Husband and son have painted the barn roofs, over replacing the metal. Using a special elastomeric paint on the pole barn roof. Paint is supposed ro flow around roof nails, fill crevices and prevent leaking.
Barn is about 38 years old, almost no paint left on the roof metal. We got some estimates about a new metal roof and the cost was astronomical!! Roofers offered alternatives like “sealing” the roof, but also pretty expensive. Husband checked out products and decided on this special paint, got son to come help. Barn is not huge, though one side has been added onto, so there is more roof there. They got one coat on half the roof last week, and also painted half the small barn roof the same day. Paints both dried very fast in the sunshine, did a great job of coverage. Painting white over grey metal left a few shadows, but husband had planned on doing two coats anyway.
The little barn has silver corrugated metal roofing, needed a different kind of paint. Husband had found some older zinc paint on sale, a Rustoleum product. He did comment on how HEAVY each gallon was, could not carry two cans because the bail handle cut right into you even with gloves! Being older, the paint took a lot of stirring with the mixing stick on the electric drill. Son said each can was almost 15 minutes, getting all the zinc particles well stirred in. Paint did make the rollers heavy too, but it covered the rust well, no bleed thru. Barn is smaller, paint was drying as quick as they rolled it on. I never thought the roof got that hot! Fuzzy rollers covered the waves of corrugated metal nicely, not much in extra roller work. It looks like new metal! Only one side was rusty, did not need to paint the other side, so getting done went fast . No need for a second coat on that.
Today they got the second coat on the painted side and first coat on the other half of the roof. I can’t believe how nice things look! Not sure how quick they can get the second coat on that other half. May rain tomorrow. But husband wants all the painting finished so he can replace the roof cap panels with polycarbonate panels. The old fiberglass is very dingy and brittle now. He tells me the new panels will brighten things considerably! Won’t have to turn on the lights! They sure are clear stacked, waiting to be installed.
It sure feels good having things done before winter. We had been talking roof replacement for a long time, but getting actual estimate costs was kind of shocking pricewise. Even if the new kind of paint doesn’t last 15 years, it is much less expensive than a new roof. So we could paint it again!
Perhaps others might want to consider painting their sheet metal roof instead of replacing the metal. The pole barn had no rust, just did not have much paint either. Wind comes from that side, dusty wind is perhaps “scouring” off paint while preventing rust too. It is kind of a blinding white with the sun on it now! Looks really nice. Husband says he hopes he can lift his arms tomorrow after all that long-handled roller work! Ha ha So glad son came to help, they had a great time talking and working together.
Me? I was out weed spraying pastures. Guess I used a bit too much Dawn soap, though it was not much. The tank was full of bubbles when it quit spraying! Ha ha
