not doing anything at all, then 2 keys to success: First, your roof is going to need to be cleaned, and that means power washing it at 3000 psi with a fan tip nozzle to remove any dirt. If you’re really going to go ahead an aluminum coat your roof, and it’s certainly a good thing to do vs. The next grade down is 3 lb paste content, and then you have cheep junk in a can that technically can’t be sold as ‘Aluminum Coating’ and is generally sold as ‘Reflective Coating’ or something deceptive like that- this stuff usually has 1.5 lb paste content or less… My guess is that if your contractor is buying his material from a big box warehouse and not a roofing supply distributor he is probably buying 3 lb content material or less.
The “Good Stuff”, and I use that term REALLY loosely since I’m well convinced aluminum roof coating is all junk, is the 5 lb paste content stuff (ideally from a reputable manufacturer like Karnak or Henery). It’s the Aluminum that supposedly protects the roof from the sun by reflecting back all the UV etc.
As the material dries a lot of the coating flashes away leaving the binder and physical aluminum. Aluminum coating is really two things: aluminum and a binder / carrier for the aluminum. If memory serves me here, there are basically 3 grades of aluminum coating and they’re all based on the actual content of aluminum paste or flake in the coating.
