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dcairns's avatar
dcairns
Explorer
Sep 30, 2025

Maintenance for Silicone Roof Coating on EDPM

So back in 2008 I replaced my EDPM roof with fresh EDPM and Eterabonded the heck out of it to try and do a "once and for all" kind of job.  I documented it on this forum but older posts seem to have been lost. Of course all things age and Eternabond is not eternal and has a couple layers now.  And, 17 years later, the EDPM material is loosing it's white coating.  So time to act before the underlying black material also goes.

I am considering putting on Henry's Tropicool Silicone coating on the roof to get some more years out of before doing a re-roof and probably have to re-do the wood arches and thin plywood in the roof as some areas are sagging a bit.  

I do have some small experience with Tropicool. About 7-8 years ago, my awning was cracking and flaking on the area exposed to the elements when rolled up. So on a whim I tried Tropicool on that area. It has held up well, and still doing it's job protecting the exposed part of the awning.  So Tropicool stands up to the Southern California sun well.  A lot better than the awning material.

My question for those who have used Tropicool, how has maintenance been?  Does the spray can of silicone patch material work well? Are there any other products to used for leaks?  How do you handle separation or cracks around vents, etc? I will be aplying over existing Eternabond taped areas.

I do understand that it is a one way trip to silicone land, and only more silicone will be able to adhere to the Tropicool.

1996 Fleetwood Prowler 22LU, we purchased it used in 2006. 

 

2 Replies

  • Thank you for that reply. I wonder if a "schmear" of silicone caulk on the edges of the eternabond before Tropicool might be helpful for me.  I do plan to do some sort of surface roughening to the white backing of the eternabond to help the Tropicool adhere.  But there are plenty of places where the white tape has cracked and falling away.

  • I put on Tropicool a year ago, including over some Eternabond on an EDPM membrane and got good results, There was one leak still, however, which I traced to the edge of one of the Eternabond strips, where evidently two coats of Tropicool did not manage to seal. It seems the Tropicool coating was repelled by something about the Eternabond edge, and left an uncoated seam. I used a silicone caulk I bought at Lowes to caulk over that edge, and it seems to have bonded well and stopped the leak. I have no clue why that one spot failed to coat, and no others have proven a problem, but you might want to watch out for a similar issue.

    The trailer lives most of the time in storage under some black walnut trees, and thus it is impossible to keep black stains completely at bay. But a soft brush and Simple Green does seem to work cleaning the Tropicool layer.