There’S a lot of different sealants and a lot of different formulations on the market and sometimes it’s hard to understand what makes up the actual product and what you should be using for your needs. So today, on the metal roofing channel, we’re going to be talking about performance of different types of sealant and what it means for your metal roof installation. What’S up guys welcome to q, a mondays, i’m thad barnette. All the questions that we’re going to be discussing today about sealant are located in the description below you can jump ahead to any of those make sure you subscribe if you’re new, we release metal, roofing and metal construction content every monday and wednesday. Well, today, we are taking a look at sealant performance and what makes up formulations of different types of sealant that you see on the market and what you should be using for something say like a metal, roof installation well at sheffield metals, we use and promote novaflex From novaguard it’s our sealant of choice, we sell it to contractors all over the country and all over the world.
So today i have joe borak from novaguard solutions here and he’s going to talk us through this concept of sealant performance hierarchy. So joe tell me first a little bit about yourself and a little bit about the company. What do you guys do? Yeah? First of all, thanks for the invite to come and join you today, um again, my name is joe borac, my position here at novaguard.
I’M the vp of building systems, industrial hybrids, pvc foam and also a leisure pool and spa divisions. A little background about the company we’ve been in business for 43 years, we’re privately owned based in cleveland ohio, some of the products we make. We make silicones hybrids and pvc foam some examples of each one. Our pvc phone division actually started 43 years ago. It’S called foam seal, some of the products we make are weather stripping, engine and door, compartment, foam and also appliances and hvac systems.
They utilize our foams in those applications regarding the hybrids, our industrial hybrid division. We sell mostly the tractor trailer manufacturers, buses and also for windshield applications to help install windshields on commercial automotive applications. Um. Our silicones are mostly used in electronics, automotives transportation. Also.
We have thermally conductive silicones for evs, which are electric vehicles and battery installations, and the division that we’re talking about today is called our building system division and we launched our initial product 33 years ago, called novaflex. It started off in the window and door industry and when that industry was transitioning from aluminum windows to vinyl windows, we were one of the first products to actually hear really well to the vinyl windows. So that’s how we got started. Uh making nova flex in the industry nine years ago, we launched a product called our metal roof sealant, and it is geared towards metal, roofing, metal building, metal wall panels, and it is a very user friendly product that installers like and end users love because it lasts For a very long time, so in a nutshell, that is our company and what we do at novaguard here in cleveland. So you have a true history of sealants and those types of products.
So you really know what you’re talking about, and let’s go back to what i said before about that sealant performance hierarchy. Tell me a little bit about that and tell me about the different types of sealants that are out there. Formulations things like that that people should know about yeah, so we put together the sealant hierarchy, uh chart and it goes from bottom to top and it’s all based on performance, so there’s basically five categories or five chemistries of sealants and in the construction industry that we See day in and day out, the bottom layer is what we call latex acrylics and water-based, and they are organic in nature. They have carbon in their chemical makeup that needs water uh in the formulation to get it out of the cartridge and once it’s out of the cartridge, the water evaporates, which will cause shrinking and cracking sometimes up to 40 percent um. Some other applications is also for interior painting, so they’ll put it around windows and it’s it’s actually good, a good product for that application.
If it’s used exteriorly, it could wash away if it rains within 48 hours. So that’s some of the drawbacks, but also some of the the benefits of using a latex, acrylic or water-based product um, going up the ladder um. There are solvent-based products, uh they’re, solvent-based, again they’re organic in nature, and they will degrade over time as well, because there’s carbon in the chemical makeup um. They generally are hard to work with and hard to clean up. So some of the guys out there that are using solvent-based sealants that you can, you can spot them because they have sealants all over their bodies all over their clothes because they wipe it off as they go and it doesn’t come off.
But again like water-based products. They put solvents in their chemical makeup to get it out of the cartridge and once it’s out of the cartridge the solvents will evaporate, which can pose potentially cause shrinking and cracking. They are also hard and stiff to work with in colder weather, to get it out of the cartridge. So you’ll see a lot of guys put solvent-based products on their dashboards on the way to the job sites, to warm them up to get it out of the cartridge. But solid-based products have been a while for around for a long time and there’s there’s some solid, solid uh competition out there with with products and they’ve been around for a while, and they actually work pretty well in specific applications going up the chart.
Uh would be polyurethanes again they’re organic in nature, and they will degrade over time. They have tendencies to be hard to work with and actually pull away and crack from the substrates. Sometimes you may need a primer before applying on some substrates and and they as well are are stiff to gun out in colder weather. But polyurethanes have been around a long time. They are probably the most specified product out in the market today because they were specified about 15 to 20 years ago and architects, don’t like going back and changing specs for sealants, but you will see them on specifications quite a bit up the ladder we go to Modified silicones and we actually have a modified silicone called novabond, but they as well are organic in nature, there’s carbon in their chemical makeup and they will degrade over time.
Uh. One of the benefits is modified. Silicones give you paintability, they have very low shrinkage, but they do get hard after the cure. So once you gun it out, it cures 7 to 14 days and the actual product will be a hard cure, so it’ll be kind of when you touch it’s kind of stiff. So, but but modified silicones are going right up that ladder and they’re actually, second best to silicones and silicones are inorganic in chemical nature, and they will not degrade over time.
They remain permanently flexible and you can extrude them out down to negative 20 degrees fahrenheit. A lot of the products will cure within 24 hours, and one thing about silicones is that they’re not paintable, that’s why they come in a bunch of different colors. So there’s one drawback with silicones. Is that they’re not paintable, but overall, when you want something, that’s going to last, there’s nothing better than the silicone sealant. Now talking about silicones, they there’s four cousins in the construction industry, um, there’s oxyme, cured silicones, there’s acid toxic, cured silicones, there’s alkoxy curved silicones and there’s acetone cured silicones and what we manufacture here at novoguard predominantly are oxyane cured silicones and they have a very low Odor they adhere to a bunch of different substrates, very, very contractor friendly, and we have a whole spectrum of colors that we produce here, but regarding sealant hierarchy, those are the five key chemistries that we see in the construction industry.
So this is the list of performance hierarchy, but does this translate to cost as well? Yes and uh, depending on the environment around us, um like i’ve, been with novegard for 12 years now and back then um. Our product was less expensive than solvent-based, because solvents were pretty expensive for raw materials back in the day, but all in all, i would say most of these products are relatively similar in price, and it’s it’s just depends on the actual application that the contractor uh needs To perform so they all have their own place in the construction industry. All of the products listed there are are are very good products and they actually uh the way they uh they compare and contrast to one another is just the way the manufacturer makes the products. So they can make it make one of their products quicker, curing or slower tack, time or slower cure time, depending on the application that they’re targeting, so all of them are different in their own right and they’re all very good products.
Now you said you had a metal roofing product as well, and we’re definitely familiar with that. Can you talk to us about that and where does that fall in the spectrum and the performance hierarchy? Yes, yes, our metal, roof sealant is the product uh. That is specified with sheffield metals and sold through sheffield metals. We launched this product nine years ago and uh.
It is an oxime cured silicone, so it gives you all the performance characteristics as far as uh will not degrade over time. It’S permanently flexible will not shrink or crack and overall a longevity. It’S going to give you long-term long-term durability for your applications and being on a roof or on a building on a wall panel. That is vitally important, is the longevity of the product. So what are some of the features and benefits that we can expect from a silicone product like the novaflex for the metal, roofing yeah glad you asked that um, some of the some of the characteristics that we see in our products is it.
It offers you permanent flexibility um. It will not shrink or crack uh over time. It will not sag or slump when the guys are gunning it out um. Overall, it gives you a weather, tight seal when you need it, and also we talked about the adhesion to many different building: substrates, brick, metals, glass, masonry, this silicones uh, depending on the chemical makeup of it, the oxime cured silicones, will adhere to all of those um. Another important fact is that once it’s cured between 24 and 48 hours, it gives you a waterproof seal and what we do here at novaguard.
We also add a mold and mildew biocide into our products, which will resist mold and mildew growth, especially if you’re going over clean substrates. What you guys have found at sheffield metals also is that it’s easily gunned at all temperatures. So it’s going to gun the same in the middle of the winter time as it does the middle of the summertime. So in the winter time it’s not going to get real stiff and in the summertime it will not fall out of the tubes. So um guys really appreciate that that performance characteristic of it being that it is a silicone, it is uh green.
Naturally, we don’t have to do anything to the product reformulating wise and it’s uh. It is green ability, compliance and also it’s voc compliant in all 50 states um. Another big thing that guys like is the tool ability of it if they got a big bead around a penetration uh there, it’s it’s very easy to tool um. It wipes right off their hands with a rag, a wet rag and also it’s low odor and solvent free. So you don’t have to worry about that and uh with uh homeowners and things along those lines.
But actually you can use this product both interiorly and exteriorly. On on buildings, and not have a problem uh with miss smith and the odor, so it’s a it’s a very very user friendly product and it the performance characteristics, put it head and shoulders above all of our competition yeah. And that’s something that i’d like to talk about more. You know. If somebody would ask us, you know, as sheffield metals, why should you know why do we promote no flex specifically how how does it, how are they different from other brands, other competition out there?
Can you talk to me about some specific things, yeah well, but bottom line? Is it eliminates callbacks? So once you put whatever bead you put out on your particular application, it’s going to stay there. It’S not going to shrink, it’s not going to evaporate and, at the end of the day, their name is on the line for each particular job. So if they want to go out there, do it once do it right and get off the job, as you know, as quickly as possible and not have any callbacks and with nova flex, it virtually eliminates call backs, and we we did do a video about uh When and when not to use sealant on a metal roof installation with our technical director a few months ago, so you guys definitely check that out i’ll leave a link in the description for you to watch that video as well uh.
We just really appreciate our partnership with sheffield metals uh and this and this channel. I appreciate the opportunity to come on and chat a little bit about sealants, most people out there in the field. They they they call sealants, either silicone or or or whatever, and they really don’t understand the difference between the chemistries. But there is a huge difference and the guys and and and girls that actually do the installations and understand the features and benefits of the five different chemistries. They could utilize them all and have successful results but uh.
We. We really uh appreciate the partnership that we have with sheffield, so thank you again for the opportunity, yeah well, thank you joe and thanks to novaguard as well. If you have any questions, comment down below we’d love to answer them subscribe here to the metal roofing channel for more, as always i’m thad, barnette and we’ll catch you next time. You
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