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Avoid Rubber Roofing (EPDM) for your house.

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This is part 2 of our . In this part we will explain shortcomings of rubber roof (such as inherently faulty design), inability to hold ponding water and generally short life span, etc.

We will aslo demonstrate how many roofers are “trained” in installation of EPDM single ply roofing systems, results of their work (our Horrible Rubber Roofs series), and explain why we recommend that you avoid installing a rubber roof on your house.

Read this and you will save yourself lots of cash and many headaches. Also see our special “Horrible Rubber Roofs” video series below!

The truth about residential flat roofing market and contractors.

leaking rubber roof

This rubber roof is just 1 year old, and has been leaking since day one, until we replaced it with a lifetime IB PVC flat roofing membrane.

Rubber Roof Contractors: It is unfortunate, but most residential flat roofs are installed by roofing contractors that specialize in asphalt shingles. Since they can easily purchase rubber roofing materials from their roofing supply warehouse, and are not required to be certified installers, nor do they need any special training or equipment, they will often undertake such projects to keep their crews busy.

Incorrectly installed EPDM roof in Quincy, MA – rubber glued right over shingles:

flat rubber roof Quincy massachusetts

Horrible Rubber Roofs videos:

Horrible rubber roof part 1.
Location: Brockton, MA
Date taken: SUMMER 2011


Horrible rubber roof part 2.
Location: Revere, MA
Date taken: Fall 2011


Horrible rubber roof part 3.
Location: Country Club in Central MA
Date taken: Summer / Fall 2011



These are just some roof inspections that we did in the summer / fall of 2011. Look – even commercial roofs are not immune to hack roofers and faulty materials (like rubber roofing), but in residential, this is much more common.

Getting a quality flat roof installed:

The truth is that to get a quality rubber roof installed, it usually has to be done by a commercial roofing company that specializes in flat roofing. However, it is often the policy of such companies not to work with residential customers, for which there are many reasons. These contractors work with large commercial and institutional customers, employ union workers who are trained roof mechanics, specializing in their particular niche. For example, a commercial roofing contractor will have separate crews doing metal roofing or slate – these guys are “roofers”, and yet another crew doing flat roofing ONLY – these are “roof mechanics”.

A residential roofing contractor usually employs just roofers, who are good at what they do all day long – install asphalt shingle roofs, and often do not have a clue about how flat roofs work. When they get a potential client with a flat roof, they go to their supplier, ask what supplier has for flat roof, and the salesman at the supply warehouse TEACHES the roofer how to install EPDM rubber. This is not creative fiction or a product of my imagination – I see this happening nearly every time, when I come in to the supply store to get something.

“Trained rubber roofing installers”: If you are lucky, you may get a roofer that has received some sort of training about rubber roof installation. For example, one of my suppliers, provides installation training programs for their roofing contractors who install only asphalt shingles. The idea behind such training seminars is to increase awareness and solicit sales of more roofing products. A manufacturer technician provides a sample installation on a 8×8 feet demo stand.

Bellow is and example of such “hands-on rubber roofing training”.

epdm rubber roof installation

As you can see, the roofers just sit around the demo stand while the MFG Installation technician shows them what to do. The whole demonstration took about an hour and a half, and covered thing like installing flat roofing insulation (ISO), adhering rubber to the ISO board, flashing a sky-light / chimney penetration with un-cured flashing material, installing the membrane up the vertical wall, cleaning & priming seams and installing seam tape, installing drip edge and a tape to seal the drip edge fasteners, and installing termination bar. In the same 1.5 hours we’ve also “learned” how to correctly apply yellow glue – membrane adhesive, seam primer – seam & flashing glue and how to install these systems in the winter, while violating manufacturer’s installation specs.

rubber roofing

Out of 25 or so roofing contractors present, there were about 15 or so questions particular to the installation details. 7 of them where asked by me! Bear in mind that I already knew how to install a rubber roof and attended the event to talk to my salesman, representatives of the metal roofing manufacturer and for free refreshments :)

In any case, each one of those 25 or so roofing contractors, willing to learn a new, and very complicated roofing system, asked an average of 0.3 questions about this system.

Rubber roofs for residential customers: It was clear that my supplier and the roofing representatives were selling to Residential Roofing Contractors. Not once did they mention roof-top HVAC units, roof hatches, elevator shafts, gas/electrical pipes, roof drains, etc. They did however insist that the rubber is a good choice for a low slope shed dormer (without mentioning the poor low slope roof ventilation and ice dam prevention associated with shed dormers). They also mentioned that rubber is a good choice for a flat roof decks and patios.

The post Avoid Rubber Roofing (EPDM) for your house. appeared first on Cool Flat Roof - MA green roofing company.


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