Questions People Ask First
Most of these come from homeowners who had never heard of liquid roofing a week ago.
The Basics
Is this a real roof, or is it just paint?
It is a real roof, and the difference from paint is thickness and chemistry. House paint is roughly 2 mils thick and is a decorative film. This membrane is applied at 40 to 60 mils — twenty to thirty times thicker — and it is an elastomer with 2,500 PSI tensile strength that stretches to three or four times its length. It is the waterproofing layer of the roof, not a coating on top of one.
Will it look like shingles when it is done?
No. It is a smooth, uniform surface in a solid color. If the roof is highly visible from the street and appearance is the priority, this is probably the wrong product and we will say so. It is chosen for flat roofs, metal roofs, back-of-house sections, additions, and manufactured homes where function matters more than the look of individual shingles.
Can it really go over my existing roof?
In most cases yes, and that is a large part of the appeal — no tear-off, no dumpster, no house standing open. The condition of what is already there decides it. Sound and well-adhered means we clean, prime, and spray. Curled, blistered, delaminating, or waterlogged means it comes off first, because the new membrane can only be as attached as the layer beneath it.
How long does the installation take?
For a typical house roof, one to three days total, and most of that is cleaning, repairs, and priming. The spray itself is often a single day. The membrane is tack-free within a minute and walkable the same afternoon, so you are not living around an open roof for a week.
Durability & Performance
How long does it last?
A properly prepped and correctly specified polyurea membrane is a long-service roof, not a maintenance coating on a recoat cycle. The variable is almost never the material — it is the preparation and the film thickness. This is why we push so hard on cleaning, priming, and getting the mils right, and why we are careful about who applies it.
What about hail, wind, and falling branches?
Wind uplift is where it does best: there are no individual pieces to lift, no exposed edges to catch, and the membrane is bonded across the whole surface — which is a large part of why OR-80SLM carries Miami-Dade approval. For impact, tear strength runs 400 to 500 pli, and on hail-prone roofs we spec Flak Jacket 1 in the exposed areas. If something does gouge it, the repair is a patch of the same material that chemically bonds to the original.
Does the color fade?
Aromatic polyurea chalks and lightens in direct sun over time. This is cosmetic only — the waterproofing and the physical properties are unaffected. Where long-term appearance or maximum reflectivity matters, we specify an aliphatic topcoat over the membrane that holds its color.
Will it make the house hotter or cooler?
The membrane itself is thin, so on its own it mostly affects the roof surface temperature through its color and reflectivity. If energy is the goal, the answer is the foam version: closed-cell spray foam under the membrane adds real, continuous insulation with no gaps at the framing, and the polyurea protects it from UV and traffic.
What It Costs and Who Does It
How does the cost compare to a new shingle roof?
On a straightforward steep-slope house roof, shingles are usually cheaper. On a flat roof, a metal roof, a manufactured home, or anything with difficult transitions, liquid-applied is frequently the better value — largely because there is no tear-off, no disposal, and no structural exposure. Send the size and roof type and we will give you a real number instead of a range.
Can I do this myself?
Not this material, no. Polyurea requires a plural-component proportioner with a heated hose that meters both sides precisely at temperature and pressure. Off-ratio material never develops its properties and cannot be fixed after the fact. If you want a genuinely homeowner-applicable product for a small roof, ask us about Alasta Seal — and if you are a contractor considering the equipment, we will walk you through it.
Who actually does the work?
Trained applicators and roofing contractors who run plural-component equipment. We manufacture and supply the material and we can refer you to someone in your region. When you contact us, include your city — that is the fastest route to a real quote.
Do you sell the material directly?
Yes. We ship nationwide to homeowners, contractors, and dealers. Contractors and distributors get wholesale pricing — mention your region and expected volume and we will include the schedule along with the technical data.
Something We Did Not Cover?
Ask it. You will get an answer from someone who has been on roofs with this material, not a script.
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