Polarhide Frequently Asked Questions

Polarhide is impervious to water. Polarhide can be installed under water or on a wet roof.
Polarhide is impervious to heat thereby drastically reducing Thermal Shock the main cause of roof leaks.
Polarhide's adhesion is epoxy based.
Polarhide bonds to some surface better than surfaces bond to themselves. Concrete is one example. Foam another.
Polarhide bonds structurally. Water cannot travel laterally in a structurally bonded ply.
Polarhide's standard Warranty includes a full Warranty against Ponding Water damage.
Polarhide adheres to all roof surfaces - incl. EPDM - so water-tightness is assured regardless of roof type.
Polarhide lasts a very, very long time. Polarhide oxidizes at a rate of 1 mil every ten years.
It takes 100 years for natural oxidation to degrade a 10 mil thick Polarhide coating to zero.
One mil is one thousandth of an inch or one third the width of a human hair.
Standing water is a major issue for the roofing industry and its clients. Standing water can strip a mineral capsheet roof skin of its protective granule cover in a very short time. Once the mineral protection is gone from the roof surface the rolled felt underneath is exposed to the weather. Standing water will make short work of rolled felt. Soon the roof's integrity gives way.

Essentially what happens is this: Standing water acts as a magnifying glass focusing UV light ( a surprisingly corrosive agent) on to the glue holding the granules in place. The acid rain or carbonic acid in rain degrades the glue further until the granules break away. Now the standing water and UV from the sun focus on the rolled felt which is much softer and easier to degrade. Polarhide is impervious to water, heat and UV. This is why we offer a standing water warranty with any of our strong warranties. Polarhide cures under water equally as well as in air. So Polarhide can be applied in water, through water, and withstand water.

It is not easy to find some leaks. When a leak drips on your desk it appears to be dripping from directly overhead. But the source of this leak may be in the roof 100 feet or more away from where it appears to you. Finding leaks is one of the hardest and sometimes the most expensive part of fixing leaks.

Polarhide bonds structurally - molecule by molecule. Water cannot travel laterally through structurally bonded ply so, with Polarhide, a leak is right where the breach occurred. Ease of finding leaks is one reason that Polarhide reduces your roof maintenance costs.

Latex, acrylic, and elastomeric coatings are rarely warranted beyond ten years and sometimes only warranted for 3-5 years. There is a good reason for these short-term warranties. Latex was originally designed as a water-based interior house paint. How can it survive on a roof at 200 degrees, a not unusual temperature in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico or other sunbelt states. How can it survive standing snow when it is water based to begin with?

As the water evaporates in water-based coatings during cure and afterwords, adhesion is weakened and UV and acid rain do the rest. Rarely can these so called coatings be used for long term waterproofing because " like dissolves like " rainwater dissolves any water based product it comes in contact with over time.

Polarhide degrades through oxidation too, except it takes ten years for Polarhide to lose one thousandth of an inch (a mil) and it is applied 15 mils dry in one coat. Technically, Polarhide degrades to zero in 150 years. Our formulation has been around 50 years so we can't prove this yet but the science of it is clear.

Polarhide is an immensely stable chemical product. It is inert to most chemical reactions to be found on a roof. Microrganisms (mold etc) cannot get a grip because the acid microorganisms use to penetrate a surface are not able to overcome Polarhide's PH, inertness, and molecular stability. Acid Rain and UV cannot overcome Polarhide's chemical stability either.

Because of Polarhide's low permeability and powerful adhesion to foam it is an excellent topcoat for foam roofs because it keeps UV away from the foam. One of the greatest advantages of Polarhide's chemical structure is that solar heat cannot agitate the ultra stable molecules so roof-heat can't get a grip on the roof in the first place. Beats insulation hands down because insulation on the underside of a roof assumes that heat gets through the roof first. Polarhide doesn't allow the heat to get to the roof thus ending its journey through the roof.

The closer a solar energy exposed coated surface is brought to ambient air temperature by the coating, the better the coating.
Polarhide operates within 5 degrees of ambient. If air temperature is 90 degrees, an uncoated metal roof, as an example, will be 150-200 degrees F. Polarhide will bring the roof temperature to 95 degrees or less.
Polarhide brings your electrical consumption down at peak usage times usually when the sun is high in the sky. When your peak usage is depressed the utility company may adjust your overall rates downwards.
You save on your AC unit electrical consumption and your overall rate classification is also reduced.
Polarhide is intrinsically highly insulative because it is based on a chemical family resistant to heat transfer.
Polarhide's molecules resist being agitated by solar heat-energy making it ideal for protecting a roof against heat.
Polarhide is designed to severely impede heat flux across any surface to which it is applied.
Polarhide contains Titanium Dioxide the best adapted coating additive for reflecting heat.
Polarhide, a cold applied (roll or spray or brush) liquid, cures to a seamless membrane with dramatic heat resistance. Other membranes are laid down in rolls that are overlapped and sealed either by heat or adhesive. If you have a membrane roof such as PVC, TPO, EPDM, mineral capsheet, rolled felt etc these seams are a problem for you. Why? Seams are well known leak pathways for rain to get through any seamed membrane and into your building. Water flowing across the roof stops at each seam, giving rain, acid rain or UV (magnified through acid rain) the opportunity to breach the integrity of your roof surface by causing the overlapping seams to detach. Once water gets under a membrane it can move laterally throughout the roof and it will be difficult to source the leak. Further lap adhesive will leak out from under seams exposing the adhesive to the sun. Seam adhesive alligators in sunlight. Water runs through the cracks in the alligatored adhesive providing channels for water to run under the seam.
Polarhide's durability is legendary which is why we can confidently offer many reliable warranties. Many are 20 years duration. We also include a standing water warranty (ponding water aka bird baths) of 20 years "parts and labor" in all our standard warranties at no extra charge.
Gravel weighs in at an average of 400-500 Lbs per roofers' square (100 sq ft). That is 4-5 lbs per sq ft! Imagine the force acting down on your roof infrastructure. Now imagine you have a black roof acting as a heat sink absorbing solar heat through your roof all the way to the roof deck. Solar Heat and tremendous weight acting over a large mass causes expansion, contraction, softening, and warping of roof supports leading to shortened roof life and constant leaks.

A gallon of Polarhide weighs 12 lbs. and it covers a roofer's square (100 sq ft) to full performance specifications. Even doubling the thickness of Polarhide coating to say 2 gallons per square, weighs no more than 4 ounces per sq ft. Add in our robust heat protection and you can see why we can offer you a powerful solution for your roof surface and roof infrastructure while extending the life of your roof by decades.

Polarhide bonds to all roof surfaces. The bond is renowned for its strength. For example, Portland cement bonds to itself at 300 psi. Polarhide bonds to concrete at least at 1300 psi. This means that removing Polarhide will also remove the concrete to which it is attached.
In a recent test an 8 mil thin sample of Polarhide of 1/8" length was stretched to a 1/4" length. This far exceeds a roof's capacity for stretch (assuming you want the building to remain standing).
Polarhide can be rolled tight then twisted and it will return to its original dimensions. Polarhide has perfect memory.
Stir well. Allow to ingest. Spray, Roll, or Brush on. Cures/drys to walk-on in 24 hours. One coat is all that is needed for metal roof application. For BUR with gravel needs three to four coats with weave after gravel vacuum. For EPDM, elastomeric/PVC membranes, weave seams and single coat the remainder of the roof at 1.5 gals per roofers square (100 sq ft). For sound roofs with say 4-ply fibreglass skin, coat and weave wherever standing water stains were evident and around sumps and curbs, etc. Or if in serious doubt due to age of roof, triple coat and weave (scrim). These are just examples and ideas. Your roof may well have unique conditions which we cannot know but Polarhide is designed for tough conditions so it can most likely handle your roof.
A 5 acre metal roof system was coated with Polarhide. A fire in a manufacturing facility directly underneath one of the metal roofs we had coated had brought the underside of the roof to 1400 degrees twisting purlins and beams across eight thousand sq ft of roof.

A red hot roof did not ignite on the outside surface because Polarhide's fire control ingredients worked. Polarhide was reduced to a white ash in the center of a 1400 degree heat impact for about 100 square feet. Surrounding this center, Polarhide was carbon black for about 800 sq ft (10% of the burn area). No flames or embers were seen within this scorched area which is consistent with national lab tests that stated "no embers of any kind were seen" during the Spread Of Flame Test. Polarhide's fire suppressant chemicals prevented the roof from igniting and kept the fire from moving to other buildings. Polarhide is spec'd to survive 800 degrees of conducted heat. But true to her exceptional form she survived 1400 degrees in a live fire test! Our client used Polarhide to recoat the roof after the new roof was installed.

We know of no roof surface to which we do not adhere. That includes all membranes, all rubber like roofs (e.g. EPDM), all metal, all wood, torchdown, concrete, tar and gravel, BUR, Asphalt, Mineral Capsheet, Rolled Felt etc. Some roofs ( a very few) may require a primer before adhering.