Henry Tropi-Cool roof coating

[lonfu]

If you damage your AC cover, you can use roofing tape and then coat the entire AC cover with the tropicool to repair it. Just a little note...

[chboone]

Originally Posted by lonfu

So, far.... tropicool has been holding up perfectly. just had a hailstorm with rain. Seems like the slicon roof coating quieted down the racket from the hail. No problems yet with the actual coating. It does get dusty in the summer but that is no surprise. Rain washes the dust away, I don't clean roofs because I believe that my feet do more damage than the dust does.

Thank you for the update.

[PPCPilot]

Originally Posted by lonfu

If you damage your AC cover, you can use roofing tape and then coat the entire AC cover with the tropicool to repair it. Just a little note...

I did this very thing when I was applying the Tropicool to my 40' RV roof in Arizona this last January! Put my hand through the AC cover and after taping it off used Henry's to coat the cover. Did them both for extra UV and longevity too. Also coated any of my vents that made sense to do such as bathroom and fridge.

Mine has made over 4000 miles of travel and lots of different weather so far and I am very impressed with it.

[lonfu]

Besides my Pace Arrow, I used the henry's on my 38 ft. DP with a TPO roof. It has been on there for just over a year with no problems. recently started having problems with my solar panels so had to remove all of them. scraped off the dicor butyl lap seal that was used on the panel mount brackets. then washed the area, had 3 panels, with windex and rages. I used paint thinner to clean off the butyl and wiped down the rest of the newly exposed TPO roof surface. Then I used 220 grit sand paper to lightly sand any of the tropicool lumps and scuff the TPO, finally wiping down the entire thing with paint thinner again. I believe the trick is getting the surface clean of grease, oil, dirt and oxidation.

I plugged the holes from mounting brackets with the tropicool caulking because the screw holes were too big for the roof coating to fill. I let this set for just a couple of minutes before coating the entire section. I let dry over night, then wiped with wet rag to remove any dust collection and recoated. Looks like the tropicool is adhering well to the old tropicool. used a brush to fill in any low areas with extra tropicool so they can 't be seen and won't puddle. Had to use paint thinner as a solvent to clean my hands and throw away brush and rollers as I couldn't seem to clean them well enough for reuse.

Planning on using the tropicool to coat any exposed solar panel wire loom and seal any mounting brackets.

[Excesses]

Thanks to all for their input and their updates.

While on the mainland, we dipped down into Bellingham Wa and picked up 5 gal of Henry Tropic Cool.

Was on the rig’s roof today in pleasant, cloudy weather. Spent about 4 hours up there with power washer 40 degree tip and on my hands and knees. Tried the Mr Clean pads as some suggested, and they worked well as long as they held together. They seemed to roll and rip down into small pieces, so I ditched that method for a semi soft scrub brush and a pail of water with a mix of dawn dish detergent, a few tablespoons of tsp and 15 oz of bleach. It worked really well. I estimate I’ll spend another 4-5 hours of prep work before I start coating. I’ll use the Mr Cleaning pads on the side of our rolled roof as it cleaned those areas up nicely. My roof did not scrub to black as others have shown. The coating on there, although thin, is still white with a few “spots” of black. I can see the benefits of hands and knees scrubbing along with power washing. As with most things done well, patience and extensive prep work make for a great job instead of just an OK job.
As I kept forgetting my tools as I climbed up and down to pee, lol, I scrubbed around the solar panels. I’ll take them off tomorrow and it will be nice to see the difference. I also noted that the a/c cover was cracked in areas and it seemed to be a bit brittle so I’ll use the thread’s repair advice and may get several years out of taping it inside and coating it outside. Elastomeric over plastic should last a long long time. Man, are those covers expensive, so I can see the practicality of doing a repair.

Thanks again all, I’ll update with a couple of pics after scrubbed and cleaned and after coated.

Cheers 🍷

DJ

[Bookmon]

This has been an enlightening thread. Question.
Does Henry have a metal roof version? My old 94 has a metal roof. But, the cheaper prices at HD v RV shops has me excited.

[lonfu]

Originally Posted by Bookmon

This has been an enlightening thread. Question.
Does Henry have a metal roof version? My old 94 has a metal roof. But, the cheaper prices at HD v RV shops has me excited.

It can be used on metal roofs.

[tevch]

Was reading good reviews about Tropic Cool, and decided to use it for my RV roof. Just finished the second coat - looks great.

But now I am having a thought: in the feature, if I need to use Eternabond to cover some holes, or leak, or wires - will Eternabond stick to Tropi Cool? Tropicool is silicone, so now I am afraid I can't use Eternabond anymore?

Anybody had experience of putting Eternabond over Tropi Cool?

[PPCPilot]

Originally Posted by tevch

Was reading good reviews about Tropic Cool, and decided to use it for my RV roof. Just finished the second coat - looks great.

But now I am having a thought: in the feature, if I need to use Eternabond to cover some holes, or leak, or wires - will Eternabond stick to Tropi Cool? Tropicool is silicone, so now I am afraid I can't use Eternabond anymore?

Anybody had experience of putting Eternabond over Tropi Cool?

The thing about the written word is we cannot see the expression on your face or hear the intonation of your words. Therefore, I must assume you are serious with your question and will try and respond accordingly.....leaving my smart alec at home.

When I did my roof I prepped it by cleaning it, removed all of the old cracked Dicor self leveling goop, removed the Eternabond products, then put down some new Dicor self leveling to seal the seams and vents etc. Three days of waiting later I did a final clean/scrub to prep the roof and a day later I started with my Tropi Cool product. If I had known how well that stuff was going to cover I would have saved myself sometime and money by skipping the Dicor product entirely.

For me and my roof I will fix or patch with Henry's TropiCool. I have divorced Eternabond and it feels so good.

[stew1]

Put it on my roof , been almost 1 year now it is over the tape, looks almost as good as the day I applied it , no where has it pealed off or turned loose. As far as the heat reduction I can tell no difference , I put one light coat on then when it got tacky put heveay coat on used 5 gal on 36 foot

[tevch]

Originally Posted by PPCPilot

The thing about the written word is we cannot see the expression on your face or hear the intonation of your words. Therefore, I must assume you are serious with your question and will try and respond accordingly.....leaving my smart alec at home.

I guess my question sounded like a joke to you? Not at all.

My application went smooth, like yours, and I do like the result.

My questions are: what if...

1. Last year couple of tree branches fell on my roof and punctured a 2-inch hole. Metal plate covered with Eternabond fixed this in 5 minutes.
2. I will eventually screw some things on the roof: solar panels, antennas, distribution boxes - Eternabond with Dicor would cover anything and make it watertight.

Now since neither Eternabond nor Dicor are compatible with silicone(Tropi-Cool) I am looking for answers on how do I complete similar repairs/improvements.

[stew1]

I did change my satellite antenna I used the roof coating again under the wire plate kinda like dicor also 5200 boat sealant will stick to it

[lonfu]

Originally Posted by tevch

I guess my question sounded like a joke to you? Not at all.

My application went smooth, like yours, and I do like the result.

My questions are: what if...

1. Last year couple of tree branches fell on my roof and punctured a 2-inch hole. Metal plate covered with Eternabond fixed this in 5 minutes.
2. I will eventually screw some things on the roof: solar panels, antennas, distribution boxes - Eternabond with Dicor would cover anything and make it watertight.

Now since neither Eternabond nor Dicor are compatible with silicone(Tropi-Cool) I am looking for answers on how do I complete similar repairs/improvements.

I guess you didn't notice that I had to replace my solar panels, I posted pix of them removed. I had to coat under where the old ones were and the new coating overlaped onto the old tropicool with no problems of sticking. It is mostly seamless other than my me not taking the time to make it look perfect as I do when I'm doing house wall texture repair. I sealed the solar panel brackets with the coating too.

Buytl caulking has been around for a long time and used mostly as gutter sealant on homes. Buytl roofing tape is a newer addition to the roofing industry. It is sold at most home improvement big box stores. Some use aluminum backing, some rubber backing and then there is etranbond tape that uses white plastic backing. they are all the same Buytl stick/glue that can be cleaned with paint thinner. The butyl it self, in my opinion, working wit for 50 years or so, degrades in the UV light, but makes a great compression gasket. The tape surface protects the butyl glue, I think that it is a well though out invention. I prefer the aluminum tape VS. the plastic tape because I have no idea at how long the plastic tape will suffer the effects of the UV.

I have coated both the alum tape and plastic tape with tropicool with exactly the same results.... If and when the tape fails, I know that I will remove the tape, clean the old butyl off and reapply tape and then recoat.. again the trick is cleaning your surfaces. Roofing silicon seems a bit different than regular caulking in that when I made repairs it seems to stick to itself...BUT... I cleaned the area where I over lapped it very carefully.... like in all things, prep is the trick of the trade....

Your right, butyl will not stick to silicon, well not for a long period of time at least. So, you will have to remove the silicon before applying new tape over a large hole or puncture, but I'd at least support the tape in some way. No way to get around it, you have to prep the surface for the product that you are using. Sorry there are no short cuts. That said, I've seen a patch made from aluminum screwed down over a hole in a silicon coated roof then coated with roofing silicon. it worked perfectly... seen the same kind of repair on a acrylic latex roof coating too....

R-134 AC coolant is on it's way out, 2020 is the last year it can be installed in a new vehicle. New tech coolants that are much more efficient have been created. New roofing tech that is much sturdier has been introduced, roofing tape and silicon roofing are the new "tech" for RV roofs. Using old style general silicon caulking designed for sealing windows that is not UV stable is considered a poor choice for sealing vents on rv roofs. Tape that designed to withstand the UV and be waterproof is the new tech. I wonder at how long it will take the rv industry to catch up???

[lonfu]

Tropicool is just one brand of silicon roof coating. There are now many brands that are now on the market. the Henry's brand is the one I happen to have experience with. Other brands include, Gaco, Ames, Blackjack, GAF, Lucas and Lanco. I don't have any experience with these brands so don't feel safe recomending them. I've worked with acrylic latex roof coating too. I feel that these work best on metal and fiber glass roofs at about 1/2 the cost. most last about 7 years before needing repair or attention. The nice things about this roofing material is that it makes a hard surface and does not collect dust like the silicon.