Liquid-applied Roofing Simplified

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

To account for a decreasing skilled labor force, Sika has made their products easier than ever to apply and maintain. 

Sean Fraker is the national manager at Sika, where he's witnessed firsthand the rapid growth of liquid-applied roofing membranes. Since he started working in the liquid-applied roofing sector, many chemical and technical advances have occurred that have dramatically improved the functionality and applicability of these products. Not only are manufacturers offering products that provide an alternative solution to the traditional roof tear-off and replacement, but they are making it easier than ever to perform the job. 

"If the substrate's still in good shape, why tear it off? Why fill up a landfill?” Sean told Heidi J. Ellsworth in a recent Roofing Road Trips podcast episode where they discussed how liquid-applied roofing is changing the way re-roofing and tear offs are accomplished in the commercial side of the industry. 

Sika offers cold applied, acrylic-based coating options as well as silicone and urethane liquid-applied membrane systems. Sika’s unique products are also designed to be adaptable and, in some cases, fully customizable to meet a building’s particular needs.  

In most cases, urethanes need the presence of moisture to complete their curing process. Sika's products just need the presence of moisture to start a molecular reaction, but do not require moisture throughout the entire curing process. Sika’s products are also all single component and straightforward to apply.  

“You literally open the bucket, you don’t [need to] mix it, you put a roller in it or a pump apparatus, and you immediately begin to use it and apply it to the roof,” said Sean. “So literally, a supervisor from a roofing crew with experience can direct a group of guys that are fairly new to the industry and pretty quickly put down a state-of-the-art, long-term system.” 

This advance in simplicity is especially important nowadays, as many contractors struggle to find and retain skilled workers. Sean added that Sika’s next generation of products are going to make the application process even easier, which means jobs will be completed faster and without the need for a group of highly trained workers. 

“No offense to the labor market that's out there, but it's no secret that all of us, no matter which discipline of the world you're in, automotive, tool and die making, any skilled labor set just gets smaller and smaller as we get older because the generations that are coming up have not been raised to do manual labor and develop a skillset,” said Sean. “So, we have to come up with systems that are simple to use." 

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about the exciting advancements of Sika’s liquid-applied roofing products and the benefits they offer to contractors.