Your warranty expired. Your roof probably did not

Three, in rising order of cost: run the roof reactively and repair failures as they happen, restore it with a coating system that carries its own new 10, 15 or 20-year leak-free warranty, or replace it. For most buildings whose warranty has just run out, restoration is the cheapest path to being covered again, because the membrane is usually still sound enough to serve as a substrate — which is exactly the condition that makes a coating work and that disappears if the roof is left another five years.

No. A warranty term is a commercial decision by a manufacturer, not a prediction about your specific roof. Plenty of 20-year roofs are in restorable condition at 22 years and plenty are finished at 16, depending on drainage, detailing, foot traffic and how much rooftop equipment has been added. What the expiry does mean is that from now on every failure is yours to fund, which changes the economics of waiting.

Yes — that is what a restoration coating does. A GacoFlex silicone system applied over a prepared existing roof carries its own 10, 15 or 20-year leak-free labor and material warranty, independent of whatever the original membrane's warranty said. The roof has to qualify: sound deck, dry insulation, and a membrane still capable of holding a coating. That is what the inspection establishes before any system is specified.

Because the restoration window closes. While the membrane is intact and the insulation dry, you are buying a coating. Once water reaches the insulation, you are buying insulation replacement, disposal and a new roof — several times the cost, and a capital project rather than a maintenance one. The gap between those two numbers is usually one or two storm seasons of leaving an out-of-warranty roof alone.

Generally not with the cost. Once the term has run, a manufacturer has no obligation on material or labor, and most warranties also excluded ponding water, added rooftop equipment and unapproved repairs long before they expired. It is worth reading the original document to see what it ever actually covered — owners are frequently surprised that the failures they are now seeing were excluded from day one.

It can, so check before specifying anything. Most single-ply manufacturers treat an unapproved coating as a modification to the assembly and will treat the warranty as void. If there is meaningful time left on yours, we will tell you what it covers and what a coating would forfeit, so you can weigh the two. In most cases the new system's own warranty is worth more than the remainder of the old one, but that is your decision to make with the numbers in front of you.