Painting our Skoolie Roof with Elastomeric Paint
One of our biggest priorities, as we work on our school bus conversion, is to make sure that our bus is as well-insulated and water-tight as possible. Thus, after a lot of research, Emmett and I decided that we needed to paint the roof of our skoolie with an elastomeric roof coating.
Disclaimer (as always): We are not professionals. We are learning this as we go and I created these posts merely for those interested and to potentially offer guidance to other bus conversion novices like ourselves.
Why Elastomeric Roof Coating? What is it?
Elastomeric is just a fancy way of saying that the paint is thick and rubberized. What are the advantages of an elastomeric coating? Well, the elastomeric coating acts as a water- and weather-resistant seal and keeps the roof cooler during hot temperatures. That’s pretty much exactly what we needed!
How did we decide what kind of elastomeric roof coating would be best?
This was where all of our research played out. Quite a lot of folks in the skoolie community recommend an elastomeric roof coating called “Henry’s Tropicool.” Henry’s Tropicool is argued to be the absolute best elastomeric roof coating - particularly if you plan to drive your bus in very hot climates. Well… From all the research we did, we could not see that Henry’s Tropicool was that much better than BlackJack Elasto-Kool 1000. The biggest difference seemed to be that 5 gallons of Elasto-Kool is about $90 and 5 gallons of Tropicool is about $300. Hence, our choice seemed easy: Elasto-Kool 1000!
Painting Our Skoolie Roof with Elastomeric Paint
Step 1: Cleaning the Roof
Cleaning the roof took us way more time than we’d expected! Most people who do this have access to running water and use a hose - or better yet, a pressure washer - to clean their roof. Unfortunately, we did not have access to running water. That being said, there is a creek near our worksite that has clean-ish water. Along with paint scrapers and big sponges, multiple trips to the creek with two five-gallon buckets were what it took to get our roof a bath. It took Emmett and me about four hours to clean the roof thoroughly between the two of us.
Step 2: Taping the Line Between Roof & Exterior Walls
Painter’s tape to help us keep the line between roof and side walls clean!
This step is just as straightforward as it sounds. We just used our aluminum ladder and taped off the line between yellow sides and white roof all the way around the bus.
Step 3: Paint the Edges (Twice)
Emmett paints the roof’s edge.
A brush for detail work around the lights and such.
To get the edge of the roof painted without having to do any somewhat-unsafe leaning from above, we opted to do this bit from the ground. We painted the first coat and then - due to weather issues - I painted the second coat on it about a week and a half later. Normally, if your weather is going to be consistently warm and sunny, you can paint the second coat two hours after painting the first.
My first person POV as I painted coat two on the roof.
Step 4: Paint the Top (Twice)
Climbing up through an exit hatch, Emmett painted the first coat on the rest of the roof. A week and a half later, I painted coat two on the roof. This part can be a bit tricky because you don’t want to back yourself into a corner on the roof. Not only that, but the area around the last exit hatch that you leave through. (see below) has to be painted. This takes a bit of maneuvering.
Painting around the last exit hatch as the final step.
Step 5: Paint the Seams a Third Time
If you look closely, you can see the slight difference between the fresh paint on the seams and the dried paint around it.
Two hours after I finished coat number two on the entire roof, the coats were dry. We had more than enough elastomeric paint leftover, so I decided to do a third coat just along the seams of the bus. Redundancy is resiliency, as they say. I figured a little bit of extra waterproofing would be the most helpful just along the seams.
Materials Used on this Project
CLEANING/TAPING
6 Foot Aluminum Ladder
Two All-Purpose Jumbo Sponges
Two Steel Paint Scrapers
Stainless Steel Coarse Wire Brush
Two 5-Gallon Buckets
Scotchblue Painter’s Tape
2. PAINTING
6 Foot Aluminum Ladder
Paint Tray
3-Pack of Paint Tray Liners
9-inch Steel Paint Roller
Paint Roller Pole
Two 9" Wool Paint Rollers with 1/2 inch Nap
Two 2” Paint Brushes
BLACKJACK Elasto-Kool 1000 5-Gallon Elastomeric Reflective Roof Coating
Several Painter’s Rags