Can You Apply Roof Coatings In Winter?
Applying roof coatings in winter months can cause problems, so a great deal of care needs to be taken when temperatures are low and the main things to look out for are:
Dew on the roof surface, because this will cause the new coating to fail and quickly de-bond from the surface.
Ice on the roof surface because obviously you can’t coat over ice., The real issue is one of health and safety, because the presence of ice on a sloping roof is extremely slippery.
Low temperatures significantly slow down curing of the new coating and in some cases, will prevent the coating from curing, leaving it wet or tacky.
When temperatures are in single figures, the viscosity of the coating can also be affected, resulting in difficulty in applying it.
Certain colours in coatings will also suffer from patchiness if there is a sudden temperature drop during application. This is most common during afternoons, before dusk.
Fog and mist contain huge amounts of water that settle on roofs. If it’s foggy, coating must not be carried out.
Follow The Instructions
There are many things that can affect the appearance and performance of coatings, but temperature is one that is often missed. It doesn’t matter what type of coating you are using, you should always refer to the manufacturer’s Technical Data Sheet which provides details of the temperatures in which they can be applied.
Liquasil’s metal roof coating contains a QR code on every can that links directly to the appropriate data sheet, along with another that provides the installation instructions. Failing to follow the instructions can result in adherence failure or a poor aesthetic finish.
Our cut edge corrosion primer (SWT Primer) is a two-pack epoxy. This should be applied at temperatures of 5 degrees, but ideally 10 degrees, because otherwise the increased viscosity makes it difficult to mix and apply at the correct film weight.
Our products can be applied at all times of the year, but remember that shorter daylight hours and lower temperature during the winter period will slow down your roof coating project considerably, probably by as much as 50%.
Professional specifiers and contract administrators should always bear this in mind when drawing up contracts, because the weather and temperature will cause havoc with your project scheduling.
Consider that before starting coating each day, that the roof surface will need to be dried. This is often done with leaf blowers, but because that leaves microscopic moisture on the surface of the roof, it will probably also need to be wiped over with tissue paper as well, sometimes more than once to ensure the surface is bone dry.
If the new roof coating is being spray-applied, the spray equipment has to be prepared for use at the start of each day and then thoroughly cleaned down afterwards. This process alone can take up to an hour.
Once the roof surface is dry, then coating can commence as usual, but the shorter daylight hours means that productivity will be reduced accordingly.
In conclusion, roof coating projects can be completed satisfactorily in colder conditions, as long as everybody is aware of the limitations presented by nature.