At Triton, we work with many clients who manage or own roofs with an existing Modified Bitumen membrane. When it comes to fixing leaks or prolonging the life of the roof, what are their options?

REPAIR – short-term patches and bandages to stop leaks

RESTORE – protect existing membrane from further UV damage with a reflective coating, after repairing and sealing deficiencies and leaks

RECOVER – new, complete waterproofing membrane installed over the old, avoiding a wasteful and costly tear-off

REPLACE – tear-off to the deck, install new insulation and a new membrane system

I’m going to focus on a specific case study in which the client was considering recovering their existing Mod-Bit roof with our TritoFlex 2K Rubber membrane system or recovering it with a mechanically-attached TPO single-ply membrane. To note, a fully-adhered (glued-down) TPO would not meet their wind uplift requirements and was too expensive. The TritoFlex liquid recover system and TPO recover were at similar price points, so what were the true differences between the two choices?

I’m going to simplify part of the answer. Rather than downgrade the roof with a thinner membrane, adding thousands of new leak points by holding it down with screws, a recover with a liquid membrane upgrades the roof and seals off conventional failure points.

The TritoFlex 2K roof recover system uses the remaining durability and waterproofing value of existing Mod-Bit roofs by bonding directly to it. A mechanically-attached TPO overlay requires a separation layer (fleece or boards) to prevent condensation and incompatibility with asphalt. It must be held down with thousands of screws through the old roof and into the deck. This creates thousands of new leak points that weren’t there before. These concepts not only apply to existing Mod-Bit roofs, but other existing roof types as well.

As the industry knows, TPO is very hard to re-weld and/or patch after it ages. New welds rarely hold and adhesive repairs are very temporary. Not only that, you’re relying entirely on the above-scrim waterproofing to protect the building. Once the scrim is exposed, watch out. Here is a video showing how water can easily wick through TPO reinforcement scrim. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj7ix2ByE04

Whether you’re a contractor, an architect, a consultant, or a facility manager, it is important to be aware of all your options before you invest in a repair, restoration, recover, or replacement. Triton has engineered premium solutions for each of those roof scenarios that are backed with proven performance.