Metal Roof Paint: 10 Mistakes to Avoid

The need to paint your metal roof can’t be ignored. It’s one of the most important views of your house! But if you’re not careful about the painting process, then that will cost you money and time.

Not only that, but certain mistakes will cause your metal roof to degrade, making things more complicated. To ensure that you’re on the right path, you need to keep some points into consideration. We talked briefly about them below.

The Most Common Metal Roof Paint Mistakes

For some homeowners, metal roof paint procedures can get disappointing. They invest time, money & hard work for it, but at the end of the day, projects remain unsuccessful. These 10 mistakes may be the actual reasons of your failure.

1. Using Old Paint

This is one of the most frequent mistakes homeowners make when painting their roofs. Old paints sitting for months in storage can be a good option to paint different things, but a metal roof isn’t one of them.

Old paints lose their integrity over time and can’t deliver the same performance as the paint from a new container. Varieties of quality metal roof paints and sealants are available on the market. Select one of them according to your needs.

2. Using Leftover Paint

More often than not, homeowners make the mistake of using leftover paint. While it’s not the worst option, it isn’t the optimum option either.

You see, not all paints are suitable to be used in both indoor and outdoor conditions. Using interior paint on the exterior is one of the worst decisions you can make. However, there are modern formulas that can be used in both interior and exterior.

3. Not Using Proper Sealants

Sealants are the protector of your metal roof and paint. If you forget to use sealants before the painting process, your paint won’t last very long. As soon as the weather starts changing, the paint will start peeling off by itself. Sealant strengthens the paint’s attachment to the roof.

Moreover, sealants have chemical bonding formulas that combine with the paint and make it stick on the surface. Thus longer life is ensured.

However, nowadays, paints are manufactured by integrating sealant qualities, and that makes the roof painting easy. So if you don’t want the hassle of going through sealant application, get one of those paint-cum-sealers.

Elastomeric coatings can be a good choice in this aspect. Here are 10 awesome reasons why you should select elastomeric coating for your metal roof.

4. Using Paints That Are Not Energy Efficient

In this day and age, energy efficiency is a big thing. It wasn’t something to worry about back in the days, but now saving energy bills means you’re saving the environmentally sourced energy.

Good paints have polymeric components like acrylic and titanium dioxide. These particular components make the paint thicker than standard paints. And those specific contents are the reason behind their reflective and opaque nature.

Paint is a type of insulators. Paints can increase or reduce your energy savings, depending on their color and thickness. Lighter colors don’t absorb heat from the sun, so the roof stays cooler, and the house needs a less amount of cooling solution in hot countries.

Moreover, the opposite is true also in colder countries where darker colors absorb the heat from the sunlight and keep the roof warmer. The warmer roof allows the house to retain heat, so you don’t have to use heaters as much.

5. Using the Wrong Application Method

When it comes to any type of painting, there are certain rules you need to follow for a good result. Just randomly splashing, spraying paints all over won’t give you your money’s worth.

First, you need to clean and repair the holes and mend the ridges. Properly do metal roofing to avoid any leaks. Once you’re done, then you dry the surface and apply the first coat.

Once the first coat is completely dried or cured, you go on and apply the second coat. It might sound easy, but the waiting period needs to be accurately measured. And also, the temperature needs to be on the warmer side, above 60°F, to be precise.

The number of coats you need to put on to get the waterproofing going on has to be followed precisely. Any less will not work well. 4-5 heavy coats are the standard figure.

6. Not Paying Attention to the Roof After Painting

Do you think you’re done after you finish painting the roof? No, you have to keep maintaining and looking after the roof every once in a while. This is a rookie mistake done by many new homeowners.

You have to keep cleaning the roof with store-bought cleaning solutions or DIY bleach-detergent mixes every six months, which means twice a year.

Don’t let grease, mold, and mildew build up on the surface. They’re hard to clean even with a high pressured water wash and detrimental to the paint’s health. If you do the maintenance properly, the paint can last you years on end.

Hence, avoid the rookie mistake of forgetting your roof after painting.

7. Not Aging Your Metal Roof

Not preparing the roof before painting can result in a waste of money as the paint won’t last long. If you just installed a brand new roof, it’s recommended that you wait around 6 months before you start painting it. The reason behind this is that the roof needs to adapt to the weather.

8. Not Preparing Your Metal Roof

After you’re done aging your roof, you need to clean the surface and get rid of any garbage or dirt that may be on there. Use a pressure wash to make the process easier. Any mold, mildew, grease needs to be cleaned. Wet and forget roof cleaner is very much effective in cleaning moss, mold, and mildew. You can also use spray and forget roof cleaners. And of course, you need to dry it first. So, choose a season where it rains less, and the temperature is warmer.

9. Not Choosing the Right Weather and Temperature

Painting in rainy weather is a big no. Rain will cause your paint to dry slower, so if you want to put repeated heavy coats of paint, then it will take much time. Don’t paint if there’s a chance of rain within 24 hours.

It’s recommended that you wait for the temperature to go above 60°F so that the paint can cure faster. Drying and curing faster is necessary to get good coatings of paint.

10. Not Choosing Flexible Paints

Different paints have different properties depending on the contents. Some paints are made to adapt to the changes of the roof in different weathers. On the contrary, some aren’t equipped with that kind of flexibility. If you’re somewhere where the temperature fluctuates more, then not getting flexible paints is a big mistake.

The End

That’s it! If you’re smart, you’ll stay away from making these mistakes and make the right decision to prolong your metal roof paint’s life.