How Roof Foam & Coatings Can Help Your School Save Money

As a school administrator, grappling with budget constraints is a constant. Using limited funds to meet a myriad of needs - from academic materials, to facilities maintenance, to teacher’s salaries - is a delicate balancing act. Given this reality, finding innovative, cost-saving measures is crucial.

At GIDEON, we've been helping our clients (including public and private schools) save money with leading-edge roofing solutions for 20 years. In this article, we're going to introduce you to two game-changing technologies: Spray Polyurethane Foam (SPF) and roof coatings. These systems can not only solve your immediate roofing issues, but they can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars - dollars you can invest into what really matters: your students and your staff.

Table of Contents

• What Are Roof Foam and Coatings?

• Financial Benefits of SPF and Roof Coatings

  • The Most Energy Efficient Roof System in the World
  • Reduced Maintenance Costs
  • Lower Upfront Cost Than Traditional Solutions

• Re-Investing Into Your School

  • Enhancing Educational Programs
  • Improving or Adding to Your Facilities
  • Raising Salaries or Hiring Additional Staff
  • Student Scholarships and Aid

What Are Roof Foam and Coatings?

Spray Polyurethane Foam, commonly called “SPF” or just “foam roofing” is a fluid-applied insulation material generally applied to commercial roofs. When applied, it cures to form a hard yet flexible membrane.

An elastomeric coating is typically applied on top of SPF. An elastomeric coating is also a fluid-applied material that cures into a hard yet flexible membrane, but it lacks the insulating properties of SPF. Known simply as “roof coatings” among contractors, there are multiple types, each with slightly different chemical compositions and properties.

Financial Benefits of SPF and Roof Coatings

The Most Energy Efficient Roof System in the World

Both roof coatings and SPF can dramatically reduce your energy bills. In fact, at GIDEON, our customers see a reduction in utility bills before we even finish installation, with building occupants sometimes coming up to our crews and commenting on how much cooler the building is. But it isn’t just payments to the electric company that go down. Your expenditures on HVAC maintenance also decrease, as the reduced workload means fewer breakdowns and repairs.

How do foam and coatings achieve this? 

The elastomeric coating does it by reflecting the sun’s rays. Its white color absorbs less heat. The mere presence of the coating can reduce the temperature of the roof by 40% in the summer. 

Spray foam insulation reduces energy usage because it, well, insulates. A 1 inch thick coat of spray foam will outperform a 1 inch thick layer of the traditional rigid foam board used on single-ply roofs. 1 inch of SPF has an R-value (how well the material reduces thermal transfer) of 7; 1 inch of rigid foam board will have an R-value of anywhere from 3.6- 6.5 per inch. 

Spray foam also outperforms traditional insulation because it eliminates “thermal bridging” and “thermal shorting”. Thermal bridging occurs when seams between insulation boards allow air to pass through. Because SPF is seamless, no thermal bridging occurs. Thermal shorting occurs when metal screws, which go through the insulation board and fasten it to the decking, conduct heat. Again, with no fasteners, no thermal shorting occurs on an SPF roof. 

As a result of these properties, a study by Texas A&M concluded that a spray foam roofing system can pay for itself entirely in 5 years.

Reduced Maintenance Costs

Why do roofs break down over time? Exposure to the elements. Wind, rain, hail, and especially the sun’s UV rays eventually wear things down, break things apart, or degrade and decompose. 

Coatings cover and seal the underlying roof structure, i.e, they take the beating so your underlying roof doesn’t have to. 

Additionally, coatings and foam are monolithic, that is, they eliminate seams and joints. A seam or joint is where the roof membrane abuts a penetration in the roof (like an HVAC unit or chimney), or where two sections of a membrane like TPO come together. The seams and joints are the roof’s primary weakness - leaks usually start here. With coatings, seams and joints are covered completely by a solid barrier.

Because of these properties, you will have far fewer maintenance costs over time.

Lower Upfront Cost Than Traditional Solutions

Restoring a roof with an elastomeric coating generally costs between $2 and $5 per square foot. A restoration using a spray foam roofing system (with an elastomeric coating), generally costs between $2.5 and $6 per square foot.

Compare this to a typical single-ply systems, which (for a similar system) will typically run around $12 to $20 per square foot. 

The savings are clear. For a 100,000 square-foot roof, the total cost for a typical single-ply system would range from $1,200,000 to $2,000,000. On the other hand, if you restore the roof using an elastomeric coating, the total cost for the would be between $200,000 and $500,000. For a spray foam roofing system, $250,000 to $600,000. 

You’re looking at savings of anywhere from $1 million to $1.5 million, and this is before the long-term savings of reduced energy costs is factored in.

Re-Investing Into Your School

Ultimately, the savings generated from foam and coatings allow you to put your resources into your mission: giving your students the best education and experience possible. 

Roof foam and coatings can help you invest in:

Enhancing Educational Programs

With the significant savings from reduced energy and maintenance costs, you could enhance your educational programs. This might mean upgrading classroom technology, investing in new learning materials, or expanding extracurricular activities.

Improving or Adding to Your Facilities

The savings can also be used to improve other areas of your school's physical infrastructure. This could include necessary repairs, renovations, or even the construction of new facilities like science labs or sports facilities.

Raising Salaries or Hiring Additional Staff

We all know that school faculty are often overworked and underpaid. The money you save from foam and coatings could help you tackle both problems. You could raise teacher’s salaries, hire additional staff, or invest in professional development. With a growing nationwide shortage of teachers, this could go a long way to retaining talent.

Student Scholarships and Aid

Lastly, a portion of the savings could be allocated to scholarships or financial aid programs, providing more opportunities for students who may not have the means to afford certain school programs or activities

The Upshot

We all want to spend less on basic needs and more on the things we value the most. For no one is this more vital than for an organization whose entire purpose is to educate the next generation. Now that you’ve learned how roof foam and coatings can help you do just that, set up a call with GIDEON. In a free, 30 minute call, our nationally-recognized roofing advisors can provide you with customized guidance, so you can forget about your roof and focus on what’s really important.