EPDM Roof Systems

EPDM has the longest track record of any single-ply commercial membrane in Atlanta - buildings from the 1980s and 1990s are still running original EPDM systems in serviceable condition. We install 60-mil fully adhered and mechanically attached EPDM with manufacturer warranty paths suited to Atlanta's humidity, heat, and storm environment.

Ethylene propylene diene terpolymer - EPDM - was the dominant single-ply membrane in Atlanta commercial construction from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s. A significant portion of the metro's industrial, warehouse, and mid-rise office building inventory still carries original or first-recover EPDM systems installed in that era. The rubber membrane's track record in Atlanta's climate is well established: it handles thermal cycling across the metro's temperature range, resists UV degradation reliably, and tolerates Atlanta's humidity without the performance variation that temperature-sensitive adhesive systems can produce.

EPDM fell behind TPO in market share after 2005 primarily because TPO's white surface offers better solar reflectance - an important factor in Atlanta's urban heat island - and because TPO hot-air welding is faster to execute than EPDM tape-seam or adhesive-seam installation. But EPDM remains the right specification for specific Atlanta building types: fully adhered EPDM on buildings where interior humidity is high enough to drive vapor into the insulation stack (food processing, commercial laundry, high-humidity industrial), industrial buildings with equipment that can degrade TPO plasticizers, and owners who want the longest-proven membrane track record in the market.

I specify EPDM when the building conditions call for it. The fully adhered attachment method produces maximum wind resistance and eliminates the membrane billowing that can develop in mechanically attached systems on buildings in high-exposure locations. Seam quality in EPDM is the critical installation variable - lap seams bonded with EPDM-compatible tape or contact adhesive require careful surface preparation, and I test every seam before closeout.

Atlanta's industrial corridors - the Marietta-Dobbins corridor in Cobb County, the I-285 west industrial ring through Forest Park and College Park, the Norcross and Duluth light-industrial zones in Gwinnett County - carry a large inventory of EPDM systems installed in the 1980s and 1990s on large-footprint manufacturing and warehousing buildings. Many of these buildings have never been re-roofed, or received one coating application that has since failed. Full replacement with current-code insulation and 60-mil EPDM is the right scope for most of this inventory.

High-humidity interior environments - food processing, commercial laundry, restaurant commissaries, indoor grow facilities - create vapor pressure conditions that drive moisture into the insulation stack through mechanically attached single-ply membranes. Fully adhered EPDM eliminates the fastener penetrations and membrane-to-deck air pathways that allow vapor drive. For these building types in Atlanta, fully adhered EPDM on a vapor-retarder substrate is often the most defensible long-term specification.

EPDM seams - whether tape-bonded or contact-adhesive bonded - require clean, dry membrane surfaces and a temperature window above 40 degrees for proper adhesion. Atlanta's humidity complicates this requirement from June through September: ambient relative humidity above 80 percent slows adhesive cure and can produce adhesive bond failure at seams within the warranty period if installation is not managed carefully. We monitor temperature and humidity during EPDM installation and delay seaming if conditions are out of specification.