Anyone painted their roof before? (Pattaya)

[Greenblue]

I'm hoping to paint my roof with some reflective roof paint. Our roof is currently dark brown/black, and absorbs so much heat from the day.

Has anyone successfully painted their roof before and could they recommend a professional/reliable roof painter? Or am I wishful thinking?

[rilkithai]

This is my field of work for more that 10years now. Painting with normal light or white paint would help, but not that much such for hot and heat weather in Thailand. You would need paint products that have Ceramic polymer mixture in the paint. You could google its with the word "ceramic coating insulation" There are several companies, doing ceramic coating insulation in market. Difference companies may produce with difference Ceramic painting grade, checking the grade before you buy it. You need to clean surface (roof) with water and let dried before apply the paint. And at least two layer coating would recommend.

For mine one in pdf, https://app.box.com/s/3b05qlf7qq1pxavu0n0w

if you need to learn more about ceramic insulation, give me a shout. will help as much as I could (no need to buy its from me though).
Hope more or less help here.

[Greenblue]

Thankyou Rilkithai for your insight. Some very useful information. DO you only provide the paint? or do you provide the painting job aswell? I have also been in touch with another company about paint but they didn't provide the workmen. We are looking for professional workmen to help paint the roof and do the job properly. So far have been very unsuccessful. Also, what colours do you provide? Very worried about white as we are a bungalow house with 2 story houses next to us, and don't was to be a nuisance with the white reflecting back into their house. Ideally looking for a light grey colour.

[rilkithai]

My company do provide the paint and painting job by professional workmen as well Green blue. For ceramic coating insulation, we can provide with only white colour as maximum temperature reduction result. We have done many building in the past and its not cause any problem to neighbor hood at all Greenblue. Ceramic coating insulation is not make reflecting back directly into nearby building. Its passing solar back through the air though. But Colour white does look bright if people look at the roof. I should pm you my phone no and company website in case you need more info. Therefore very welcome indeed.

[jackr]

I wold do it myself to ensure a good job unless you're not up to it. TOA makes the better roof paint, better that Synex (?). If you do it yourself, don't be tempted to brush it on as it'll take an age and won't be uniform. Use a compressor or one of those new airless sprayers. Easy. Just built a sala and it went on very nicely with compressor, while also touched up part of the house roof by brush and it was a pig of a job.

[chiang mai]

I'm hoping we can reopen this thread because I'm getting ready to paint my roof a lighter colour, solely for the purpose of reflecting heat.

I have read that most paint in the West now comes with an LRV (light reflective value) rating and TOA at least seems to have published some details of the LRV's of their products, trying to discuss this aspect of paint purchase with store staff however is met with the usual blank stares.

The main stumbling block seems to be in understanding the difference between the LRV of a specific colour versus the potential LRV of a specific product, for example: white paint has a potential LRV of about 85 whereas dark brown paint has a potential LRV of around 5%, that estimate being based solely on simple physics.

But there's a whole host of paints being sold in Thailand by Beger, TOA and others that are named "Diamond" (or similar), all of which claim to reflect up to 95% of UV and heat, regardless of the colour! Hmmm!!!

I'm therefore going to be interested to hear from anyone who has first hand knowledge of this subject, in a practical respect, i.e I painted my roof and I used this because, (or similar).

I'm also keen not to get into a debate about attic/roof insulation, this is purely about heat/light reflective roof paint.

[chiang mai]

Bump?

I've just read that there's a ceramic powder that can be added to any paint which improves substantially its heat reflectivity, anyone come across such a thing here before?

[chiang mai]

I found the answers, for anyone that needs this info. in the future:

Google the Bangkok Post article on Beger nano paint, key words "beger cool roof cost per gallon Thailand" and read in the context of the following:

http://www.beger.co.th/catalog/E_catalog_Decorative/BegerCool%20UV%20Shield/BegerCool%20UV%20Shield_ecatalogueCombine.pdf

[sometimewoodworker]

We painted our roof with TOA sunblock and had a very noticeable heat reduction

We also used it on a concrete plank walk way with very good results

[chiang mai]

Just when I thought I had the answer to the problem of how to cool your roof with paint, along comes this:

http://energy-seal.com/ceramic-coatings/

An extract reads: "When it comes to roofing, the darker the surfaces color the more resistance to solar radiation, the more the resistance the greater the heat gain. The only “magic” in an energy efficient “cool roof” coating/ paint is the color, period! A white colored surface reflects maximum amount of solar radiation, second to a gold mirror".

Another para reads, "A white surface reflects a very large amount of solar radiation. Ceramics offer very little if any insulative value".

The article goes on to pretty much debunk the idea that ceramic paint does anything useful when it comes to heat dissipation!

So where does that leave us, the new breed of ceramic paints that are supposed to block the suns heat by up to 95% are in fact just a marketing gimmick? And if that is true, what's the best paint product to use on a roof and more importantly, why?

From people I've spoken to about this subject, repainting a roof in Thailand from dark to light rarely works out well, simply the poor quality of workmanship is the main issue. And even new roofs that are near white seems to stay looking nice for only a couple of years, thereafter the dreaded mildew takes hold and the roof becomes streaked with black/dark patches.

Thoughts anyone?

Edited November 3, 2015 by chiang mai

[bankruatsteve]

Except for potential expansion/contraction issues, it doesn't really matter how hot the roof gets if the heat inside the "attic" space is kept from permeating the dwelling. Reflective foil underneath the roof seems to be the most effective but that isn't easy to retrofit. I think you will be attacking the root problem better with reflective insulation and good ventilation than painting the roof.

[chiang mai]

Except for potential expansion/contraction issues, it doesn't really matter how hot the roof gets if the heat inside the "attic" space is kept from permeating the dwelling. Reflective foil underneath the roof seems to be the most effective but that isn't easy to retrofit. I think you will be attacking the root problem better with reflective insulation and good ventilation than painting the roof.

I've increased attic ventilation substantially (7sq feet in and 7 sq feet out), retrofitted a radiant barrier (it was a b*tch) plus I have installed up to 12 inches of foil covered bats - I even have an attic exhaust fan that's ready for installation!

All of the above works fine on an average hot day but on an above average hot day those defenses can be defeated and next year is forecast to be very very hot. A part of the problem is that I have a very steep roof pitch which means there's a substantial area of roof that is hit by the sun for ten hours each day in the summertime. It therefore seems to me that if there is a coating that can be applied externally, I might want to consider it, the question is which one and why.

[Pacificperson]

I cannot speak to Thai roofs, but I have a flat concrete roof in the tropics. We use a product similar to the one in post #9. It works well and you can definitely feel the difference. These products serve two purposes. One they reflect heat and two they seal the roof by forming a membrane. I don't think that you will get the waterproofing membrane on a tiled roof, but that is not the point here. The other cost is that sooner or later they will need cleaning. We use a pressure washer once every year or two to remove the mildew. Again, you can feel the difference in temperature between a clean and a dirty roof. So if you go this route, you will be adding a routine maintenance to your life, but they do work.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Pacificperson

[sometimewoodworker]

Except for potential expansion/contraction issues, it doesn't really matter how hot the roof gets if the heat inside the "attic" space is kept from permeating the dwelling. Reflective foil underneath the roof seems to be the most effective but that isn't easy to retrofit. I think you will be attacking the root problem better with reflective insulation and good ventilation than painting the roof.

I've increased attic ventilation substantially (7sq feet in and 7 sq feet out), retrofitted a radiant barrier (it was a b*tch) plus I have installed up to 12 inches of foil covered bats - I even have an attic exhaust fan that's ready for installation!

All of the above works fine on an average hot day but on an above average hot day those defenses can be defeated and next year is forecast to be very very hot. A part of the problem is that I have a very steep roof pitch which means there's a substantial area of roof that is hit by the sun for ten hours each day in the summertime. It therefore seems to me that if there is a coating that can be applied externally, I might want to consider it, the question is which one and why.

As I posted the TOA sunblock has worked for me, it is white so that is a plus. And again I have used it on a walkway that is not uncomfortable to walk on even after several hours of direct sun

This is the walkway so you can see that part of it has no shade.

It is a "no shoe" area, the concrete apron in front of the walkway is uncomfortable to stand on.

The paint isn't cheap, only you can decide if it's good enough. I did. It was. YMMV

Edited November 6, 2015 by sometimewoodworker