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Home/Service Areas/Louisiana/Harahan/Roof Coating

Roof Coating in Harahan, LA

Big Easy Roofing applies roof coatings across Harahan and east bank Jefferson Parish. Coating is a real service on the right substrate and the wrong answer on the most common residential one, so this page sorts that out first. What is under the coating decides everything, including whether there should be one.

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$2 to $6 /sq ftEstimated applied
10 to 15 yrsTypical coating life
Substrate firstWhat decides suitability
Not on shinglesWhat the trade body advises

Harahan roof coating at a glance

Coating is estimated at $2 to $6 per square foot applied, with a typical service life of ten to fifteen years. Before any of that matters there is a prior question, and it decides most jobs on its own: what is the roof made of, and is it sound and dry underneath.

Estimated applied

$2 to $6 /sq ft

Driven by the substrate, the amount of preparation and how many coats the system calls for. Every figure here is an estimate, not a quote, and none of it applies until the substrate question is settled.

If what you have is asphalt shingles

We will not coat it

The Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association strongly advises against the field application of any type of coatings or rejuvenators over installed asphalt shingles. We follow that, which means turning the work down rather than taking it.

Where coating genuinely belongs

Low slope and metal

On a sound single ply or modified bitumen low slope roof, and on sound metal, coating is a recognised way of extending service life and dealing with seams, fixings and corrosion. That is where this service earns its keep.

The substrate has to be dry

Not just dry looking

Moisture trapped under a coating builds vapour pressure as the roof heats, and that is one of the most common reasons coatings lift and blister. A coating over a wet assembly seals the water in and hides the evidence.

Standing water is a separate problem

Fix the drainage first

Water that sits on a low slope roof after rain is a drainage fault. Manufacturers commonly exclude standing water from their warranty terms, so coating over it buys a finish without buying a fix.

The permit route is unchanged

City or parish, by address

Inside the city limits the City of Harahan covers permitted work; in River Ridge or Elmwood, which share postal code 70123, Jefferson Parish does. Whether a given coating job needs a permit is a question for the office, on (504) 737-6765 inside the limits.

Every figure on this page is an estimate, not a quote, and is subject to Big Easy Roofing sign off. Cost and timescale depend on size, pitch, access, weather, materials and whatever is found once work starts, so call Big Easy Roofing on (504) 800-8196 and we will come out and give you an estimate for your own roof.

Every figure on this page is an estimate, not a quote, and is subject to Big Easy Roofing sign off. Call Big Easy Roofing on (504) 800-8196 about a Harahan roof you are thinking of coating.

Which roofs take a coating, and which ones should not

This is the whole decision, and it is made before anybody measures anything. Coating is a treatment applied to a substrate, so the substrate decides whether it is a sound investment, a waste of money, or something that makes the roof worse than leaving it alone would have.

What the roof isCoat itWhyWhat we would do instead
Asphalt shinglesNoThe trade body strongly advises against field applied coatings and rejuvenatorsRepair while it has life left, replace once it has not
Low slope membraneOften yesA recognised way to extend a sound single ply or modified bitumen roofCoat, once the substrate is confirmed dry and draining
MetalOften yesWell established over sound metal, particularly at seams, fixings and corrosionAddress the fixings and seams first, then coat
Anything holding standing waterNot yetStanding water is a drainage fault and is commonly excluded from warranty termsCorrect the falls and the outlets, then reconsider
Any substrate that is wetNoTrapped moisture builds vapour pressure under the film, which lifts and blisters itFind out why it is wet and deal with that first

Every figure on this page is an estimate and none of it is a quote. If your roof is on the no rows, the honest answer is that this service is not the one you need, and we would rather say that at the enquiry than at the callback.

Why we will not coat an asphalt shingle roof

This is the most common request we turn down. It is worth explaining properly, because the pitch for it sounds reasonable and the objections are not obvious from the ground. The position is not ours alone; it is the published guidance of the industry body for the product itself.

The trade body position is explicit

Asphalt Roofing Manufacturers Association

In its technical bulletin on applying coatings or rejuvenators to installed shingles, ARMA states that it "strongly advises against the field application of any type of coatings or rejuvenators over installed asphalt shingles", and adds that many shingle manufacturers specifically do not recommend field treatments on their products.

The coating shrinks as it cures

Curling, cupping, granule loss

ARMA lists shrinkage of the coating material as a reported problem, which "may result in unsightly curling and/or cupping of the shingles or loosening of the granule surfacing". Those granules are the layer shielding the asphalt beneath them from sunlight, so losing them works against the thing the coating was sold to do.

It can seal a roof that needs to breathe

A vapour retarding layer

ARMA notes that non permeable coatings "may create a vapor-retarding layer by sealing the voids around and between the shingles", and that if this happens it "may contribute to moisture accumulation within the roofing system". On a hot humid roof over an attic that may already be short of ventilation, that is the wrong direction to push the assembly.

It can change how the assembly performs

And that is not only cosmetic

ARMA warns that field applied coatings or rejuvenators "may negatively impact the performance characteristics (including the fire classification, algae resistance, impact resistance, etc.) of the roof assembly", and that state or local building codes may prohibit the practice. That is a bigger question than the finish.

What to do instead if the shingles are ageing

If the covering has life left and specific details have failed, that is repair work and it is far cheaper than a coating. If it has reached the end, a coating does not reset its age and a replacement is the honest answer.

What a coating cannot do on a shingle roof is turn an old covering into a young one. It changes the surface, not the age of the material underneath it.

If you are not sure what your roof is made of

Plenty of houses here have more than one substrate: shingles on the main roof and a low slope section over a porch, an addition or a flat dormer. Those two answer this question differently, and the low slope part may well be a genuine candidate.

An inspection settles what you actually have before anybody quotes a treatment for it.

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What this climate does to a coating and to what is under it

Harahan sits on the east bank of the Mississippi in Jefferson Parish, hot and humid for most of the year, with heavy rainfall arriving in short intense bursts. All three of those act on a coating, and two of them act on whatever is trapped beneath it.

Heat turns trapped moisture into pressure

A coating is a continuous film. Anything wet underneath it cannot dry upward through it, and on a roof surface in this heat that moisture turns into vapour pressure pushing against the film from below.

That is why a wet substrate is one of the most common root causes of coating failure, and why confirming the assembly is dry matters more than the specification of the product going on top of it.

Intense rainfall finds every drainage fault

Rain here arrives fast rather than steadily, which is exactly the condition that exposes a low slope roof with shallow falls or a blocked outlet. Water that is still sitting there a day later is a drainage problem rather than a surface problem.

Coating over standing water is the classic way to spend money without changing anything, and it is commonly outside the warranty terms as well.

Sunlight is what the coating is actually fighting

Sustained ultraviolet light and daily heat cycling are what age a roof surface here, and on the right substrate a coating is a genuinely good answer to them. That is the case for the service rather than against it.

It is also why the substrate question has to come first. The same sun that a coating protects a membrane from is the sun that reaches the asphalt under a shingle once its granules have been loosened.

Big Easy Roofing Process

Four steps, and the first one ends a fair proportion of these enquiries with us telling you not to buy this service. That is the step working, not failing.

Low slope roof section being checked for drainage and a sound dry substrate before coating
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01

01 Establish what the substrate actually is

Shingle, low slope membrane or metal, and whether the building has more than one. That answer decides whether there is a job here at all.

02

02 Confirm it is sound, dry and draining

Including whether water stands after rain. A coating over a wet or ponding assembly seals in the problem and hides it from the next person to look.

03

03 Write the scope, the preparation and the system

What is being cleaned, what is being repaired first, how many coats, and the figure any permit would be calculated from if the office says one is needed.

04

04 Apply it, or tell you plainly that we will not

If the roof is on the wrong side of step one or step two, you get that in writing with the reason, and what we would do instead.

Everything else we do in Harahan

The rest of the Big Easy Roofing services available in Harahan, each with its own page, crew and written scope. If your roof turns out to be the wrong substrate for a coating, the useful pages are repairs while the covering has life left in it and replacement once it has not.

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Harahan Roof Coating FAQs

Why the substrate decides this job, what the trade body says about coating asphalt shingles, and the two conditions a roof has to meet before a coating is worth buying.

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