Not the way you would paint a wall. TPO is made to shed water, and that same quality keeps ordinary coatings from holding on. What a TPO roof can take is a coating system made for it, put down over a cleaned surface and a bonding layer. Troyer Commercial Roofing has done that on existing TPO instead of tearing the membrane off, and Lester has offered it to an owner whose TPO seam had started to let go.
Why won’t regular paint stay on TPO?
Because TPO pushes it away. A coatings manufacturer that sells a primer just for TPO describes the membrane as hydrophobic and says it naturally resists bonding with acrylic coatings. Its instructions start with a roof cleaned of debris, grease and staining, then a bonding primer, before any coating goes on. House paint skips both steps.
What makes a coating stick to old TPO?
The cleaning and the tack coat under it. On the TPO that stayed on a large commercial warehouse in 2025, our crew washed the membrane with Wac II cleaner and laid down a tack coat, the bonding layer between old TPO and new coating, before the fabric reinforced system went on. The warehouse case study covers the full job, including why rain changed the plan partway through.
Troyer backs the workmanship with a 10-year guarantee. Conklin’s manufacturer warranty, up to 20 years depending on the coating, is available upon request.
Has Lester offered a coating instead of a patch?
Yes, on a Sarasota office building in October 2022. Water kept showing up beside a rooftop AC unit another trade had just installed. Once the unit itself was fixed, that spot still leaked in Hurricane Ian and again in October rain, while everything else Lester had repaired stayed dry. Lester went back up on October 21, couldn’t see anything wrong on the surface, and judged that one of the welds on the TPO was not holding.
He gave the owner three choices: a fabric reinforced system over the entire lower section of the roof, a patch around the AC unit, or a quote both ways. The owner chose the patch for now. Our post on why a new roof leaks tells the AC unit side of that story.
Does spray foam ever go over TPO?
No. Troyer Commercial Roofing does not spray foam over TPO. On the 2025 warehouse, no foam went on the TPO that stayed. It got the fabric reinforced coating system instead.
Coat it, patch it or replace it: who decides?
You do, once you know what shape the seams, the membrane and the layers under it are in. Lester, with 18+ years on commercial roofs, walks a TPO roof with Tony before any of those options goes on paper. For new TPO or repairs, start with our TPO roofing page. The coating system itself is on the fabric reinforced roofing page, and a commercial roof inspection from us is free.
Troyer Commercial Roofing provides commercial roofing in Sarasota, Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch and Venice. We also serve Nokomis, Osprey, Port Charlotte and North Port.
Call Tony at (941) 564-5614.
