Paint Paint Paint The Roof

The roof had a ton of dew on it. From the street it looked like a new black roof. It even looked like a new roof when I climbed up and walked on it. It was actually about seven years old I figured after looking a bit closer. It had a bit of moss and was kind of an ugly reddish color, so the owner pressure washed it. The pressure washing took the protective granulation off wherever the wand made a swipe back and forth. Small pieces of moss were still visible in places. He took elastomeric deck covering and painted it over the roofing, then took black paint and covered the grey colored elastomeric. Both were hardened and laying in the gutter where it had run off. This technique put protection over the missing areas of granulation and the color was changed to a uniform black color. Sounds like a good plan, huh? Maybe. Probably not. We'll never get to find out though, since he decided to sell the house.

He claims he was sold this material by a well known roofing supply house on recommendation of a roofer. We called. The owner of the supply company knew nothing about any kind of product approved for painting on composition roofs. The other well known supply house in the area was called. Nothing again. The real estate agent called three roofing companies to come out and give their opinions. At least two companies rushed out there and wanted to see it out of curiosity if nothing else. None would give it a five year roof certification, despite outward good appearance, and none had ever heard of painting a composition roof. I washed my hands of it completely, as there is no protocol for a painted roof. It could fail in a week, it could last twenty five years, we have no way of knowing.

So there we have it, an otherwise good roof, ruined by good intentions.