Getting ready to reseal the seams in my roof

[gs1949]

Thanks for the photo of the directions. I plan to order 5 gallons from Home Depot after payday, unless I can find somewhere cheaper than $239. Amazon is significantly more expensive.

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by gs1949

It wasn't as warm today as the forecast led me to believe, but I did make it up on the roof of the bus. First thing I figured out was that I was misremembering the way the roof seams are done, confusing them with the seams in the floor that I spent so much time with lately. There's no beads of seam sealer showing, and way more rivets than I remembered, over 100 per seam, and maybe 50 or 60 wherever there's a roof support with no seam.

So I am now thinking that the small quantities of water I saw oozing through some of the holes where the ceiling rivets used to be probably got in by oozing through the rivets just above them. And the most noticeable thing when looking at the rivets from above is the brown crud built up around them. It's a little dusty around here, and the deposits seem thicker than when I last looked a few weeks ago.

I intend to go clean some rows of rivets tomorrow so I can look for rust, but I am now thinking that this is a job for some kind of elastomeric coating rather than Dynatron like I've been thinking.

So I have been looking at elastomeric, starting with the Tropi-Cool some have mentioned above. It's certainly expensive, and so are the title, plates and insurance thing I want to do this month. But on the other hand the reviews for Tropi-Cool are impressive. I particularily like the part about being rainproof after 15 minutes of drying time, and the application temperature range is perfect for where I am, well the lower part of it. It never gets to 120 here.

I am curious about people's experiences applying Tropi-Cool, particularly the coverage. I need to decide if 3 gallons would be enough for just under 300 sq ft or whether I should just get a bucket.

Thanks for reading, comments and suggestions appreciated.

Since your roof is smooth metal, not rough or porous, you shoul get the max coverage listed on the can

[Troutslayer]

On my old bus I sealed the seams with decor self leveling caulk, it works fine on the curved roof, and makes a pretty bombproof seal. I then coated the roof with Sherwin Williams cool seal primer, then top coated that with their(SW)metal roof paint, I have a painting contractor buddy who recommended these products, he paints some metal roof jobs and has had good results. 5 gallons of the cool seal and the 5 gallons of metal roof paint ran about $500. I went for a flat finish in tan, my bus blends in well out camping and even though I rolled the paint on it looks good enough that I get a lot of compliments. I’m hanging out in reno currently and the burners are loving my bus.....

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by Troutslayer

I get a lot of compliments. I’m hanging out in reno currently and the burners are loving my bus.....

OK, what are burners?

[gs1949]

I was wondering about that too.

[Troutslayer]

Originally Posted by kidharris

OK, what are burners?

Burners are people who go to the burning man event. Look it up....

[farok]

Originally Posted by gs1949

Thanks, farok, do they say anything about recoating on the container? I see multiple encounters with low-hanging branches in my bus's future, and I want the roof coating thick.

Having some left over for repairs might be a good idea if I could keep it from setting too quickly. Probably would have to put it in a smaller container. How long have you been keeping yours?

Sorry I missed this! The container did say to wait 24 hours between coats. I've been keeping mine for maybe a month - I'm hoping to use the rest of it before too much longer.

Chris

[gs1949]

Thanks .

[cadillackid]

is dynatron 550 designed to be exposed? ive always used it to seal between panels with just a bead that pops out the edges in which I smooth it. but never applied it external only as a caulk

-Christopher

[gs1949]

Thanks for your input, but I have given up on the dynatron. As I wrote in the thread above on August 22: "I intend to go clean some rows of rivets tomorrow so I can look for rust, but I am now thinking that this is a job for some kind of elastomeric coating rather than Dynatron..."

On my floor Dynatron was used as a caulk, and then covered up with plywood, etc. So that's what I did with the new dynatron on my floor after I had removed the old. And at first I intended to do that with the roof seams. But as soon as I climbed up on the roof for the first time in about 2 months, I could see the seams in the roof were very different than the seams in the floor, and there was no place to put a bead of dynatron where it might stay in place.

So since August 22 the above thread has been about Tropicool rather than dynatron, but it's still about my roof. Sorry, obviously that switch was confusing to some and I should have started a new thread. I have some questions I want to ask about prepping for Tropicool before the 5 gallons bucket that I ordered from Home Depot gets here. I will start that new thread later today.

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by Troutslayer

Burners are people who go to the burning man event. Look it up....

Thanks, I was thinking cheap, disposable cellphone.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by gs1949

Thanks for your input, but I have given up on the dynatron. As I wrote in the thread above on August 22: "I intend to go clean some rows of rivets tomorrow so I can look for rust, but I am now thinking that this is a job for some kind of elastomeric coating rather than Dynatron..."

On my floor Dynatron was used as a caulk, and then covered up with plywood, etc. So that's what I did with the new dynatron on my floor after I had removed the old. And at first I intended to do that with the roof seams. But as soon as I climbed up on the roof for the first time in about 2 months, I could see the seams in the roof were very different than the seams in the floor, and there was no place to put a bead of dynatron where it might stay in place.

So since August 22 the above thread has been about Tropicool rather than dynatron, but it's still about my roof. Sorry, obviously that switch was confusing to some and I should have started a new thread. I have some questions I want to ask about prepping for Tropicool before the 5 gallons bucket that I ordered from Home Depot gets here. I will start that new thread later today.

I did my roof seams with the 'tron despite there being no kind of gap into which the sealant could go. I can't speak to its long-term adhesion since I only put it on in February, but right now it's nearly impossible to get off (I needed to remove a small section to remove a clearance light and had a difficult time of it).

I did notice that there was one spot where I used it on a window and I forgot to sand the surface before applying the Dynatron, and when I had to remove the window again this bit was slightly easier to remove the sealant, so this convinced me that scuffing the undersurface is an important part of the process.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

is dynatron 550 designed to be exposed? ive always used it to seal between panels with just a bead that pops out the edges in which I smooth it. but never applied it external only as a caulk

-Christopher

It's meant to be painted over, but I don't think it hurts to have it exposed on the outside other than aesthetically.

[gs1949]

On my floor, the most striking thing was how long it took for my last topcoat to dry on places where it covered the dynatron. My topcoat was Rust Oleum gloss black and it was tacky for 9-10 days. The rest of that paint job took 5 or 6 hours to get past tacky.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by gs1949

On my floor, the most striking thing was how long it took for my last topcoat to dry on places where it covered the dynatron. My topcoat was Rust Oleum gloss black and it was tacky for 9-10 days. The rest of that paint job took 5 or 6 hours to get past tacky.

Same happened to me. The tubes say you can paint 30 minutes after applying but I think that's probably way too soon.

[gs1949]

well, it did dry; it just took quite a while, and it didn't matter to my planned schedule, because I ended up having to wait for some materials and a tool to install those materials anyway.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

is dynatron 550 designed to be exposed? ive always used it to seal between panels with just a bead that pops out the edges in which I smooth it. but never applied it external only as a caulk

-Christopher

Its ok if its exposed.

[gs1949]

If it were exposed, and not in joints something like those on my OEM floor, I think dynatron would hold and seal properly on a roof seam as an external bead of caulk until it got scraped a few times by low hanging branches, usually western red cedar around here. After some scraping it would begin to be displaced, and it would leak eventually.

There is a tiny bit of something along the edge of the top panel in some of the lap joints on my roof that was apparently squeezed out of the lap joint by the double row of rivets that hold the two roof sheets together, but I can't tell exactly what that substance is. There is just not enough of it, and it is now pretty hard, but it may be dynatron. I am taking that out and getting ready to roll on a thick coat of tropicool aometime after next week. Plenty to do beforehand.