Roofers just finished a job on my house where they had to replace an old rubber roof surface. Upon completion, about half of the roof looks like it is laying flat while the other half of the roof is really bubbled. It was a pretty cold day today when they installed it and the installer said that it just needs a ‘sunny day to stretch out’ and that it will look great after that.
The picture below shows a small portion of the bubbled surface. Is what I’m being told accurate?
Yes. Should flatten out upon some sun/heat
yes they are correct, a sunny hot day or two will flatten it out and make it look nice. similar to shingle installations, sometimes the shingles don’t settle at first and it looks off, it needs a couple of days to settle in the sun.
Thanks for the replies, that makes me feel a bit better. That first picture was done at night. Below is a picture I took from this morning. As non roofer, this picture just scares me. The companies roofing manager is coming out today to see what he can do with it.
Should I not be concerned with seams being bubbled up?
Another nice job of spamming a self link in a post that doesn’t really add to the discussion.
Wow! That 2nd pic shows a lot of bubbles! A few is ok and will usually smooth out over time but have my doubts that many will. I imagine they must have put down the roof before the glue was properly dry. Fyi bubbles are purely a cosmetic thing and shouldn’t affect the performance of an epdm roof.
That is pretty bad, I don’t think that is going lie down well.
It was probably too cold, do you know if they used a solvent or water based adhesive?
It looks like the glue didn’t flash off completely and possibly the sheet wasn’t fully relaxed before bonding.
They said they used solvent based adhesive and it was pretty cold on the day that they did the install.
Thanks for the reply. i understand that the roof is not going to leak, but for the price I paid for it, I would expect it to look a lot better than this.
On the plus side though, the company has given me a written letter stating that if the bubbles have not all dissipated by June 1 they will come and completely replace the roof again.
Well it sounds like you are in good hands.
EPDM is sensitive to temperature during installation, even more so when using solvent based adhesives.
They are gas bubbles. As the glue dries it lets off gases. They should have let the glue dry longer as most of those bubbles will be there for the life of the roof.
They will be replacing it then.
Those bubbles are there for life. Glue was nowhere near being dry when they applied it. I’m sure it will never leak but you’ll have to live with your roof having lifetime chicken pox. Should be a great example of going for the cheapest price will always bite you in the rear.
Agreed. Too many bubbles. A few would lay down but not that many. The seams appear to be open?
No way is that installation good. Never believe people who say blisters are normal. A blister is a void and voids cause membrane deterioration. Also the trapped gas (air is a gas) will expand during hot days and contract at night when it’s cool, a year or two of this will fracture that membrane resulting in leaks. There isn’t a manufacturer on the planet that would ok that installation.
