematic.  

[daplumbr]

[quote source="/post/18703/thread" timestamp="1455553050" author="@swbc150"]Our shinny aluminum roofs do not reflect the sun instead it heats up the inside even more and during the colder months keeps the trailer colder inside.
I applied the Kool-seal on my Bearcat roof, it did take 3 coats. It is a white paint designed for all types of Trailer Roofs including Aluminum. The Roof now on a hot summer day is completely touchable, has helped the interior to stay cooler. The Kool-seal Reflects the sun rays and I have No Black Steaks on my sides of the Trailer after rains or melting snow/ice.[/quote]Intriguing. How is the Kool-Seal for slipperiness? Any more slippery than the bare aluminum? 

[swbc150]

In between the painting coats the roof was not slippery.

[rab0325]

[quote source="/post/18703/thread" timestamp="1455553050" author="@swbc150"]Our shinny aluminum roofs do not reflect the sun instead it heats up the inside even more and during the colder months keeps the trailer colder inside.
I applied the Kool-seal on my Bearcat roof, it did take 3 coats. It is a white paint designed for all types of Trailer Roofs including Aluminum. The Roof now on a hot summer day is completely touchable, has helped the interior to stay cooler. The Kool-seal Reflects the sun rays and I have No Black Steaks on my sides of the Trailer after rains or melting snow/ice.[/quote]We are noticing some whitish streaks down the sides (only a little). Some of our reason for considering a roof coating is to prevent this. Did you paint over the caulked seams or leave them exposed?

[swbc150]

Entire roof was painted,used a roller and paint brush. Walking on roof was not a issue.

[montedtrotter1]

I am going to go with the Henry product as they are a roofing coating company that primarily makes roof coating for all types of roofs. My primary concern is the water marks from water runoff and I will call them to discuss this negative problem. Henry says their product can go on in one coating versus three for Kool Seal. After having our trailer for almost one year, I continue to be amazed at the temperature changes due to sun or no sun shining on the trailer. I have to believe that adding the white roof coating will be a cooling event on the trailer to keep it from heating up so rapidly and so high. I have spray foam insulated the bottom of the trailer (did not do the wheel wells) and see a slight difference in heat loss. After our last 8 day trip to Florida where temps got to mid 30s each night, the best mod I have made is the heat strip in the AC unit. It kept our 21BHS at mid 70s all night long. Doing the roof coating should finish help the heat problem in the summer.

[mitch]

[quote source="/post/18764/thread" timestamp="1455674160" author="@montedtrotter1"]I am going to go with the Henry product as they are a roofing coating company that primarily makes roof coating for all types of roofs. My primary concern is the water marks from water runoff and I will call them to discuss this negative problem. Henry says their product can go on in one coating versus three for Kool Seal. After having our trailer for almost one year, I continue to be amazed at the temperature changes due to sun or no sun shining on the trailer. I have to believe that adding the white roof coating will be a cooling event on the trailer to keep it from heating up so rapidly and so high. I have spray foam insulated the bottom of the trailer (did not do the wheel wells) and see a slight difference in heat loss. After our last 8 day trip to Florida where temps got to mid 30s each night, the best mod I have made is the heat strip in the AC unit. It kept our 21BHS at mid 70s all night long. Doing the roof coating should finish help the heat problem in the summer.[/quote]It'll be interesting to hear how it goes, good luck.

[montedtrotter1]

Well I switched to Gardner Gibson 100% silicone roof coating due to a five gallon bucket being 25$ cheaper basically for the same thing. Both are sold via Home Depot. I did call Henry technical support in CA and they indicated that an aluminum substrate like on our trailers will cause streaking from water runoff. The Henry technitian indicated that only a silicone based coating should be used for an RV application due to chemistry and durability. it is guaranteed for life by Henry and 50 years by Gardner. I will not be around in 50 years so not really an issue.  This product only requires one coat but I was told I could add another if I wanted. The silicone coating is supposed to solve the streaking problem. The cost for a 5 gallon bucket is just a little more than 3 one gallon pails or enough for one coat. One coat is good but is seems two would be awesome. The product is ordered and I hope to apply in late February or early March before our next trip to TN area. It obviously will not be a heat issue in March but we have been getting a lot rain in GA and I have streaks down the side of our trailer. These are pretty hard to remove so I want to stop this problem ASAP. I also read that the white coating should reduce the heat buildup by 40 degrees, common sense says a white roof will reflect heat versus absorbing. I know the aluminum roof gets amazingly hot. I will report back.

[mitch]

Here's another aluminum roof coating I just ran across.

http://www.rvpartsnation.com/exterior/rv-coatings-sealants/elastomeric-metal-roof-co/

[daplumbr]

I realize the initial reason for this thread was coatings for the new roofing material, but since others have already hijacked it to discuss coatings for those of us with aluminum roofs, I'll jump in. I think the elastomer coatings and roofing materials of all types are probably overkill for an aluminum roof. I doubt they offer much in the way of sound-deadening and so serve mainly 2 purposes; reflection of the sun and prevention of staining. To that end, why not just use a good marine paint on the roof? There are many good brands and varieties. Perhaps something like white Interlux non-slip paint would work and be very simple to apply and touch up if ever necessary. Perhaps that's what Kool-Seal is too? One example:

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/interlux--interdeck-nonskid-paint--P004_121_005_502

[montedtrotter1]

Merlin, I agree with your assessment about the two main reasons to coat a trailer roof white; reflection of suns rays and stop the streaking. I have temperature/humidity guage inside trailer, and it records highs and lows. I have seen it at 130 degrees on a hot summer day in GA! I think you are correct in that a silicone coating may be overkill but I hopefully want to do this one time. I sold minerals/raw materials to Henry and Gardner Gibson and was a member of the National Roof Coatings Association. The big issue in the south and southwest part of the country was using white roof coatings on building to use less energy to cool them. All these companies have a lot to lose if they make products that do not hold up under very high temperatures and extreme weather conditions. It is one thing to coat a trailer at less than 150 square feet but quite another coating thousands of square feet on a giant warehouse or skyscraper and guaranteeing the roof for 50 years! I agree with another forum member that we need to be careful with coatings but the most important thing a paint manufacturer talks before applying a coating is properly cleaning the metal/rubber surface before applying the coating.

All you guys got me thinking regarding the pickup liner coating. I got my PU bed coated one year ago for $350, sprayed on and this coating is amazingly durable (so far). I now think I should go back to this guy and ask for a quote on coating the top of my trailer if it comes in a light gray or white color. I think these guys would do a very good job (much better than my efforts) as they have a large building where all coatings are applied inside a building. They guarantee the work and if any issues make it right.

I have to get a quote before I use the Gardner material. It may be worth $100 more to let them do it.

And one more thing, these coatings, due to thickness and high solids content, must help with rain noise a little bit?

I am going to check it out on Monday.

[montedtrotter1]

Well, I cheated! I purchased the Gardner-Gibson 100% silicone based roof coating to put on our 21BHS. I ordered if from HD and got it several days ago. I did check out the pickup liner coating cost and got a price of  $1300 installed guaranteed for life (special order for white coating). This is more than I wanted to pay and sure it would have been very good but overkill as I am looking for light reflection and reduction in rain streaking on the side the trailer after rain. I am not going to be throwing any tool boxes on the roof!  I asked the installer ( private company owner) if he would install the silicone material for me, doing the cleaning/taping etc. I showed him the bucket of material along with tech data sheet and installation instructions. His comment was this is easy compared to a spray on liner but not having applied this coating was not sure what kind of problems he might encounter.  I am not sure what the final price will be but he indicated $200-$250 which I think is a deal. He is doing it inside his facility, not outside, and told me he would take off all covers except the AC. Our basic agreement was for him to do it as if it were his trailer.
He was cleaning the roof this afternoon, taping, and will roll it on tomorrow, two coats, 3-4 hours between coats. I will send pictures and report back on how well it reflects sunlight and noise. I did notice some pretty good dents in the aluminum roof from falling tree limbs. We had this happen several times from rain storms, Tybee Island and recently a Florida trip. Once applied it should be near 30 mils dry thickness (according to Gardner) so I am hoping it will reduce the rain noise a little. Again the number one reason for the coating is sunlight reflection for a cooler roof.