roofing maintance

I have just returned from the annual RV Show in Hershey Pa. This is one of the largest RV shows in the country. There were over 900 RVs on display. There were also over 100 venders that supplied the RV market. If you are looking for a RV this is a great show to see so many different models of RVs. One thing I learned while at this show was the misinformation concerning RV roofs. Most RVs have a EPDM Rubber Roof or one that is smooth fiberglass. Most of the misinfromaiton is about the EPDM roofs. I don't think this wrong information is intentional but never the less it is out there. Over the next couple of weeks I will talk about the proper way to care and repair a EPDM rubber roof. I know we have talked about this before but I was shocked by the information I recieved about caring for your EPDM roof. One of the biggest concerns I had was with all of the people telling RV owners to wash their roofs each year. To understand why this is not a good idea we will have to deal with the manufacturers sugguestions and care for their products. To begin with there are only two different manufactures of White on Black EPDM roofing in the United States. There are Carlisle and Firestone. This may supprise you, since you never hear their name associated with the roofs on RVs. They only make the membrane and sell it to different distrubitors who sell to dealers and then to the public. The EPDM roofing product was developed for the commerical roofing market. It was sold in two colors black and white. These roofing products were sold all over the country and there are billions of square feet of EPDM roofing on roofs today. The warrantys varied from ten to twenty years. The black EPDM dominates the commerical roofintg market today but is not used in the RV market because of heat related issues. So we will deal specifically with the white EPDM roofing. White EPDM roofing tends to chalk. What I mean by this is that you will notice in a few years streaks running down the side of your camper. This occurs because the sunlight and UV rays shine on the membrane and causes this to happen. This will happen to almost any white rubber product when exposed to direct sunlight. So don't be to alarmed when you see this happen. The manufactures of this membrane have never recommended to clean it yearly. There is a reason for this. When you clean this membrane you are washing off the material that has chalked and crased. This exposed a new layer to direct sunlight and it will also chalk. In a round about way you are washing away some of your roof. I know that dealers say wash your roof and then coat it. We will deal with this in next post.