Powdery paint on EPDM roof
Trying to clean the EPDM coat for installing solar panel mounts, with roof sealant under the mounts. With tapping screws into the roof plywood and rafters.
The white "paint" doesn't look like a paint at all. Rub it with a wet rug - the rug turns white.
Rub it with Methanol aka Methyl alcohol - same story.
Put on a Scotch tape for the night, to cover the drilled out pilot holes for tapping screws for the night - the tape picks up the whitish stuff. Repeat it again with tape - same story.
To get a good adhesion with a sealant, the EPDM should be clean. Whitish stuff coming off means that the sealant might come off with it.
Should I hit it with Acetone, or what?
The trailer is relatively new, 2 years, and the dealer might have put some wax or other cr-ap on it, to make it look nicer, but after washing with water and alcohol it's still there. And it's "powdery", not "waxy". Comes off on wet fingers. I'm trying not to walk much on it, and mostly crawl on all four, and my black jeans are white on the knees after crawling around, even on a dry surface.
Is this normal, any ideas?
The white "paint" doesn't look like a paint at all. Rub it with a wet rug - the rug turns white.
Rub it with Methanol aka Methyl alcohol - same story.
Put on a Scotch tape for the night, to cover the drilled out pilot holes for tapping screws for the night - the tape picks up the whitish stuff. Repeat it again with tape - same story.
To get a good adhesion with a sealant, the EPDM should be clean. Whitish stuff coming off means that the sealant might come off with it.
Should I hit it with Acetone, or what?
The trailer is relatively new, 2 years, and the dealer might have put some wax or other cr-ap on it, to make it look nicer, but after washing with water and alcohol it's still there. And it's "powdery", not "waxy". Comes off on wet fingers. I'm trying not to walk much on it, and mostly crawl on all four, and my black jeans are white on the knees after crawling around, even on a dry surface.
Is this normal, any ideas?
