Built-Up Roofing (BUR) Elastomeric Coating in Dallas, TX

Overview

Built-up roofing, commonly called BUR, consists of multiple alternating layers of asphalt and reinforcing felt, often finished with a gravel or mineral cap surface, making it one of the most common roofing systems on older Dallas commercial buildings. Coating a BUR roof requires a different preparation approach than coating a single-ply membrane, since the aggregate surface and asphaltic substrate both affect how well a coating can bond.

For gravel-surfaced BUR roofs, we embed or remove loose aggregate and apply a specialized asphaltic primer designed to bond elastomeric coatings to oxidized asphalt before the coating layers go on. For smooth-surfaced BUR, less aggregate removal is needed but the asphalt still requires a compatible primer to prevent bleed-through, a condition where asphaltic oils migrate up through a coating and cause staining or premature failure if the wrong primer is used.

Dallas building owners with aging BUR roofs choose elastomeric coating restoration because it seals the multi-ply asphalt system against further UV and water damage, stops granule loss, and extends service life significantly beyond what the roof would achieve if left uncoated, all without the cost and disruption of tearing off multiple layers of felt and asphalt down to the deck.

Built-up roofing is common on Downtown Dallas's older government buildings and adaptive-reuse structures along the Main Street and Elm Street corridor, many of which still carry original gravel-surfaced BUR systems decades after installation. Deep Ellum's century-old brick warehouses and Oak Cliff's mid-century commercial and light-industrial buildings along Jefferson Boulevard show the same asphalt-and-felt construction, often with visible aggregate loss and alligatoring after years of Texas sun. The Dallas Design District's older warehouse stock, predating many of the newer showroom conversions, also frequently sits on BUR. For property owners in these areas, coating restoration extends a roof system that's already proven durable for decades without the cost and disruption of a full multi-ply tear-off.