This is the guide your confirmation email points at. It is the written version of what the site says the coating does and how it goes on. Where a number depends on the batch in your bucket, the label on the bucket governs and this page says so. Nothing here promises a temperature, a bill, or a number of years.

1. Is your roof a candidate

The system is qualified against these surfaces: EPDM, TPO, Fiberglass, Metal, Aluminium skirting, Fibre cement, T1-11, Previously coated, Stucco, Vinyl. The deck under the surface has to be sound: no soft spots, no standing water that does not drain within 48 hours, no active leak. A coating goes over a roof; it does not fix one. If you are not sure, take the free roof assessment before you buy, and if you already bought and are not sure, ask before you open a bucket, because an opened bucket cannot come back.

2. How much you need

Plan on about 32 square feet per gallon finished on a flat, sound deck at two to three coats. A five-gallon bucket therefore finishes about 160 square feet. Textured, porous, seamed or ribbed surfaces take more. Measure length by width for each roof section, add the sections, divide by 32, round up, and add ten percent for the first roof you have ever coated. The buy control on the home page takes the bucket count; ten buckets ship on a pallet for less than nine.

3. Prep is the job

Surface prep is the whole difference between a coating that holds its reflectance at three years and one that peels. Wash the roof: dirt, chalk, oxidation, mildew, oil and old loose coating all come off, with a pressure washer at a pressure the roof surface tolerates and a cleaner suited to the substrate, then a clean-water rinse. Let it dry completely. Repair first: seams, fastener heads, cracks, flashings and penetrations get a compatible elastomeric sealant and a reinforcing fabric where the seam moves; the coating is not a seam sealant. On bare metal, treat rust before anything else. On a previously coated roof, the old coating must be well adhered: score a small cross-hatch and pull tape; if the old coat lifts, it comes off. Where the label on your bucket calls for a primer on your substrate, prime.

4. Weather gate

Do not coat when rain, dew or frost is expected before the coat can skin over, when the surface is wet, when the surface or the air is below the minimum temperature on the label, or in direct sun on a very hot roof where the product skins before it levels. Morning after the dew has burned off is the usual window. Check the forecast for the whole cure period, not just the afternoon.

5. Putting it on

Mix the bucket thoroughly with a drill paddle until it is uniform; do not thin it unless the label says you may. Cut in around edges, penetrations and seams with a brush first. Roll the field with a 3/4 to 1 1/4 inch nap roller on a pole, working in one direction on the first coat and across it on the second so the film builds evenly. Two coats minimum, three where the substrate is porous or the first two read thin. Let each coat dry to the touch and past the recoat time on the label before the next. Spray application is possible with equipment rated for high-solids elastomerics; if you do not own that equipment, roll it.

6. Film thickness and finish

The reflectance numbers the site publishes, 0.88 initial solar reflectance and 0.74 at three years, are measured on a full film build. A thin, scrubbed-out coat does not get there. If you can see the substrate colour through the finished film anywhere, that area needs another coat. Keep foot traffic off the roof until the final coat has cured per the label.

7. Clear Coat

Clear Coat is the same ceramic base without the white pigment. It is specified only over our Roof Coat as the harder protective top build, never on a bare surface, where it reads slightly cloudy. Same prep, same weather gate, same roller.

8. Cleanup, storage and leftovers

Tools clean with water before the product dries. Seal a part-used bucket tightly and keep it from freezing. Do not pour coating down a drain; let leftover product dry in the open bucket and dispose of it per your local rules for dried latex paint.

9. What not to do

Do not coat over a leak, over ponding water, over loose old coating, over wet or frosty surfaces, or below the label's minimum temperature. Do not use the coating as a seam sealant. Do not expect a single thin coat to perform. Do not open a bucket you are not sure you will use.

10. When you are stuck

Call (916) 507-4160 or email rob@fusiondataco.com with photos of the roof and the substrate. A person answers on business days. Reply to your order confirmation and it lands in the same place.