All About Restoring Single-Ply Roofing

By Cass Jacoby. 

TPO, PVC, and EPDM, oh my! We sit with the experts to learn more about single-ply roofing systems and why restoration of them is a popular solution for building owners.  

The Understanding Roof Restoration Podcast is a crash course into everything you need to know about restoring roofs.  As the popularity of roof restoration continues to grow, more and more questions arise from building owners, architects, consultants and even contractors.  

Good thing we have experts from Western Colloid to answer any and all restoration questions!  Greg Hlavaty, Hal Leland, and the team at Western Colloid have been manufacturing and installing these systems for more than 50 years-- they have seen it all. With a wide variety of their roofing systems on existing buildings and many available restoration options, they definitely have an answer to your roof restoration questions! 

Each week we will tackle a different topic and answer questions submitted by you, our listeners. In season one, episode two of the Understanding Roof Restoration podcast, we discuss recovering  single-ply roofing systems 

“Single plies were first used back in the 1990s. One of the first strong single-plies was EPDM. The other single ply that came about was PVC and Hypalon,” says Greg, going through the history of single-ply roofing.  “That has become the high-quality, high-performance product being used throughout the United States from the northeast to the bottom of the southwest. It works well, but eventually it wears out like the others. And then came along TPO.” 

Thermoplastic Polyolefin. TPO polymer is an inexpensive, high-performing polymer, that has become a big player in the roofing marketplace. The only problem is that this roofing compound easily deteriorates to just the scrim. “We saw that as a great opportunity to leave that sheet there as a base sheet and then we would put some of our assemblies on it,” says Hal. “So in 2010, we went back and we did some testing at FM and we've got five assemblies that come to mind right now that can go over a TPO roof and deliver 10-, 15- or 20-year warranties.” 

It makes sense for a lot of building owners to consider this as a solution because there's no tear off so you're saving in labor. You're keeping materials out of the landfill and you're essentially renewing your roof into a watertight condition that comes with a warranty. 

Listen to the podcast for more information on how restoring single ply roofing systems can benefit your building. 

Have a question? AskARoofer.   

Find your local roofing contractor in the RoofersCoffeeShop® Contractor Directory. 

About Cass  

Cass works as a reporter/writer for RoofersCoffeeShop, AskARoofer and MetalCoffeeShop. When she isn’t writing about roofs, she is putting her Master degree to work writing about movies and dancing with her plants.