But those who fail to look carefully before taking a leap into new markets and technologies may find the footing more slippery than they imagined. An informal survey of contractors and suppliers around the country indicates that interest among painters in roof coating is growing substantially, partly due to an explosion of elastomeric coating products. But those with experience in both fields warn painting contractors against leaving one business for the other without a lot of preparation. Working on roofs, even just to coat them, requires a specialized knowledge of how they work, and more particularly, why they leak. Most of the work being done by the contractors PWC spoke with is either coating new commercial and industrial roofs, or recoating a commercial or industrial roof that leaks.
Some residential painters continue to specialize in residential roof coating.
For the most part, currently popular latex roof products have evolved from coatings used to provide a skin for urethane foam insulation. Most contain acrylic ingredients, but others may contain urethane, polyvinyl acetates, or polyethelene. Recently released products make use of metal or ceramic particles in their formulas. One of the main attractions of the roof coating business for painting contractors is that the applications are very similar, both being liquid-applied technologies. Roof coatings differ primarily in the thickness of the coat applied, which may be as much as 40 mils.