Sealer tin roof saga: Washington bungalow

A sealer for a tin roof example can be found on this bungalow located just north of downtown Washington, DC.

The owner wanted a sealer for her tin roof that was an historical red color. Her selection was "Barn Red" tint from Preservation Products. We performed our customary cleaning with a pressure washer and scrapping. We then primed and coated the roof twice during the summer period. This project was one of our early jobs with this tint....

and we discovered something that only experience teaches.

As in any line of work, experience teaches what the official instructions cannot do. In this case, applying a red tint of this type in hot, dry summer days is tricky business. At one point, my crew chief told one of his workers to add some water so that the acrylic did not harden. And his worker did just that chore to one of the pails.

Several years later, a section of this bungalow's roof began to flake, an aging feature just not associated with the acrylics. By that time, Lester, the crew chief, knew exactly what happened.

One afternoon during the application, the temperature had been hot in the extreme. The dark acrylic began to harden and become impossible to apply. Lester told one of his workers to add some water to the pail. The worker added water to the tune "More is better."

Today, Lester prohibits anyone from adding water except himself. This sealer for tin roofs just required a fraction of the water to keep the acrylic liquid and loose on the warmest and driest of days

All the tints of acrylic carry the same standard instructions to apply; any experienced contractor learns the idiosyncracies of the slight variations between apparently identical sealers.