Decorative overlays or toppings to Single Ply PVC roof?

Archive of Older Topics Archive - Product Discussions #6
1

I have a white 60mil felt back single ply PVC roof here in Southern California. One of my rows of doctors offices looks out over this roof, and they dislike the dirty white appearance. They are asking me for recommendations on what they can :add" to the roof to address this aesthetic dilemma. My suggestion to add window blinds was not well received. (north facing roof).

Any ideas? Yes, I know there will need to be weight calcuations, and we have an 85 mph wind load, and CalGreen and LEED for HealthCare reflectiviy indexes and so forth as well to factor in.

I’m not too worried about weight. I have a healthy live load factor in this facility.

2

What about a brown color PVC sheet? That way, doctors won’t be able to tell dirt from color.

Seriously? Maybe a green roof (with putting green) so doctors can practice their pitch or wedge golf shots?

3

Would they consider washing the membrane a few times a year?

4

LOL, I have already written a deficiency notice to the contractor on that!

I think the ownership is thinking more permanent type of solution. Perhaps decorative gravel ballast.

5

You could use Live Roof; Roof Edge as the perimeter and river rock with a protection fabric below.

I have also used a translucent 3M window film just high enough to cover the view of the roof, but open above. It worked well.

6

The real solution is maintenance; they need to wash the roof. There is a company that makes acrylic coatings for PVC, but this is not endorsed by the membrane manufacturer. In this particular case, maybe doing a green roof would make some sense. Changing the color may change the thermal performance of the envelope.

7

Is the roof white for a solar reflectance index conforming with code (Cal-Green/Cal Energy Code)? Or perhaps to score LEED point?

8

Steven, yes. Both.

Live Roof is interesting. Running irrigation to this location might be problematic though. I am 90% sure if we do anything, it will be 1" rock ballast matrix, to a depth of about 2". SEOR is reviewing now.

9

There are multi-component urethane “coatings” compatible with PVC roof membranes - they’re more like a liquid applied membrane than a coating. But I can’t say that they are any more self-cleaning than the original PVC membrane.