Explaining the 3 Roofing Systems 

I want to explain to you about the three different systems that are available on the market for redoing a roof over a commercial roof. First of all you get the TPO type of membrane which is a white membrane and it a vinyl or PVC type of material and it’s called a single ply membrane. Then you can get the EPDM. Let me show you the EPDM here at the bottom. Andre want to this is the EPDM membrane and it’s also a single ply membrane like the inner tube of a car.

Comparing Two Rubber Roofs

You can see it stretches like that and then you get another single ply membrane which is the modified bitumen membrane like this one. This is a modified asphalt and it becomes rubber. The three systems are all called single ply membranes and they all have a different technique of installation.

TPO is Heat-Welded

TPO needs to be heat welded on the seams and you need to have a surface that is fairly flat and smooth before you install it and the same with the EPDM. EPDM is very thin and hold that side Andre and also it’s a single ply membrane and it has to be installed over very smooth surface and it’s a glue down process.

That means contact cement. You add contact cement onto this side and the other side and you glue them together and that way that’s how the seams are done. Uh this is how easy you can penetrate through uh EPDM. I can hold it there. You see the knife? It goes just like that. Easy.

Modified Bitumen is a Thicker Membrane

Modified Bitumen is a thicker membrane and it can be installed over almost any surface, a rough surface. It’s not necessary has to be smooth. What makes this such a better system, or a better membrane is you can hardly get through the membrane. That’s how hard it is to get through this membrane. I can barely get my knife through there.

Install a Modified Bitumen Membrane

I have to put a lot of pressure in it. Now the way you, what we do is we have gone a step further. We install the modified bitumen membrane over another membrane on top of a base paper. Now, I’m going to explain this to you, but we call it a two ply system. A two ply system is by far the best roofing system out there.

Life Span of a Roof

There’s nothing that can come close to it. All these single ply membranes even the modified by itself, they give a guarantee of twelve to fifteen years. That’s what the life expectancy is. That’s not enough for a commercial roof. If you have a commercial building, you don’t want to replace the roof every twelve fifteen years. The system what we have is a two-ply system. Let me I’m gonna just explain to you. Here we’re busy doing a roof over the stone here and you can see the stone. We smooth out the stone like this then we add a fiber liner.

A Fiberglass Liner for a Rubber Roof

This is a fiberglass liner that can go over the stone. You can see the stones doesn’t come through. It doesn’t penetrate through. That is to give it the stiffness to the roof and make it like a rigid roof. After we install the fiber uh, uh liner, then we install a single ply self-adhering membrane. You can see this is sticking to this base.

Installing a Base

It’s starting to stick there. You see there? This is sticking to the base and after we install that fiber liner and then this base, we then torch down our membrane, the final layer on top of this self-adhering base. By the time you’re done, it becomes a very thick roof and this system can be installed over any type of roof any surface without having to strip the cost of stripping an entire roof and it will last you guaranteed thirty to forty years easily no questions about it.

The Thickness of a Roof

This is what it looks like. Look how thick it is. I don’t know if you can see it. Can you zoom in onto this Erik? Let me get the EPDM. Can you see the two difference there? This is the difference in thickness. Can you see it? And this two ply system, you can do modified a single ply system we don’t recommend that.

It’s still a single ply roof, but once you go to a two ply system with a modified, you cannot do it with EPDM you cannot do it with TPO, that white uh, uh, vinyl type of roof, but you can do it with a modified, you can do two ply system with the modified and you’ll have the best system out there. Nothing can beat it. So, I explained to you about the two ply system. So we went over an original built up roof.

Old Hot Tar Built Up Roof

This is the old hot tar built up roof hot tar and paper and it started cracking and the owners of this building wanted to reroof and so we went over the hot tar. This is a two ply system. There’s the first membrane and there’s the second membrane. I cannot get it apart. It’s stuck to it.

The first membrane is sticks to the hot tar and the next one we torch to this it sticks to this. It’s indestructible! Then you can look, pan over this this is how it looks like we went over here. This area has stone underneath here. We went over the stone area and you can see we still in the process. We almost done.

Torch Down Membrane

This is the membrane the torch down, and this is the second base here; the self adhering base and then we have the liner the fiberglass liner and this is the stone here. We almost complete with this roof and this roof will outlast any other system out there. I don’t care which one you bring to me.

TPO Not Lasting Long

The TPO, the EPDM, they cannot last as long as this roof would last. This will last thirty to and I’m sure it’s gonna go to fifty years. This is how good this type of roof is and leaks? No way! It can never leak even if they don’t the whole thing about single ply membranes is technique.

Installing TPO

TPO has a certain technique the heat weld and so has EPDM has certain techniques, but the glue on EPDMs do fail after three or five years or ten years. That contact cement, it fails in the heat. Both of the TPO and EPDM are not UV protected. They don’t have the protection. With the modified it has the granular surface that has UV protection, it’s double the thickness then we added another layer it makes it three or four times thicker than any other single ply membrane. No UV can destroy it, and that’s the best system out there. Bar none!