Asphalt Roof - Sealing Cracks and keeping it cool

Hi,

I have an asphalt roof on a property I purchased recently. It had a deck I took off and when I first washed it, it looked white/grey. Over the next few months, I think it developed alligator like thin cracks and I noticed that heavy objects (person sitting on a char) left depressions in the asphalt on a hot day. So I decided to apply Acrpol+ Grey on it to seal the cracks and cover up the dips.

On a hot day now, not only is the asphalt soft but the acrypol gets sticky. Would it help / is it ok to apply solar reflective paint on top of the acrypol to cool the roof down? Also, if I put a deck on top of the roof, should I skip the reflective paint?

Kris Zylek, good evening.

Asphalt will get "soft" when exposed to high temperatures, such as we are experiencing now. indentations from chairs, tables, and thin heels will begin to penetrate.

I suggest you consider severely limiting the "foot fall" on to the Asphalt.

If you consider it??? the Asphalt was [shall I call it???] doing OK with the decking in place, once removed the decking that was providing shade the heat of the Sun over a long period of time, like right now, has / is affecting the Asphalt.

Suggest you consider replacing the decking, which will provide a shading to the Asphalt, if the Asphalt was OK without paint and a deck, the paint could be considered superfluous?

Ken.

Thanks for the feedback Ken. That makes a lotta sense and I will replace the decking post-haste.

Flat roofs were always covered in white chippings, for the very reason to reflect the sun. These chippings dulled to grey over time, the residue is I suspect, what you washed off. I would look at sealing the damaged sections with some flexible asphalt sealer if you can find something suitable, then look at rebuilding your deck. Spread the weight out across the roof, and ideally put the loading points where there is support below the roof.

Flat roofs were often built on top of chipboard sheets, if water gets through the asphalt it rots the chipboard and eventually the roof collapses.