Silicone to the Rescue for Leaky Assisted Living Roof

By Karen L. Edwards, RCS Editor.

Commonwealth Assisted Living in Abingdon, Virginia’s roof had been leaking for years.

The building’s persistent leaky roof seemed to have no hope of repair. An engineer investigated the problem and looked at several options to repair it, but after structural and load-bearing tests, the only viable option appeared to be a complete roof replacement, not feasible for the facility that was occupied 24/7. The situation looked bleak.

Things changed when Applied Coating Solutions (ACS) stopped by to see the general contractor, according to an article in Coatings Pro magazine. ACS President Andrew Wilson shared in the article, “It had kind of been put on the side for that general contractor, and then we went in and pitched that GC in general about silicone coatings. And he said, ‘hey, we’ve got a project for you. They’ve been looking for us to help them with something for a while.’”

Silicone coatings were the perfect solution for the facility’s 34,000 square foot wood joist and 26-gauge R-panel metal roof. The silicone coating system was within the weight limits and would get rid of the persistent leaks. The ACS crew began by using a 4,000-psi pressure washer to clean the existing roof, followed by replacing failing pipe boots and fasteners and tightening the remaining fasteners.

Seams and fasteners were sealed using GE Enduris™ Liquid Flashing. The crew used am 80-ounce Bulk Caulk gun from Albion Engineering with a Spot-Pro Extension Nozzle which Wilson said helped them save time. He shared in the article that, “Every one of those fastener heads gets encapsulated with that silicone as well as any pipes or horizontal lap seams. Typically, on a metal roof like this you’ll spend as much if not more time on detail work than actually spraying the roof if you do it right.”

GE Enduris™ 3500 100% Silicone Roof Coating was selected as the coating for several reasons – it’s a trusted brand, it doesn’t require mixing or a primer and it is available in custom colors. Commonwealth Assisted Living at Abingdon wanted to match the shingles, trim and other accessories and selected cobble brown as their color.

GE Enduris™ Roof Coating was applied using a Graco Gas Hydraulic 933 Big Rig. Crews were careful along the edges of the building to narrow their fan tip to avoid overcoating and overspray. The installation took place in January and they were challenged with cold weather narrowing their working window to just a few hours a day.

Wilson told Coatings Pro that the facility paid about half of what they would have for a complete roof replacement, and the solution is working. Wilson said, “We haven’t had a single leak call on that project — knock on wood — since we finished it, so all good things.”

Learn more about GE Silicones in their RCS Directory.

GE is a registered trademark of General Electric company and is used under license by Momentive Performance Materials, Inc.