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WHY NOT TPO?

TPO roofing problems in a nutshell:

Fact: TPO only became widely available in the early 1990's. (C) NRCA

Fact: In 2001 there were at least 4 fundamentally different TPO formulations in service on roofs in the US (this is a conservative number, as some manufacturers had more than 4 formulations or generations of TPO in production and service). (C) NRCA

Fact: In the late 90's through early 2001' due to formulation problems, material failures and seam welds coming apart, most manufacturers pulled their TPO products off the market and had to reformulate them, yet again. (C) NRCA

Many 1st and 2nd generation TPO roofs have failed long before their warranty expired which was originally only 10 years.  And now with another unproven formula they are offering up to a 20 year warranty?

Numerous TPO roof failures already accruing on commercial roof installations and future potential roof failures may haunt TPO roofing manufacturers and contractors installing these products for many years. (Search the web for "problems with TPO" and "TPO lawsuits") The nature of TPO roof is to be economical, which requires the manufacturing costs to be as low as possible. What TPO manufacturers decided to do, is to use cheap fillers in manufacturing process, to reduce the cost, as well as make the weathering surface of TPO membrane (top ply, above the scrim – the most expensive part of TPO roof as it requires the components to keep the roof UV stable and to remain pliable) as thin as they realistically could. This and many other factors have caused numerous “waves” of TPO roof failures.

The following are photos of several TPO roof systems that show some typical problems.  Due to the increasing number of failures and general unstability of the product we do not recomend TPO to any of our clients. 

tpo-failuretpo-failure-2