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Finished! Roof Coating/Maintenance Report with Henry's 877

Chuck___
Explorer
Explorer
This year, I took on completely re-coating my RV roof with Henry 877 Tropi-Cool 100% Silicone White Roof Coating.
Products cost about the same online or Home Depot. $239.89 for large tub of Henry's coating and $12.99 per tube of caulking.

If you see from my previous post a couple of weeks ago, I did a lot of research trying to find the best product to repair/re-coat my RV roof with. I worked like a dog for nearly a week trying to beat the Fall weather. Wished I could of done the roof repair/coating in better weather conditions. Sweating bullets all week worrying about the possibility of rainy weather.

Below is my step-by step process, along with before/after pictures.

CAUTION! Slow down on the roof. If you fall off you will probably spend a lot of time in the hospital recovering if you are lucky!

My Process
Well it took me most of a week to completely re-coat my RV roof!
Tuesday Morning

  1. Using a mixture of bleach, TSP, and water, hand scrub the entire roof (I did use a pressure washer to get the dirt out from under the roof air conditioner units). This took me a good part of the day alone!
  2. Peel off the old, very thin rubber coating

Three and a half days later, wearing out a pair of leather gloves, I thought I gave it my best shot at getting off the old coating

Saturday Afternoon
Apply the new coating

  1. Clean out all of the old caulking above the roof gutter and replace it with new Henry's caulking.
  2. Mix the coating with a drill. Pour out about one quart into a paint tray. The Henry 877 coating pours out like the thickness of pancake syrup.
  3. Use a leaf blower to blow off any material laying on the roof
  4. Begin applying the Henry 877 using a four inch paint brush to do the corners, sides, roof pipe outlets, vents and air conditioners. I only did a 5 to 7 foot section at a time.
  5. Use a 9 inch long by 1/2 inch nap paint roller to spread out the Henry's roof coating. This took about two to three hours to fully cover the 8 foot wide by 34 foot long 5th wheel roof with one coat.
  6. On the next day, apply a second coat. I used about a full 5 gallon tub/container to do two coats.



Lessons Learned:

  1. Try to apply the coating on fairly calm day. The wind can carry the coating in the air when applying it.
  2. I applied the coating when the temperature was in the mid 60's to upper 68 degrees. Sun helps, but I cannot imagine trying to apply Henry's coating or any other roof coating on a day when it is approaching upper 70 degrees or higher. Too hot for me to do a roof!.
  3. The roof must be completely dry before applying the new coating. During the Fall season, moisture in the morning is hard to dry off the roof, you may have to wait for the sun to come out. Dampness or morning dew can take several hours to dry off the roof.
  4. Give yourself plenty of time to do a good job. The faster you try to apply the roof caulking or roof coating you are most likely to do a sloppy job and have a mess.


Conclusion
Got lucky this time around! Henry's 877 when on fine, thick enough to be impressive and I believe I made the right product choice.









Chuck
20 REPLIES 20

Chuck___
Explorer
Explorer
Fixed images in my original post
Chuck

silversand
Explorer
Explorer
....thanks BarneyS ! Will have a read.

OK. On edit: I went through the Crazy Seal procedures, and yes, can be applied to TPO:

"Crazy Seal can be applied to fiberglass, rubber / EPDM, TPO, metal, wood, or virtually any other type of roof"

Thanks!
Silver
2004 Chevy Silverado 2500HD 4x4 6.0L Ext/LB Tow Package 4L80E Michelin AT2s| Outfitter Caribou

BarneyS
Explorer III
Explorer III
OP and Silversand,
You might be interested in this post by long time member and VERY helpful JBarca. ๐Ÿ™‚
Barney
2004 Sunnybrook Titan 30FKS TT
Hensley "Arrow" 1400# hitch (Sold)
Not towing now.
Former tow vehicles were 2016 Ram 2500 CTD, 2002 Ford F250, 7.3 PSD, 1997 Ram 2500 5.9 gas engine

silversand
Explorer
Explorer
Veebyes wrote:
Do not get these two similar products confused.


Thanks for the differentiation between the two products. Noted.

I saw a "test" somewhere online comparing a roof coating product (can't recall the brand) and its compatibility with TPO (the original TPO formulation, manufactured up to appx 2010), and using adhesive strips applied over the fully cured coating on TPO, were able to peel off and remove the cured coating. That worried me a bit (as a TPO owner).

Cheers
Silver
2004 Chevy Silverado 2500HD 4x4 6.0L Ext/LB Tow Package 4L80E Michelin AT2s| Outfitter Caribou

FlatBroke
Explorer
Explorer
My brother, a retired self employed house paint, did mine with Henryโ€™s 877. Cleaned one day and painted it the next. Took him less than two hours to paint it. One coat, 1 one gallon on a 30โ€™ roof and he put it on pretty heavy. Looks great. All your trying to do is replace the original thin white top of the rubber, didnโ€™t know why they the instruction want to apply so much. Could be their life time warranty claim. My buddy did the same amount on his 30 footer last year and it still looks new.

Hitch Hiker
"08" 29.5 FKTG LS

Veebyes
Explorer II
Explorer II
silversand wrote:
A question to anyone having used this product over 2004 to 2008 TPO roof membrane:

Q: has the coating adhered well over time (1 year? 2 years?) ?

Q: is the Tropicool coating easy to keep clean (ie. does it accumulate and retain dirt over time (weeks? months?) that is difficult to wash off) ?

BTW, OP: NICE work!

Cheers

*Note: ours (with TPO roof) is stored indoors in a heated marina facility 7 months a year, but contemplating coating roof in ~2 years


Time will tell on durability but I assume that the product has been around for some time & I have not seen any complaints.

It is a smooth finish, slippery when wet, so I anticipate easy cleaning & expect to continue with my usual cycle of at least twice a year cleaning.

Do not get these two similar products confused. I started with 3 coats of HENG'S rubber roof coating. Not impressed. My roof had a milder case of 'roof pox' than the OP. The HENG'S did not cover well at all. Roof pox showed through even after the three coats as recommended.

One coat of Henry's, as instructed, did the job over the Heng's. Live & learn.
Boat: 32' 1996 Albin 32+2, single Cummins 315hp
40+ night per year overnighter

2007 Alpenlite 34RLR
2006 Chevy 3500 LT, CC,LB 6.6L Diesel

Ham Radio: VP9KL, IRLP node 7995

silversand
Explorer
Explorer
A question to anyone having used this product over 2004 to 2008 TPO roof membrane:

Q: has the coating adhered well over time (1 year? 2 years?) ?

Q: is the Tropicool coating easy to keep clean (ie. does it accumulate and retain dirt over time (weeks? months?) that is difficult to wash off) ?

BTW, OP: NICE work!

Cheers

*Note: ours (with TPO roof) is stored indoors in a heated marina facility 7 months a year, but contemplating coating roof in ~2 years
Silver
2004 Chevy Silverado 2500HD 4x4 6.0L Ext/LB Tow Package 4L80E Michelin AT2s| Outfitter Caribou

Veebyes
Explorer II
Explorer II
I also did mine with the Henry's 887 Tropicool recently. Very happy with it but it is very smooth & slippery when wet.

18 year old roof here however each year it had spent 7 months indoors so the roof was in better shape than a similar than an always exposed roof.

Similar prep. Washed it with same soap that it, & rest of the the trailer, gets used. Followed that with about 50% clorox & water mix to kill off some of the black trailer pox marks.

Cut around edges with brush going over original caulking to give an added seal. Finally rolled the rest. 1 coat. 2 gal covered roof & slides of a 35' 5er.
Boat: 32' 1996 Albin 32+2, single Cummins 315hp
40+ night per year overnighter

2007 Alpenlite 34RLR
2006 Chevy 3500 LT, CC,LB 6.6L Diesel

Ham Radio: VP9KL, IRLP node 7995

Chuck___
Explorer
Explorer
I wanted to make sure or try to do the good job the first time around with a clean roof. I believe you will find most manufactures require a clean, dry roof before your apply any product.

The roof had a very thin rubber coating that was peeling off in the corners and various other areas throughout the roof. After 3-1/2 days of working on getting as much of the old thin peeling roof off I was satisfied with surface preparation what I did. A good clean roof surface with a good surface to adhere to is like painting a house.

85% of any paint job is in the preparation. Not always we can spend a lot of time on your projects. But usually if you try to do you best within reason; projects will come out O.K.

I have to tendency to first research things to death people tell me. I am still working on trying to finding a balance at the age of 64.
Chuck

C_Schomer
Explorer
Explorer
Why did you clean the rubber roof so good and then peel it off??? Craig
2012 Dodge 3500 DRW CCLB 4wd, custom hauler bed.
2008 Sunnybrook Titan 30 RKFS Morryde and Disc brakes
WILL ROGERS NEVER MET JOE BIDEN!

blofgren
Explorer
Explorer
Great job! It looks very nice!
2013 Ram 3500 Megacab DRW Laramie 4x4, 6.7L Cummins, G56, 3.73, Maximum Steel, black lthr, B&W RVK3670 hitch, Retrax, Linex, and a bunch of options incl. cargo camera
2008 Corsair Excella Platinum 34.5 CKTS fifth wheel with winter package & disc brakes

Walaby
Explorer II
Explorer II
Sounds like a decent product.

Nice job

Mike
Im Mike Willoughby, and I approve this message.
2017 Ram 3500 CTD (aka FRAM)
2019 GrandDesign Reflection 367BHS

jdc1
Explorer II
Explorer II
Use a blower to dry the roof....takes 5 minutes. And, use a "mini-roller" to apply the coating. You can control the flow better.

NJRVer
Explorer
Explorer
Did mine and posted in the other roof maintenance thread. I ordered a new cover for my refrigerator and that took well over a month because of backordered.

What I noticed about the Henry coating is it reflects the sun and heat a lot. Prior to coating my roof would dry out the morning dew almost as soon as the sun hit it.
With the Henry coating it will not dry out after an entire day. The water beads up into giant beads like when you wax your vehicle. I got mine just in time to beat the fall leaves coming off the trees.
I was going to coat the roof of my cargo trailer but too many leaves are dropping now and I don't want to have to try and pick them out as i go along.