Vinyl Roof Coating

[gus]

I need a high gloss, smooth coating to cover mildew spots on my roof.

Any ideas?

I assume that the newer EPDM coatings won't work since they seem to be designed for rubber roofing?

[Hartley]

You need to kill the bugs first and make sure they are dead before even thinking about stuff to cover the spots. Otherwise you stand a chance of stuff growing back under the new finish. Typically glossy stuff is not air permeable so whatever gets trapped stays there only to blister and peel later.

I don't have an answer on what to use, Nothing ever worked that I have tried short
of taking surface to metal and starting over.

[belfert]

I would agree witjh Dave.  You can't paint over mildew on a vehicle.  They have stuff for homes to cover minor mildew, but you wouldn't use it on a vehicle.

[JohnEd]

Clorox kills it and makes it removable.  I think it is easier to kill it one day and scrub a few days later. The trick is stopping it.  I use Zink Sulfide(?) available from Coastal Farm Supply in 40 pound sacks.  You dilute the powder in water....a 2 cups to a gallon.  That is what I use as a mix ratio cause I never found an official one.  With a pump sprayer, wet down your roof just before winter rains....no mildew for a year.  Spray the AC shrouds also.  When you do your yearly scrub down to get the dirt off the roof will come out clean.  The zinc is used to "sweeten" soil and also as a animal feed mineral supplement so I guess you could say it is safe and environment friendly.  Mildew won't grow in sweet soil but needs sour.  There is a walk stone that they call Silver Stone that doesn't get mildew and looks great all year long....for those of you with a built in patio.

John

[gus]

John,

Thanks for that "Johnapedia" discourse, more info on mildew than I've seen in a long time.

The spots are pretty small but it is obvious that they have penetrated the outer gloss layer of the vinyl and are surely into the fabric layer.

I would like to gloss coat it to keep out the mildew permanently but that may not be possible. My thinking is the gloss surface will seal the spots from future mildew.

It is not a mildew problem for me, it was there when I got the bus. It sat in VA and had some kind of coal dust on it and when I got the dust off I found the mildew.

Bummer!!

It looks good along the sides but is bad on top, at least it is out of sight - but I know it is there!

The vinyl is still in good shape except for those small spots, but there are a bunch of them.

[bottomacher]

When you say 'vinyl' roof, do you mean vinyl fabric?

[gus]

Yes, it is vinyl fabric. It has been very nice up to this point.

As I understand it the PO installed it because there were so many coats of paint on the roof it would have been a major job to remove the old paint and repaint the Al, so he covered it with vinyl fabric.

It looks great except for the very top. It can't be seen from the ground but I know it is there!!

[crown]

 pictures of your vinal roof

[Charles in SC]

I have repainted several houses that had mildew on them. What I did was to mix a gallon of water with 4 oz clorox and 4 oz lysol, wet down the area, let it sit a few minuets then rinse with a strong water hose. Let it dry good and then paint. Keep in mind that this was latex house paint. I was told that the lysol killed the mold and the clorox bleached it white.
Your milage may vary.
Good luck!

[gus]

Charles,

I'm a firm believer in bleach but the thing that worries me about bleach and Lysol is having it stream down the side of the bus and streak my red and gray trim and the clearcoated Al siding.


Crown,

I don't think any of my photos show up the roof very well but I'll try to take some tomorrow that do. As you can see in my forum photo it is not apparent from a distance that the roof is vinyl. The compound curved front and rear sections are not covered with vinyl.

[gus]

Crown,

I sent you some photos by email, the board wouldn't let me post them even though they are really small files!

[RJ]

Gus -

If you go to the pool section of the big box retailers (WalMart, Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.), or to almost any pool store, you can find one-pound bags of "shock" (Dichloroisocyanuric acid, or dichloro-s-triazinetrione, or simply dichlor - DON'T get calcium hypochlorite).   Depending how much mildew you've got to remove, one or two bags should be enough.

Since you're concerned about staining from run off, mixing a tiny bit of water with some of this powder will give you a paste you can dab onto the various mildew spots.  Depending on how bad the spot, you should start seeing it clear up within a few minutes, especially if you can keep the paste damp.

Once it's done it's magic, FLOOD the roof with water to rinse it off.  Don't use a spray nozzle, you want volume, not pressure, to rinse it clear.  Sides, too.

And when you think you've rinsed it enough, rinse it some more.

If you're not sure, try it in an inconspicuous spot first.

FWIW & HTH. . .




PS:  I wouldn't mix Lysol w/ this stuff or any other chlorinated product - health & safety reasons.  Dichlor is 56% active chlorine, much, much stronger than household bleach (3 - 6%) or even the liquid pool chlorine (10 - 12%).  Be careful with it, and wear rubber gloves.

[NewbeeMC9]

If you use the bleach and water,   i use about no more than 25% (Clorox ultra,  the cheap bleach is too weak sometimes if it is less than .5%  Piggly wiggly store brand), in a trigger spray bottle.

• soak it down first, 
  scrub some and let sit a few minutes,
  then rinse,
  then the important part is to let it sit in the sun for a day or two.

Cheapest and easiest, just allow it time.

[gus]

Thanks for all the good ideas, I'll give some of them, or all of them a try and see which works best in my case.

Now, any ideas as to what to coat the vinyl with after I kill the mildew?