Fire Protection Starts on the Roof

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Learn about this fire-resistant waterproofing underylayment that is providing superior fire protection for the homes and buildings that need it most. 

Season 3, Episode 22 of the RoofersCoffeeShop® original podcast, Roofing Road Trips, is all about the new age of fire protection on the roof. Listen in as RCS Partner, Heidi J. Ellsworth, visits with Marco Sieber of Polyglass about the recent launch of Polystick XFR, a dual-purpose fire resistant and self-adhered waterproofing underlayment that offers unmatched fire resistance. With wildfires happening more frequently across the county, the roofing industry is striving to keep homes and businesses safe, starting at the roof. 

Marco is the national product manager at Polyglass and oversees the largest segment of their business, the membranes. 

"I manage both steep slope and low slope membranes for roofing. As the product manager, I'm responsible for leading our business strategy, design knowledge and finding what our customer needs are in the marketplace,” said Marco. “[I do this] in order to develop and maintain products that are relevant and valuable to the marketplace throughout their life cycle.” 

Polyglass offers a full line of roofing underlayments, including their latest: the Polystick XFR fire resistant underlayment. The Polystick products are extensively used for steep-slope commercial buildings but are used on residential applications as well.  

“All of our Polystick underlayments have that self-adhered ADESO® technology,” said Marco. “The ADESO technology is very unique in that it really differentiates the product [two layers]. The top portion is used as a dedicated layer that's going to take the brunt of the forces of the roof covering and their environmental factors, the sun and the rain, everything that beats on the top of that underlayment over time. And then, the bottom layer is a dedicated self-adhesive layer that's very aggressive.” 

Polyglass has a total of eight underlayments on the market today, which are segmented into groups depending on the type of roof covering they are used with. For instance, there are underlayments for metal roof use, for asphalt shingle use or for clay and concrete tile use. There are also hybrid underlayments that can be used with several roof covering types.  

After Polyglass saw the growing need for fire-resistant technology on the roof, they started on their newest underlayment, the Polystick XFR, which took two years to completely develop.  

"There is a need [for fire protection roofing products], either because the building codes in those areas mandate it or because it brings peace of mind to the homeowner or the building owner in terms of fire resistance for their building,” said Marco. “That could be fire resistance because of wildfires, like we've been seeing over the past several years out west...but there are other parts of country where they mandate it for different reasons that a building needs to meet a certain fire classification.”  

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about this excellent product that is providing fire resistance and waterproofing protection across the U.S.