Five Benefits of Industrial Roof Cooling

Are your employees hot, bothered and agitated? Air-conditioning just can’t keep up with the summer months? Many businesses are turning to Industrial Roof Coating to reduce the effects of the sun’s heat on the inside temperature of buildings.

When the weather gets hot your roof gradually heats up, absorbing the sun. Concrete and metal roofs maintain the heat they absorb, it in turn heats up the inside of buildings. Industrial roof cooling works by a reflective paint applied to the roof. This paint forms a membrane which can reflect as much as 95% of the sun’s rays.

Here are five of the benefits in store for you when you have a protective coating applied to your roof:

The Inside Temperature of Your Building Will Decrease

Once industrial roof cooling is in place, your roof will reflect 95% of infa-red rays and 85% of ultra-violet rays. In the summer, some roofs can get as hot as 55 degrees celcius. Roof cooling can cause this to drop by as much as 20 degrees. In turn, the inside temperature has been recorded to drop by as much as 47%

Your Staff Will be Cooler, Happier and More Productive

With a cooling working environment, you can forget about decreased productivity on hot days. Have union rules forced you to close your business on hot days or let your staff leave early when the mercury hits 38.5 degrees? You will never have to worry about that happening with the right protective roof cooling.

An overheated work space not only means that your staff are less productive, it can also have an effect on your retention rate. No one wants to be uncomfortable at work. Keeping your staff hotter for longer means they are more likely to look for work elsewhere.

Your Cooling Costs Will Decrease

Cooling bills have been documented to drop by 61% when a heat reflecting cooling system has been put in place. If you dread the cost of fans and air-conditioning in summer you can look forward to a massive drop in your energy costs. Not only is industrial roof coating a good idea financially, but your business will also be doing its part for the environment.

You can Avoid Asbestos Removal

Does your roofing contain asbestos components? Many people believe that asbestos only becomes a problem when it is removed, however this is not true in a commercial or industrial space where the risk of damage is too great. The removal of asbestos is expensive and time consuming. Encapsulation is a great alternative. The same protective coat that reflects the sun’s heat can also be used to contain the asbestos fiber, leaving is benign. This means that even if the roof bubbles or cracks, it poses no threat.

You Won’t Have to Worry About Maintenance for Fifteen Years

Once you have a roof coating application completed you can count on not needing any reapplication or maintenance for fifteen years. Not only this, but the lifespan of your existing roof will be increased. A new metal roof that is treated will have fifteen more years of life than a non treated roof.

It’s true that creativity thrives in adversity. The financial downturn has spurred the development and release of innovative paint technologies that has industrial coatings contractors all abuzz and rubbing their hands in anticipation.

What are the newsworthy trends in painting products that are making their way into the hands of industrial coating contractors and right into facility premises? Environment-friendly zero-VOC formulations are still leading the pack. Energy-saving solar-reflective innovations are also out in the market. Long-lasting and sustainable high-solids are rolling out manufacturers’ labs. Self-cleaning paints sound too futuristic, but are actually being developed in research labs and may be used by industrial coatings contractors soon.

Cool Roofs

Cool roofs, or zero-VOC and energy-efficient roof coatings, are preferred by industrial coatings contractors not only for their zero-VOC emissions, but also for their above-average SRI or solar-reflective index. Solar reflectivity is an important property for roof coatings, because it indicates the coating’s ability to reflect sunlight back and away from the facility. The less of the sun’s rays being absorbed through the roof, the cooler the interior will be, thereby lessening cooling and energy costs.

Cool roof products offer more than energy efficiency and environmental benefits, they continue to deliver high quality expected of standard paints, such as high-adhesion, strength, and durability. They still provide tough protection against water exposure, and impermeability against toxic acids and harsh alkali from oil leaks and greasy spills, to the delight of industrial coatings contractors.

Three-wet Paint

The 3-wet paint technology simplifies the process of paint application, eliminating the time- and energy-consuming paint preparation of applying primers, paint bases and enamels. Paint preparation used to be applied manually by industrial coatings contractors, following a set drying-time schedule. With 3-wet paint technology, the process involves no manual procedure, and the paints can be applied while still wet. The resulting product, can save on time by about 20%, according to data from Ford, who implemented the 3-wet paint technology on a global scale for its painted vehicle shops.

The high-solids solvent-borne paint formulation where Ford’s technology is based also produces fewer harmful emissions than regular paints, and successfully met all industry standards in chip/scratch/etch resistance, durability, and performance.

The benefits of 3-wet paint technology are numerous, from the elimination of costly equipments used by industrial coatings contractors, to time-savings, to lesser emission of environmental pollutants, to lesser energy consumption gained from faster processing time — a clean and sustainable process overall.

Self-Cleaning Paints

Still in the design board of UK’s DSTL labs, but showing much promise, are the new types of paints able to decontaminate itself and resist chemical attacks. The experimental paints are currently applied in strips and designed to soak up dangerous air-borne chemicals, making the nearby air safe for humans to breathe. The future enhancement of the paint is to imbue it with catalytic enzymes to process the soaked-up chemicals, thereby decontaminating itself.

The technology is flexible for industrial coatings contractors. It can be engineered to change color to indicate contamination and decontamination, and to be sunlight-reflective for purposes of camouflage. And like ordinary paint, these “sci-fi” paints can be applied using standard rollers or sprays by industrial coatings contractors, for ease of use and removal