Installing a PVC Roofing Membrane
While as a home or business owner, you will most likely not be installing a PVC roofing membrane yourself, it is important to have basic understanding of the installation process, so that you can ensure that your contractor is doing a good job.
PVC Process
As with any roofing material, ensuring that your PVC membrane is properly installed is a key determinant of the longevity and proper service of the roof. Many PVC roofing membranes that fail prematurely, do so because of initial incorrect installation done by an unprofessional roofer, rather than inherent flaws of the roof itself.
PVC Installation
Prior to installing the PVC roofing membrane itself, typically some type of insulation board is put in. Most commonly used insulation is ISO or EPS foam board. Both of these insulation boards carry an R-value that ranges from 4-R to 6-R per 1 inch of insulation thickness. Insulation is important because it saves energy by reducing heat loss. Heat gain is taken care of by PVC’s cool white surface.
A PVC roofing membrane can be installed in three different ways. Regardless of what installation procedure is chosen, all PVC roofing systems are sealed with a hot-air welder. This ensures superior seam strength and makes the membrane resistant to leaks and wind blow-off. When choosing a time to install your PVC roof, note that the temperature of the heat welding of the seams is critical to getting a strong bond. Therefore, welder temperature should be adjusted upwards in the winter to account cooler ambient temperatures.
The hot-air welding of all seams and flashing is used on all PVC roof installations. Hot – air welding makes material overlaps last a lot longer, than those on EPDM rubber roofs and other torch applied or glued flat roof systems. The advantage of hot-air welding is that it can be done in the winter and does not require and adhesives to work, where as solvent based glue used in Rubber Roof installation will freeze, making installation or repair impossible.
FULLY-ADHERED Assembly
In a nutshell, a PVC membrane is attached to the substrate using a special adhesive. Even though this is a quick and simple installation method, it has one major disadvantage. In case condensation forms underneath a PVC membrane, which sometimes happens as a result of poor ventilation of the roof deck, it will cause the adhesive holding the membrane in place to become loose. As a result, the loose membrane will be susceptible to wind blow-off.
While the chance of such strong wind may be very small, the consequences of your roof being blown-off will be disastrous to your property and will cost thousands of dollars to repair. Thus, you need to evaluate whether you want to take even this minimal chance by choosing a full-adhered method of installation.
Other Assembly Methods:
- MECHANICALLY-ATTACHED Assembly
- BALLASTED Install
Contact C&R Commercial Roofing, Inc. @ 847.229.1452 Today!