If you own a home in Mesa—especially one with a spacious Arizona Room, a patio addition, or a Santa Fe-style flat roof—you likely have Sprayed Polyurethane Foam (SPF) over your head.
Foam roofing is a miracle material for the desert. It is seamless, waterproof, and acts as incredible insulation.1 However, it is also the most misunderstood roofing system in the Valley. Many homeowners treat it like shingles: install it and forget it.
This is a fatal mistake.
At Copper Sky Roofing, we inspect hundreds of foam roofs every year. The ones that fail didn’t fail because the foam was bad; they failed because the homeowner didn’t understand the “Sunscreen Rule.”
The “Sunscreen Rule”: How Foam Works
Polyurethane foam is amazing at stopping water and heat, but it has one weakness: UV Rays. The sun eats raw foam. If you left exposed yellow foam out in the Mesa sun, it would turn into orange dust and blow away within a few months.
To prevent this, every foam roof is covered in a white, elastomeric (rubberized) coating. Think of this coating as sunscreen for your roof.
- The Myth: “My foam roof is warrantied for 10 years, so I don’t need to look at it.”
- The Truth: Just like sunscreen wears off after a swim, your roof’s coating wears thin over time due to weathering and oxidation.2
The Maintenance Cycle: Recoat vs. Replace
The beauty of a foam roof is that, if maintained, it is the only roof you will ever need to buy. You simply have to renew the “sunscreen” every 5 to 10 years.
1. The Recoat (The Smart Choice)
If you catch the roof while the coating is thin but the foam is still healthy, we simply clean the roof and spray a new layer of high-grade acrylic or silicone coating.
- Cost: Low.
- Result: The warranty clock resets, and your roof is good for another decade.
2. The Tear-Off (The Expensive Consequence)
If you wait until the yellow foam is exposed and “burned” (turning orange and cratered), the structural integrity is gone. You cannot coat over bad foam. We have to tear the entire system off and start from scratch.
- Cost: High.
- Result: A totally avoidable expense.
Quality Materials Matter
When we perform a restoration or a new installation, we don’t rely on bucket-grade coatings from the hardware store. We utilize commercial-grade systems designed for extreme ponding water resistance and reflectivity.
When restoring a flat roof, we rely on high-performance coatings similar to the systems developed by GAF, which provide a seamless, waterproof barrier capable of expanding and contracting with the Arizona heat without cracking. These premium coatings are the difference between a 3-year fix and a 10-year solution.
The “Bird Peck” Threat
There is one unique enemy of foam roofs in Mesa: Birds.
For reasons only they know, birds love to peck holes in foam roofs. A single quarter-sized peck hole can fill with water during a monsoon, traveling down through the foam and into your living room.
- Pro Tip: We recommend inspecting your flat roof after every major storm. If you see bird pecks, call us immediately. These are easy, cheap repairs if caught early, but disastrous if ignored.
Don’t Let Your Asset Turn to Dust
A foam roof is a high-performance machine that needs regular tune-ups.3 If you aren’t sure how old your current coating is, or if you are starting to see “burnt” orange foam showing through, time is running out.
Save your roof before it’s too late.
Contact Copper Sky Roofing at +1 480-410-4169 today for a free flat roof evaluation. We’ll tell you honestly if you just need a fresh coat of “sunscreen” or if more serious repairs are needed.